I took a pretty bad crash last weekend and lost a fair bit of skin. In the past, my experiences with road rash have always been limited to a few patches on the hip and shoulder. This time, however, my entire arm and leg are pretty banged up. I went with the standard cover-up and moisturize protocol and the recovery has been pretty good so far.

The problem is, a thin layer of skin has healed over the rash on my elbow. This is preventing me from bending said elbow more than 30 degrees without the risk of tearing.

Will this problem resolve itself with more stretching or should I do something about it?

Aquaphor will help. I use it on new tattoos and they heal perfectly. This is worse than a tattoo, but the principle is the same.

You could try here:

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...-rash-question)

^ is a good link.

The short version is you need an artificial skin so that the skin starts to form without any scabbing. You'll retain full range of motion during the healing process, at least as far as your injuries allow (i.e. if you screwed up your shoulder you may lose some range of motion, but the skin part of it won't be limiting you).

The artificial skin (typically Tegaderm) should be covered with something so that your clothing or other things won't rub the skin off. So you need to use gauze or similar to protect the Tegaderm.

2nd skin is a good product and an alternative if you can't find Tagaderm. If you are going with wet healing, make absolutely sure that it is cleaned regularly (and/ or very well covered) or else the chance for infection is high.

How did you crash? Rarely do we see Rash threads sans crash description.

Hey guys, thanks for the comments.

Unfortunately it's a bit too late to go back and use Tegaderm as I'm already in the post-ooze stage of the healing process.

I will give Aquaphor a shot if I can find it.

You have to wet the thing with Vaseline and use donuts made of sponge to avoid the clothing to stick with the wound.

Pix or it didn't happen.

I took a poor line on a <90-degree turn during the prime lap of a criterium. Lost traction and slid out.