Easing finger pain during Pull-ups

Question

I do pull ups on a pair of wooden rings. Before this I used to use metal bars at my local park. While I don't get a torn skin (where the fingers join the palm), like when I was using the bar, any more, the bottom third of my finger now gets really depressed and the skin is pushed upwards. This really hurts while doing Pull-ups, while it didn't using a bar.

Has anyone had this happen to them? What do I do? I know I can probably wear gloves, but I don't want to sound like a wimp and would rather have my hand conditioned to handle this, considering I want to progress doing Parkour next.

I tried using Gym chalk as well, but find no difference and the pain persists.

Answer 1

I ve been working out for almost 13 years and I started when I was 16. I never wanted to use gloves as I wanted my palms skin to get tougher and I never liked the feeling of the gloves when working out.

I had the same problem when doing pullups so I tried many grips so I can find the one with the least amount of pain specially that I ve got heavier.

Honestly didn't find anything that helped as much as to focus on my back and mentally ignoring my palms pain. I did not count the reps and never passed 15 reps in a single set as far as I remember but combining pullups with deadlifts, t-bar rows.. gave me a wider lats and a stronger grip.

What I do also to make my palms more appealing at work or around my GF is to rub my palms with vaseline before I go to bed and to trim from time to time the bumps in my palms so they don't get bigger.

I hope that can help.