Exercise Gloves

Exercise gloves are made of Velcro, Neoprene padding, and mesh or leather material. As if that weren’t hip enough, they’re also cut off so the digits are exposed, making you look like a total badass out of a 1980s music video.

Beyond showing others how much of a badass you are, lifting gloves serve a few other purposes, the most common being to help against the formation of calluses.¹Like really, who the fuck wants to give off the appearance of working with their hands for a living like they were a peasant or something?!?! Another common reason has to do with grip, with them absorbing moisture if you have sweaty palms, as well as helping you lift more weight by creation of a barrier between your hands and the barbell, dumbbell, cable attachment, or equipment handle, which makes whatever you’re holding thicker and increases the neuromuscular activation of the hand and forearm.

Concerning drawbacks, one is that reliance on gloves can weaken your grip over time because your natural grip strength doesn’t have a chance to develop.²Sorry, but jerking off yourself (or others) more than you already do won’t help offset glove use! Another drawback is more anecdotal than empirical, as the experience of myself and other raw lifters suggests that direct contact of the hand to an object in it allows you to better contract the target muscle to do all, if not most, of the work instead of your hand or forearm picking up some of the slack.

Now given the pros and cons of wearing and not wearing gloves, should or shouldn’t you wear them?

Thankfully, there’s a general rule for this very, very complex question. Continue reading Exercise Gloves