Workout Gloves: Complete Buying Guide
An athlete needs the right equipment to work out effectively. Its mission is to provide comfort, injury protection, and athletic performance. However many doubt whether workout gloves are an essential item while exercising.
So, why do we need these accessories during training, and how to choose them correctly?
Why Does One Need Workout Gloves?
Weightlifting gloves perform an important function – they protect the athlete’s hands during active sports. This accessory provides them with comfort when working with weights, during fitness and strength training. Gym gloves increase grip on barbells or dumbbells, as well as reduce discomfort from pressure on the hands. To this end, the gloves are equipped with thickened pads in the fingers and palms.
Properly fitting exercise gloves make workouts safer. During active workouts, the palms sweat, and this can lead to hands slipping off the bar at the most crucial moment. Fitness gloves prevent situations like this and minimize the risk of injury in the gym.
The unprotected skin of the hands is injured from constant contact with sports equipment. These gloves are needed to prevent the formation of corns because during intensive training they appear very quickly. A torn callus or inflamed abrasions on the palms can lead you out of a full-fledged training regimen for a long time. And this is not to mention the fact that injured skin is easy to infect – through abrasions and scratches, pathogenic microbes will easily penetrate the body.
Gloves for the gym protect the joints of the hands from overload and help to properly distribute the load. Most athletes know firsthand about wrist injuries. These problems seriously interfere with active training, especially when it comes to increasing weights during strength training. The use of sports gloves allows you to securely fix the hand and, thereby, prevent injury. In addition, gloves do not allow deformation of the palms during active and intense sports.
Also, take a look at wrist straps.
A lot of people are usually engaged in gyms, which is why a great variety of pathogenic microbes can settle on sports equipment. In this case, training gloves perform a protective function, preventing bacteria and viruses from entering the skin of the hands.
Types of Gloves for Sports
In order to choose the right athletic gloves, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the sport. This is a very important factor since each sport has its own specific load. Let us dwell in more detail on the main varieties of sports gloves.
Weightlifting Gloves
Such gloves are additionally reinforced with pads in the palm area to protect the athlete’s hands while working with barbells and dumbbells. These models are also equipped with a wrist strap. A securely fixed wrist increases safety during exercise.
In the arsenal of bodybuilders, there are many exercises that are performed with a reverse grip (for example, pull-ups for biceps or bench press). These exercises create a strong load on the wrist joint. Gloves that firmly fix the hand reduce the risk of injury to the wrists. Thanks to them, you can safely perform not only basic movements but also reverse grip exercises, as well as work with heavy weights.
Modern weightlifting gloves are made from a variety of materials, but the leaders are still classics – pigskin. This material has sufficient strength and wear resistance. A special anti-slip notch is usually applied on the barbells of the bars and the working surface of most machines. Upon contact with it, thin materials quickly tear.
To keep your hands from sweating during training, weightlifting gloves have perforations, mesh, or open areas on the back of the hand. In order to remove sweat, such accessories are produced without fingers.
Workout Gloves for The Horizontal Bar
Training on the horizontal bar is distinguished by a high level of friction, as well as a colossal load on the hands. An athlete who works seriously and regularly on the crossbar cannot do without special accessories. To reduce discomfort and protect your hands, the sporting goods market offers crossbar gloves.
These models are equipped with a special hook that takes the extra pressure off your wrists and allows you to train in a more active and faster mode. Also, gloves for the horizontal bar will provide a strong grip and will not prevent the brushes from scrolling around the crossbar. This will increase the effectiveness of training.
CrossFit Workout Gloves
CrossFit has become a very popular fitness trend in recent years. But how to choose the right CrossFit gloves to make your gym sessions as comfortable as possible?
When buying, you should pay attention to:
- High strength. CrossFit workouts involve sharp, very intense movements, so a suitable model must be made of durable material that is resistant to wear.
- Presence of fingers. Gloves of a classical form will additionally protect against injuries, as well as enhance grip on the work surface.
- Fastening clasp at the wrist. Additional protection of the hands is an important condition when performing CrossFit complexes since the impact load often falls on this part.
What to Look for Before Choosing Workout Gloves
What else needs to be considered before heading to the store for workout gloves? In order for accessories to live up to their expectations, you should know a few very important nuances.
The Size
Before choosing gloves for fitness, it is important to determine your size correctly. Men’s glove models are significantly larger in size than women’s. Accessories must exactly match the length and width of the palms, otherwise, they will cause serious discomfort.
There is an easy and quick way to determine your size using a centimeter tape. To do this, you need to slightly bend your fingers and measure the circumference of the four fingers at the base of the thumb. Keep in mind that leather workout gloves stretch during use. Therefore, when choosing a product made of leather, you need to give preference to accessories that fit the palm very tightly.
Material
High-quality and durable fitness gloves are more expensive, but the price is paid off by the comfort and long service life. The most common are accessories made from natural and artificial leather, neoprene, and cotton. Each of these materials has its own advantages and disadvantages. Products made of artificial leather have a relatively short service life, especially if they have to withstand heavy loads. In leather gloves, the palms also sweat a lot. Cotton products “breathe” well and are pleasant to the body, however, when working with large weights, they instantly tear.
A worthy and budget choice is combined gloves made of several materials, or leather accessories with perforations on the back of the hand. Leather provides optimal grip on the metal surface of sports equipment, and is wear-resistant and long-lasting. To keep your hands in leather gloves from sweating, choose models with perforations.
Seam Quality
Glove seams are of great importance. Remember that you will not be able to effectively train with gloves that rub your palms. In high-quality products, the seams are carefully processed and soft enough not to cause discomfort when in contact with the skin. Before you buy workout gloves, be sure to turn them inside out. Rigid and poorly finished seams are a sign of poor quality, which is best avoided.
Ability to “Breathe”
Give preference to accessories equipped with perforations or open areas on the back. Such models do not interfere with the skin to breathe and contribute to the removal of excess moisture while increasing the strength of the grip.
Design
The appearance of sports gloves is not as important as all the previous ones, but you should like the design of the accessories. Models of men’s sports gloves, as a rule, are made in restrained colors, while women’s models abound in various colors and bright colors. There are no universal recommendations here because everyone has their own taste. Nevertheless, the design of gloves should not be ignored, because the appearance of the equipment plays an important role in motivation and psychological comfort during training.
Up to You
Workout gloves are a great way to protect yourself from injuries in the gym and improve the quality of the training process. Products reliably protect the skin of the hands, prevent sweaty palms from slipping off the bars or the bar of the bar, and correctly distribute the load.
To choose the right gloves for fitness, you need to take into account the specifics of your activity. Special accessories are designed for different sports.
When buying gloves in addition to the features of your activity you should consider the material, the quality of the seams, and the ability of the products to breathe. It is on these characteristics that your comfort, safety, and effectiveness of training in the gym depend.
Check out other guides:
- How to Build Strength: 3 Natural Principles
- How to Choose Fitness Tracker
- Best Women’s Workout Tops in 2022
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