In order to understand why you should wear workout gloves when exercising, it is best to take a look at their pros and the cons. This can help you make a better decision about whether or not you should use them.

Once you’ve read this article, have a look at our review of the best workout gloves.

Pros

• Better Grip:
  One of the primary benefits you stand to gain from wearing workout gloves while exercising with weights is that they offer you a better grip. Holding on to barbells or dumbbells can be tough on your skin. They can slip out if your palms and fingers get sweaty. Workout gloves are designed keeping this factor in mind so that you can firmly grip your weights and decrease the chances of them slipping out of your hands.
• Comfort:
  Workout gloves can provide you more comfort while working out because they form a layer between your hands and the cold and rough metal of the equipment.
• Wrist Support:
  Some brands design workout gloves that can provide your wrists with additional support. For someone training with heavy weights on a regular basis, the amount of pressure on their wrists can lead to serious injuries. Workout gloves help add support to the wrist and keep them more stable during workouts.
• Calluses:
  All the constant skin and metal rubbing together can damage your skin to form calluses. Acting as a buffer between the skin and metal, workout gloves can help decrease the chances of your hands forming unsightly calluses.

Cons

• Worse Grip:
  A little confused? Don’t worry – it’s actually very easy to understand. Gloves do help you grip the equipment better, but as the bar gets thicker, it will become harder for you to get a good grip on it while working out. Wearing gloves while gripping thicker bars can become difficult and it might not be the best solution in that case.
• Lifting Technique:
  Some exercises require you to keep the bar in the palm of your hand and close to the wrists. Shoulder press and bench press exercises are the best examples of that. Wearing workout gloves while doing those exercises can often cause the bar to move up towards your fingers. This is not about the grip itself. Instead, this happens because of the added bulkiness from the gloves. This can change the lifting technique and lead to wrist injuries in the long run because of the added pressure on them.

Conclusion

For those of you considering workout gloves because you face issues with your grip, it is better to work on your grip strength before relying on the gloves. The pros of workout gloves definitely outweigh the cons, but ultimately, the decision rests in your own hands. If you are comfortable with the feel of a barehanded workout, you can ditch the gloves. But before you make the final decision, it is a good idea to work out both with and without workout gloves.