When somebody first starts weight lifting, it seems that they are bombarded with non-stop recommendations for products and equipment: “You need this, you must have this, and you can’t possibly train without that.”
One such product is weight lifting gloves. And when I first begun, I bought some gloves, just so I wasn’t ‘missing anything important out that I shouldn’t be.’ Ah, the naivety of the beginner, eh?
It was ok, though. They weren’t expensive. But for some reason, I seemed to envisage myself using gloves for every single exercise for every single workout. However, it never really worked out that way.
For some exercises, wearing gloves just didn’t feel right, from the get go. One such exercise that I have never, and would never wear gloves for is bench pressing. I don’t know what it is… but, when I’m laying under that bar loaded with crushing weight, I actually feel far safer, stronger and more focused with my bare hands clasping and feeling that cold steel.
I tend to workout that way for most of my exercises – glove free. But there are times that I do find weight lifting gloves useful.
Sometimes, if my grip becomes tired after a while, or my palms start sweating excessively, I like to use weight lifting gloves to give me a dry clamp on the barbell or dumbbell. I’ve found gloves particularly useful for doing wrist curls and reverse wrist curls under such circumstances.
So yes – gloves are useful, at times. But, I certainly advocate not using them when possible. Yes, you will develop calluses and rough skin. But, I firmly believe you will develop a much better grip the old fashioned flesh-on-steel way.