Gloves on hands

B

Bernard

Cathlete
Hi All,

I know this is going to sound like a really stupid question, but I am wondering why gloves are worn while lifting heavy barbells in Cathe's videos ? Does evryone out there own a pair of gloves to lift their barbells ? By the way, I have no previous experience of using barbells, hence the silly question !

Thanks
Anna
 
Anna,

I use gloves to help ease the stress of holding a heavy weight in my hands. They cushion the weight against the tendons in my hands.

Also, if my hands happened to get sweaty, the gloves prevent the weights from slipping. My number one fear is dropping a dumbell on my head while doing chest work, or any kind of overhead work!

I'm sure other people have better informed answers than I do, bu that's why I use gloves.

Susan G.
 
Hi Anna,

I use gloves for the very same reason Susan does. Also, after years of weightlifting without gloves, I have found that if I do not use them, I get callouses all over my hands. Hope this helps!

Sherry
 
Hi Anna,

I'm new to posting here, but thought I'd jump in too - it's not often I feel qualified to answer any questions. This is such a wonderful place with so many knowledgable people. I wear gloves to prevent callouses. I get them quite easily. My dh teased me at first as he thought I just got them for looks! Then he watched part of Cathe's MIS while I was doing it and now he understands - said he'd only object to my heavy lifting if my arms got bigger than his :D! (That's not likely to happen-he's a construction electrician with big strong arms :)Lucky me!).

Have a good one,

Beth
 
My answer is pretty much the same as the others. My primary reason for using gloves is to prevent calluses from forming on the insides of my hands, but also because I get very sweaty lifting, and the gloves seem to give me a more secure grip than my naked hand.

Donna
 
On a different note...I used to wear them years and years ago, but I don't anymore. In all honesty, you should try to lift without gloves -- it'll greatly improve your grip. Grip strength is also very important in lifting!! When you use aides excessively, you compromise your grip abilities. Just something to think about.

Hollie
 
I use gloves for 2 reasons, l my hands get very sweaty & 2 to protect them from calouses. Karen
 
I use gloves for the above reasons, and because the center part of one of my barbells is rough and my skin is very delicate.

An alternative to gloves is to use chalk (which is really cheap). It helps with the grip and the sweat (but not with the rough part of the barbell).
 
Like fit@home, I used to wear gloves but I now find the calluses useful for protecting my hands. Sweat doesn't seem to bother me- I just grip tightly enough so I don't drop the weight. Not waering gloves means one less thing to worry about!
 
Holly is correct with the comment on grip strength. However, I find it very uncomfortable to hold on to the 20lbers on chest flies without my weightlifting gloves. I think it becomes more important to wear gloves when you are using heavy weights. They hurt the hands more for many exercises. And the lack of sweatiness is really worth it too.....

Janice
 
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