A Tennis Ball? In the Chalk Bucket??
Written by: Coach Slater
How we love thee, chalk. You make barbells and pullup bars so much grippier. You keep kettlebells in our grasp for reps upon reps. You give us a reason to waste time as we re-chalk our hands in the middle of a WOD. Chalk is rad.
However, just like anything rad, too much of a good thing can actually be bad. A light dusting on the hands will help for sure; but, if you continue to load up on the chalk and it gets thick on your hands, once you mix in a little sweat, it turns to paste. What once was a light dusting has now become a source of friction on your hands. It’s too much. Our experience is that folks who tend to tear will load up on the white stuff thinking it will make them not tear. But then they tear. So they use more. And tear again, and so on. It’s a vicious cycle.
The other group of folks who tend to over-chalk are those who visit the chalk bucket as a rest break during the WOD. Also not ideal.
So today, we want to introduce you to the tennis balls you’re now finding in our chalk buckets. Consider using one to apply the perfect amount of *dusting* on your hands. Also think about chalking up less often, like maybe every 2 or 3 rounds, instead of *every* round and see what happens. And, if you’re prone to tearing, manage your calluses at home or buy some grips.
And if you disregard all of these suggestions and end up leaving a puddle of chalk paste on the bar and the floor, please clean it up!
Last, but not least, we’ve gotta thank our friends at Butchertown CrossFit for this idea. Our athletes visited there for the Cleaver Classic competition a few weeks back, and they mentioned finding a tennis ball in the chalk buckets. They experimented with using the ball to apply chalk and were pleasantly surprised at how well it coated their grips. So, thanks gang!