Stop rowing blisters?

Question

training with London rowing club and am ripping hands to shreds! How do I stop the blisters?

Answer 1

Rub in abit of surgical spirits on your hands every day. this will harden/strengthen the skin at the applied area. But make sure you aren't allergic to surgical spirits first.

Answer 2

Stop rowing.

Answer 3

The answer to your question is not an answer at all, it is a question.  Since I don't know much about rowing, it may sound stupid to you, but here it goes.  Maybe there are athletic companies who make special gloves for rowing.  Could you check with one?  Maybe you have already.  I do watch rowing events on televison, but can't remember if they wear gloves or not.  May not be aerodynamically sound for this sport.

Answer 4

Try some extra thin gloves like the bikers wear.

Answer 5

There are three things you can do. Wear a pair of paddling gloves -- they come in a range of weights and thicknesses, or the fingerless spandex bikers gloves also work well. Try s*x wax on your paddle shaft. No kidding, that's what it's called and it helps prevent the paddle from slipping in your hand.

Loosen your grip. Often beginning paddlers get a death grip on their paddle and the friction they generate causes blisters which just keep getting exacerebated by continual abuse. Loosen your grip, especially during the recovery, and you'll find it much easier.

Answer 6

Very difficult to prevent the skin from blistering if you are training very regularly as the skin doesn't have time to repair itself after being damaged. I started rowing at school and was told to use  surgical spirit on the blisters. Whether this actually helped toughen the skin is debatable. No doubt it was more use to prevent possible infection. Another thing I was advised to do was urinate on my hands. Again dubious advantages! The blisters will go eventually and be replaced with toughened skin for as long as you continue rowing.

Answer 7

Vinegar.

Answer 8

Patience only- by the time the skin will harden and you wont feel any pain. By the way: dont pierce the blisters- they will heel much longer.

Answer 9

Stop rowing, you wimp!

Answer 10

you have to row through the pain until you get callouses. (pain is good!).  if you have really bad raw areas on your hands then next time you go rowing wrap some surgical tape around the blister and then put boat tape on top of the surgical tape. this should hopefully stay on for the whole session.