Skin care

Having really dry skin does not help with grip.

That's true.
- That's not true
Less slip with dry skin though. Put moisturizer on and try to open a tight jar and you'll need to squeeze harder to prevent your hand from slipping
- There’s definitely a sweet spot for moisture, the skin is most grippy when well hydrated. But when you have a fresh application of lotion it’s acting more as a lubricant between your hand and the lid.
  I think you could compare your skin to cloth, dry it’ll skid across the floor easily, wet it and it’ll cling to the floor and move no further than precisely as far as you push it.

I read somewhere that for some reason grip strength is one of the only muscle groups where the Bell curves of male strength vs. female strength has essentially zero overlap. It was something like "the weakest 2% of men have stronger grip strength than 98% of women," or maybe even more extreme. IDK, I can't remember the source and I can't be bothered to look for it on a Saturday morning, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway. ¯_ (ツ)_/¯

I hand my rock climber sister in law jars to open all the time lol
- You're both in your respective 1%
Here's a source for that claim. I didn't realize the difference was so huge! https://www.gnxp.com/WordPress/2017/05/04/in-grip-strength-a-woman-in-the-90th-percentile-would-be-at-the-10th-percentile-for-men/
Well crap. Now I want to train my grip strength.
I looked it up. It's pretty interesting! I suggest others Google it as well.
If women had the same grip strength as men, there'd be a lot more penile injuries in the world.
- Imagine if they could control it.
It's not quite that dramatic from what I can see, but I wouldn't be surprised if studies have been done that found that distribution.
It's hard to account for social factors inherent in this, too. Like, how do we account for men being more encouraged to develop grip strength muscles than women? Men are much more likely, from young childhood, to be encouraged to perform many different kinds of strenuous physical activity. Women are discouraged from performing those same activities (also from childhood) and are also very heavily pressured towards eating less and being/appearing weaker.
This social influence definitely has a real tangible impact on how people's muscle strength develops. Due to its essentially all-encompassing nature (there's not really any man/woman in society who is entirely free from societal pressure) it's hard to tell to what degree this discrepancy is influenced by external factors instead of biological circumstances. That is, how can we test this accurately when half the participants have been discouraged from building muscle mass and grip strength all their lives?
Testosterone exposure definitely has a real impact, but the idea that the weakest 2% of men have stronger grip strength than 98% of women is doubtful. A study may have been done that had those findings, but I'd question the methodology used and be interested to see what their sample size and demographic makeup were.
- The distribution is not that extreme but it's still very skewed. This is one of the areas where the anatomy of men and women seem to really differ.

It's all about that grippy texture. Just put on some rubber dishwashing gloves.

If you have oven mitts with rubber on them, those work too. Mousepads also work in a pinch (do people use mousepads anymore?)
Even as a guy i do that. Why work harder when grippy rubber makes it easy? I used to use rubber bands but some kids lids are too big, so dishwashing gloves are the best
- I usually just take some cloth. If it doesn't work, I use a knife to let some air through and that does the trick.

Remember ladies, Jars are similar to tars, so simple xvf would be enough

Instructions unclear; rolled the jar into a jarball.

Might also have something to do with having, on average, twice the grip strength... but who knows.

well, I'll have you know that the palms of my hands are very moist

So apparently if you smack it all around the sides of the lid with a spoon or something, you can loosen the vacuum seal.

It sounds fake but it worked the other night on a jar of salsa I was legitimately considering just breaking, and I'm still kinda mad that I never knew that til now.

I usually BONK the side of the lid against the table.
- I just insert something long and thin (usually a knife) between the lid and the glass rim, then gently lift just until the pressure is released. Probably doesn't cause the lid to mis-shape as much as from bashing it 😅
Hot water on the lid expands it a bit too.
I use that trick all the time and it hasn't failed me yet
Insert the end of a cutlery knife between the rim of the glass jar and lid from below. Give it a tiny wiggle, and the jar will pop open. At least if it's stuck because of a vacuum.
If that didn't work, poke a tiny hole in the lid with a sharp object to break the vacuum, but please be careful if using a kitchen knife for this! A nail or a screw is probably a safer choice.
- You might think that the knife frees the vacuum and that that's what opens the jar. Lies. You must inflict fear upon the jar with the knife.

Transgender lady here. I have experience on both sides of this.

Testosterone does a lot of interesting things to your body, including making your skin more rough. This includes your fingertips.

Several years after taking HRT, I had problems holding onto things. This wasn’t a matter of grip strength. My fingerprints had lost the pronounced ridging that they used to have. The result was butterfingers; losing grip on anything that wasn’t roughly textured itself. Anything smooth would just fall right out of my hands. And jar lids became suddenly difficult to open.

We also regularly train grip strength. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Can confirm, left hand has greater strength

Bullshit, we do use moisturizer.

Sure, boy.
- No, skin condition.
- Not sure if sarcastic racism or toxic masculinity.

