Weight Lifting Gloves

I've written many pages here on this site about my favorite weight lifting gloves (New Grips), but today I wanted to take a closer look at all of the different options available to you.

I do have years and years of experience with weight lifting gloves so maybe some of what I've learned will help you today.

Let's take a look at all the different options you have.

Lift Weights Without Gloves

I did this for a couple of years as I grew up on a farm in the country. We were accustomed to working with our hands and not worrying too much about safety or injuries.

Yes, this was very dumb of us but that's what we did.

So I didn't wear any weight lifting gloves for several years when I started lifting weights. Well, it took me a little while to figure it out BUT I really needed to wear some type of protection on my hands.

I started having all types of issues with forearm pain that led to upper arm pain. I continued to fight through this pain and continued to lift weights.

My issues got so bad that I couldn't even help my wife carry groceries from the car to the house. I couldn't lift anything! So what good was getting stronger with weight lifting when it was leading to such problems.

I went to physical therapy, lifted pink dumbbells at the physical therapy office for a while, and applied some medicine to my arms and elbow area. Eventually I was able to start lifting weights again, but I decided to wear some weight lifting gloves this time around.

At that time, I still didn't realize it was from the lack of weight lifting gloves. I figured that out much later down the road.

So I highly recommend you get a good pair of weight lifting gloves. And I'll help you recognize the right type as I continue throughout this page.

TIP: Don't get a pair that exposes your finger tips!

Weight Lifting Gloves With Cut Out Finger Tips

How can I say this so you NEVER purchase a pair of weight lifting gloves without the finger tips? PLEASE don't.

Many years after I purchased the weight lifting gloves I highly recommend I learned what had been causing all of my problems.

My pair of New Grips that I had been using for almost 10 years finally wore out on me (they last a LONG time!). So I went back to an old pair of weight lifting gloves I had in my gym with the finger tips cut out. At least they were protecting the palms of my hands while I waited for the new pair of New Grips to arrive.

Right?

Wrong. After just a couple of weight lifting workouts, my arms started hurting again. I started getting pain once again. That's when I finally put it together. I would always remember the pain I experienced earlier in my life, and this was feeling the same.

Then I knew it was all about my finger tips! I started doing some research on the finger tips. There's lots of great information even on the New Grips website.

If you think about your fingertips, you'll realize there are a huge number of nerves in that location.

If you're trying to improve your grip and doing pull ups with a body weight of 240 pounds and an extra 100 pounds added with a hip belt like I was doing, the nerves in your finger tips are really going to notice!

Imagine your finger tips scraping against the knurled section of the pull up bar that I was using.

Or imagine trying to grip a 500 pound barbell when doing trap bar deadlifts. When your grip starts to give out, the barbell moves down to your fingertips while you attempt to hold on with everything that you have. You don't want to drop the weight, and you're trying to get more reps!

This pressure on your finger tips WILL lead to other issues within your body just as it did for me.

I know because my issues ONLY come back when I'm not protecting my finger tips during weight lifting. I went many years using New Grips every weight lifting workout with ZERO issues. I move back to weight lifting gloves without the fingertips and the issues come back instantly.

That's amazing. It shouldn't have taken me so long to figure that out, but it did! Please learn from my mistakes. I DO NOT recommend weight lifting gloves with the fingertips cut out.

This is very important because MOST gloves you'll find out there today have the fingertips cut out. You don't need to have your fingertips in contact with the bar to make great progress lifting weights.

The pads from the New Grips protects your fingers. Be careful, though, because the New Grips are made where you can use them and have your fingers in contact with the bar. This is done to give you options if you want take them. I don't. I like to use the pad at all times to protect my fingertips.

So…

When you think about purchasing a pair of weight lifting gloves with the fingertips removed, move on! Don't get a pair. This might just lead to very expensive doctor and physical therapy bills later down the road. They aren't worth it.

Weight Lifting Pads / Lifting Grips

So all the typical weight lifting gloves have the fingertips cutout, but they do protect the palms of your hands pretty well. This is important because the palms of your hands are also very sensitive.

Weight lifting pads or lifting grips versus gloves are even better at protecting the palms of your hands.

But, if you take a look at most of them, the pad isn't large enough to protect your fingertips as the New Grips do.

So again, we're back to the same issues.

You'll have a much higher chance of the following issues when you don't use a weight lifting glove or grip that protects your fingertips:

1. Arthritic Hands
2. Blisters/Calluses
3. Carpal Tunnel
4. Tendonitis
5. Golfer's Elbow
6. Tennis Elbow
7. Nerve Conditions
8. Sore Hands and Fingers
9. Ulnar Nerve Pain

The New Grips even have wrist supports built into them. The New Grip is the perfect weight lifting glove.

Full Finger Gloves

The only alternative to New Grips that I can recommend to you is full finger weight lifting gloves. These will protect your entire hand.

You simply need to make sure they have padding for your palms. Any extra padding in the fingertips would also be great. This is just one reason the New Grips are better than even full finger weight lifting gloves.

With New Grips, you also give your hands air to breathe.

Some of the full finger weight lifting gloves are great too, BUT I would still choose New Grips over all the others (for all the reasons listed on this page).