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.¹ 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.² 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.

Per the general rule, you shouldn’t wear gloves if you have a penis and two testicles. Fuck, the general rule even applies if you DON’T have a penis and two testicles. Anyone who wears gloves is viewed as the complete opposite of the total badass they think they look like while strolling from the parking lot to the gym with their bitch mittens already on. That’s right, workout gloves are also known as “bitch mittens”, which tells you all you need to know about how they’re viewed in the gym community!

But hey, not everyone cares about looking like a pussy. To that, I say more power to you! So if you have a fear of being squished into goo by the herculean amount of weight that you’re moving, then go ahead and wear those gloves! Lord knows we can’t have you go to the bench press station, load up the barbell with a 10 lbs plate on each side, do the exercise, and *EGADS!!!* the bar slips from your greasy mitts to crush you to death. We certainly can’t have that happening!

Additionally, not every significant other fancies the feel of bear paws caressing their skin. So we certainly can’t have you ruining your relationship by being inconsiderate of your partner’s wants and needs. So because you desire to make them happy, grab yourself a pair of palm protectors to cover those boob cuppers, hand-jobbers, and booty grabbers!

With that said, the one exception to wearing gloves and not looking like a pussy is if you have a job that requires soft hands and pays you a lot of money because of them, like a professional hand model or happy-ending masseuse. In that case, wear them! Get that money, baby!!!

Glossary: barbell, bench press, callus, dumbbell, exercise, gym, lifting gloves, muscle

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Monster Longe

Monster Longe is a personal trainer in San Diego. He has been lifting weights for +25 years and training clients in the gym and online for about half of that time. When not working with clients or making content that's easy to read, understand, and apply to everyday life, he enjoys long walks and leaving buildings crushed and entire city blocks decimated in his wake.

Exercise Gloves

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