Maybe men’s palms are just more rough in general? 😄

Kinda makes sense. I work with a lot of things that really dry out your hands throughout the day, so our office has to buy a lot of lotion. We have to buy an expensive silicon based one because the others just leave oily residue on all the tools making everything slippery.

Silicon? Or did you mean silicone? Honestly, neither make sense to me since one's used for PCBs and the other for caulking/sealant.
What's the brand of lotion you use?
- Sorry had to look it up, couldn't remember the supplier we buy it from.
  It's from a medical supply company called Medline, we get the Phytoplex Hydraguard Silicone Cream.
  Think they only run like 5-7 bucks each , but they are tiny and we go through them like crazy.

Both me (compulsively forgets to moisturize), and my wife (moisturized several times a day with hand, body, face lotions) handle most jars with ease.

What gets both of us is little jars. Extracts, or vanilla. Especially alcohol free vanilla! It’s sticky and sticks to the threads of the lid/jar. Even with wiping it down, it’s a problem.

My solution was to wrap the lids in 2242 Electrical tape. Which really helps with getting a grip on it.

Don't even get me started on old honey bottles
- Get started on old honey bottles
- Hot water for honey, softens the crystalized honey in the lid.
Bovril lids catch me out. Especially if you spilt some over the edge last time you used it. Damn thing is practically superglued shut. Even I have to break out the marigolds for that.
- I had to search out two separate words in your post. 🇱🇷
  (I’m not Liberian, but if I’m going to admit to the “dumb american” trope, I might as well embrace the full caricature - that U.S. citizens keep picking the Liberian flag emoji instead of their own.)
  For others: Bovril is like marmite/vegemite, except it’s based on beef. I’m assuming it’s similar to concentrated beef stock paste. Marigolds is a manufacturer of kitchen gloves.

i cover all my jars in lotion. keeps things challenging and it means i never forget to lotion up

Also eases insertion.

Some promotion for !skincareaddiction@sh.itjust.works, not very active but hopefully that will change

Can't get a good grip if you're bone dry either.

Balance.

Half an hour in the tub gives frog grip bonus

Men also do something else with their grip, and I've heard quite a few use lotion when doing it.

QED checkmate.

Yeah? And how many removed the lid that way?
- I used to tuck the jar between my legs to grip then use my both my hands on the lid to open, gets thru the toughest jars. Now i just use a dishwashing glove for better grip.

Nah

I put a 1/4" layer of moisturizer on my hands before bed and then put gloves on. I can still open jars because of the testosterone.

I put the gloves on first
- That... that's not how it works!
You got a big guy called Lenny working for you?
- I did, but he pet the puppies too hard.
You wear gloves when you sleep?
- Yeah, when my hands are really dry during the winter. They're just cotton gloves made specifically for use with moisturizer.

Hit the bottom, as we did back in the day with Snapple bottles and it makes the popping sound. Hit the bottom, make the pop, top more easily removed. Lotion unrelated!

I'm going through a divorce and recently moved out. Went to pick up more of my stuff and had to open a jar. I bought her a few jar openers for her lol.

why give her more stuff
- Because her birthday is coming up and we're still good friends. It's a "grow apart" divorce, not a "screaming and throwing shit" divorce.

Really, I don't know why dudes don't like putting lotion on after a shower, feels great.

Anyone who's inspired, go ahead and get some neutral smelling lotion, then after you take a shower, rub that all over your body. You can do the face too if you don't have face specific lotion.

After I added this to my routine, my skin has felt and looked great.

Maybe it's the autism but the last time I used lotion I made myself bleed scrubbing so hard trying to get it off.
I physically cannot handle shit on my skin. Soap, lotion, oil. Especially if it's sticky or tacky.
- I mean I don't know you, so maybe it wouldn't matter, but the good stuff is built different. Like putting anything from a korean skincare store on your face is a completely different experience from the family-sized Walmart hand cream (their unscented one is not even all that bad tbh. But still a completely different experience)
I don't like the feeling of lotion on hair, which means it's uncomfortable to use it on my limbs, backs of my hands and feet, chest, stomach, and bottom half of my face. I'm not flexible enough to get most of my back, so I'd really only be able to use it on the top half of my face, my sides, my neck, and the palms of my hands and feet. At that point I don't think it's worth it. I do love having a tube of Carmex in my pocket to prevent chapped lips, though!
Cause it's all slimy. Ew
I don’t even like having to dry off after a shower. It’s easier to put on boxers and air dry mostly after first patting yourself down. It seems to be a difference in ritual as much as grooming. Dudes don’t worry about their skin getting dry or hair splitting because the harshness of their lives or clothing keeps they’re dry skin exfoliated enough and they trim their hair before ends become a problem so they don’t have high maintenance hairstyles.
We don’t have to do as much preventative maintenance because we don’t worry about doing things daily

Calluses play a role as well I imagine.

What a weird stance to take.