Don’t Leave Me Hangin’: A Brief History of the High Five

What’s the first thing you do after finishing a heart-pounding workout at your CrossFit box (other than making sweat angels on the floor and gasping for air)? You give high fives and fist bumps to those who’ve suffered through the WOD with you, right?

If you don’t, you’re kind of a butthole. And there’s no better time to start slapping the damp, upraised hand of your fellow metcon warrior. After all, today’s the third Thursday of April, which means it’s National High Five Day. (Really.)

But what exactly is the point, you ask, of violently striking the palm of another human being? How did stinging hand pain come to signal camaraderie or congratulations? And what about the germs?

Here’s the backstory:

Before the high five existed, there was the handshake -- a sign of peace (bare hands = no weapons) dating back to ancient Greece.

In more recent centuries, the expansion of the British Empire popularized the use of handshakes as a form of greeting, celebration, and farewell.

But handshakes weren’t cool enough for the musicians of the Jazz Age. They came up with what we now call a “low five,” which soon made its way into blues and other musical genres. At the time, this was known as “slapping skin” or “giving skin” -- but celebratory low fives were viewed as a gesture used only in African American communities.



Case in point: In the 1941 Abbott & Costello movie “In the Navy,” the Andrews Sisters sing this little ditty:

If you want to shake my hand
Like they do it in Harlem,
Stick your hand right out and shout:
Give me some skin, my friend!

Over the years, the term “giving skin” evolved into “giving five,” and with greater exposure to black culture in popular media in the 1960s and 1970s, Americans of all racial backgrounds began slapping each other’s hands. Even Bob from Sesame Street got in on the action.

More after the jump, including gay baseball players, child endangerment, terrorism and cartoon superheroes...

Yuck

[Drexel University student athlete Kyle] Frey noticed a pimple on his arm last winter but thought little of it. He competed in a [wrestling] match on a Saturday, but by the next morning the pimple had grown to the size of his biceps and had become very painful.

His athletic trainer sent him straight to the emergency room, where the lesion was lanced and cultured. Two days later, he learned he had MRSA, the potentially deadly staphylococcus infection that is resistant to most antibiotics.

And from where did Frey pick up this nasty infection? The gym.

When you go to the gym, do you wash your hands before and after using the equipment? Bring your own regularly cleaned mat for floor exercises? Shower with antibacterial soap and put on clean clothes immediately after your workout? Use only your own towels, razors, bar soap, water bottles?

If you answered “no” to any of the above, you could wind up with one of the many skin infections that can spread like wildfire in athletic settings. In June, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, known as N.A.T.A., issued a position paper on the causes, prevention and treatment of skin diseases in athletes that could just as well apply to anyone who works out in a communal setting, be it a school, commercial gym or Y.

The authors pointed out that “skin infections in athletes are extremely common” and account for more than half the outbreaks of infectious diseases that occur among participants in competitive sports.

This isn't anything you haven't heard before. But still: Blecchh.

(Source: NYT)