Deadlifts, Hand Lotion And iPads Don't Mix
June 23, 2012
Friday is deadlift day.
And, since deads are by far my favorite of the big three powerlifts for which I train, Friday also happens to be my favorite day of the week. The adrenaline gets going an hour or so before I pull up in my gym's parking lot, and -- until I actually hit warmups and calm down -- I'm as jittery and off the wall as a kid cavorting in the entry line at Disney World. Unfortunately, we (me and my training partner) are now in the home stretch of our current 12-week Ed Coan regimen, and the weights are getting heavy.
And we're not allowed to use straps.
After a couple of hours hanging onto a loaded barball with nothing but your fleshy mitts wrapped around its sharply knurled steel handle, those mitts start burning. Bad. Add to the equation a healthy dollop of Liquid Grip (and some powdered chalk on top of that), and you've got the makings of a dried-up, calloused, uncomfortable existence. "When you get home, put lots of lotion on your hands," says my lifting buddy. So I do. After all, he's been to the Olympics and has one of the strongest grips in the world. He knows what he's talking about.
But there's a problem.
See, when I return from the gym, I usually collapse on my bed and set to writing pretty immediately. As many of you know, I compose my articles almost exclusively on my iPad. And iPads and hand lotion don't mix. It interrupts the capacitive signals needed to operate the touchscreen, and it's surprisingly difficult to get blobs of the stuff out of the tablet's speaker grill and dock connector. (And if you thought fingerprints and greasy smears were a problem before ...)
Sure, I could apply the lotion and wait a few hours before hitting my iPad, or I could just mosey on over to the desktop and hammer out copy on my good old model M, but that's not really a solution. I don't have time to wait, and sitting at my computer after a rough back workout is the last thing I want to do. I've got to heal my hands, and I've got to get to work!
So I'm thinking you guys -- and particularly you gals out there -- can set me on the right track. I know this much: Gold Bond Ultimate doesn't work well with touchscreens.
So what does?
A smooth, non-greasy high-five awaits anyone who can help me out.
