I have a rip. Now what?

[teena82]

So I'm an adult gymnast and got my first official rip on Wed 11/11 just messing around, swinging on the low bar while our coach went looking for some tape for another girl who got a rip. Of course I was making fun of her when I got mine.

Any hoo, I've been keeping a Band-Aid brand blister bandage (the ones in the blue & silver box) on it since Wed night. It looks like it's healing fine enough but I'm not sure if this is the most efficient method for healing.

So here are my many questions:
#1 On average how long do rips take to heal? Mines pretty small I think. It's about the size of my pinky nail.

#2 Should I maybe do the tea bag method at night and keep these things on during the day?

#3 I'm assuming I can still do bars on Monday night but what do I do to protect it? Just throw some tape on top? I looked up how to make a tape grip but mine's right under my pinky finger so I don't think that would cover it.

#4 I was kind of planning on starting to use grips this week. Should I wait until this rip heals to do that?

 

[jitta_bug123]

#1 rips ussually take about 2 weeks to heal, though if yours was smaller than that it might be even quicker than that. depends how deep it was too, was there blood , or was it just a layer off the top?

#2 i would try and let the rip breath a little so that it can dry out and wont rip more if you go on bars again, only cover it up if you are going somewhere where you dont want everyone to see your yucky rip, or they dont want to have to see your yucky rip. I would try the teabag thing to, i dont know if it actually helps, but lots of people seem to swear by it, so i always do it just
because I figure it might help, and it cant do any harm.

#3 yeh, you should be fine to do bars monday night, providing its dried out a bit and is not all bloody and is not going to just rip more if you go on bars. If it starts to get too much worse, or starts hurting a lot i'd say to finish up on bars, because you are probably not going to get much done productively, and the rip will only get worse. I say to get a strip of tape and wrap it all the way around your hand horizontally, covering the rip.

#4 There is no reason why you shouldn't start using grips while you have a rip,most gymnasts end up having rips at least half the time. On a grips note try to remember that grips are uncomfortable at first and do take a while to get used to, but once you do they make everything way easier, and you get no where near as many rips.

Hope that helps,,,
Steph

 

[teena82]

It only bleed a little. It was just that top layer of skin that peeled making it sting like... well I'm sure you know. It's actually looking pretty good today. I'm starting to wonder if those Band Aid things actually do what they advertise. The skin is actually starting to become level with the rest of my hand except the one side where my coach made me clip the skin. I'm going to try a tea bag tonight anyway.

Thanks for the tip about grips. I learned a lot of my tricks on the playground when I was little and am having to re-learn things properly. But due to that I've only known the feeling of my hands directly on the bars. I got some Bailie grips which are tapered so hopefully that will help a little with the weirdness of not being about to feeling the bar directly. I'm working my kip right now and was going to wait until I got it but I started doing tap swings on the high bar and definitely felt like I was going to peel off. Plus I'm not too thrilled with the idea of having to re-learn my kip if I wait to use them.

 

[gymprincess]

#2 i would use the tea bag method put it on when u go to bed and take it off about 30 min after u wake up but it depends for how long u r asleep for. :bars: