Greg Says: Part of this simply comes down to conditioning your hands over time. You’re still new to the sport, and it takes some time to develop the toughness in the hands specific to the grip of a snatch and clean. It’s a different hand position than you’re accustomed to, especially for the snatch, and there’s a new element of bar spin to contend with. When you deadlift with a mixed grip, there’s no tendency of the bar to spin—that’s the entire point of the mixed grip. While the hook grip reduces the spin tendency, it doesn’t eliminate it completely, so you get some rubbing in the hands from that.

Next, be sure you’re hook-gripping correctly—very few beginners do. If the bar is sitting in the hand improperly, you’re going to get more movement and rubbing. See this article and video about the hook grip.

Finally, you need to take care of your hands to help heal and toughen the skin. After each training session, use a small piece of 200-grit sandpaper to smooth out any hard, rough areas of skin. This is far better than a callus shaver or using a pumice stone in the shower—both end up removing too much skin. We want to maintain the callus—it serves a purpose. But what we need to do is ensure there aren’t rough edges or high spots to catch and tear. The sandpaper allows you to smooth the edges and high spots without removing too much of the toughened skin.

Then make sure you wash the chalk out of your hands well after training so it doesn’t continue drying them out. Use a good lotion twice daily, especially at bedtime. I recommend Cornhuskers Lotion—this will heal and help the skin actually get tougher, and it’s a lot cheaper than most quality hand lotions.