Anyone who wears gloves, what kind/brand do you wear?

[Zebra]

Hi All,

Getting the chest beating tough guy stuff out of the way, I'm old, I have nothing to prove to anyone anymore. I'm no longer as strong as I used to be and my body doesn't recover like it used to either. I want to keep grip training, Due to hand pain I'm not able to without changing something. Chalk dries my hands out and they crack but never really toughen up. With that in mind I want to try gloves. Figured there might be a preferred brand or style that might save me the trouble trying a bunch. Anyone have suggestions as to glove brands or types to try for grip work?

Thanks

[Blacksmith513]

Do what ever you gotta do to get stronger, as long as your working hard, having fun, getting stronger  and not getting injured 

 

It’s not an issue unless you plan on competing  or trying to compare yourself to others. 

[matek]

1 hour ago, Zebra said:

Hi All,

Getting the chest beating tough guy stuff out of the way, I'm old, I have nothing to prove to anyone anymore. I'm no longer as strong as I used to be and my body doesn't recover like it used to either. I want to keep grip training, Due to hand pain I'm not able to without changing something. Chalk dries my hands out and they crack but never really toughen up. With that in mind I want to try gloves. Figured there might be a preferred brand or style that might save me the trouble trying a bunch. Anyone have suggestions as to glove brands or types to try for grip work?

Thanks

Whatever you do, I recommend you start moisturizing your hands if you haven't already. Something natural and thick like shea butter, cocoa butter, etc., is great, but any cheap hand cream is better than nothing. It takes some time, but it will make a huge difference.

About your question: 
I recommend getting the thinnest suede glove you can find (not the shiny ones). If it's pinch, you can put a thin suede leather over the block. 

[slazbob]

Some cloth tape might be useful for your gripping; using gloves is a bit cumbersome. 
if you absolutely need gloves, they should be dexterous types so you don’t get distracted by too much padding going on and can also feel your fingers better. Only thing is they are not very durable using them for grippers…might have to buy them frequently.

[Busa]

Hand cream is good in the UK I use a brand called "working hands" as I work with my hands all day they do get beat up far too often.

If you feel you want to use gloves the cotton gloves which are either PU or  Nitrile-Coated on the palm are decent I would not get latex.

If wanting all leather then Goat or next best Kangaroo both very thin and 2 to 3 times more shear than Buckskin.

[Zebra]

5 hours ago, Blacksmith513 said:

It’s not an issue unless you plan on competing  or trying to compare yourself to others. 

Thanks for not judging me. I'm not and will never compete. I may compare myself to others for the limited purpose of determining if I'm being an idiot.

On that note, I am wondering if part of the problem is volume. I started maybe 7 years ago at 70 pounds 3 sets 10 reps. I still only use basic grippers but until I had to cut back a few weeks ago I did drop sets first 170 pounds 360 reps then 150 pounds 252 reps across 36 sets. I'm fine for the first 24 or so sets but after that it really starts to hurt. It didn't get bad until I upped my drop set weight to 150 pounds from 100 maybe four months ago. I didn't plan any of this, I just increased reps and weight without really paying attention. Based on some of the routines I've seen on here I seem to be doing more volume at less weight than most people aim for. I'm wondering if I'm increasing my risk of overuse injury for no good reason, in addition to the hand pain. If you or anyone else care to weigh in I'd appreciate it. 

Thanks

Edited May 12 by Zebra

[Zebra]

4 hours ago, matek said:

Whatever you do, I recommend you start moisturizing your hands if you haven't already. Something natural and thick like shea butter, cocoa butter, etc., is great, but any cheap hand cream is better than nothing. It takes some time, but it will make a huge difference.

About your question: 
I recommend getting the thinnest suede glove you can find (not the shiny ones). If it's pinch, you can put a thin suede leather over the block. 

I'll do that. I moisturize but it's not a regular thing, normally when I tear my hands up working and they're not healing right. No schedule. I'll make one and start. Thank you for the suggestion. 

Thank you for the glove recommendation too, will get some to try. 

Edited May 12 by Zebra

[Zebra]

1 hour ago, slazbob said:

Some cloth tape might be useful for your gripping; using gloves is a bit cumbersome. 
if you absolutely need gloves, they should be dexterous types so you don’t get distracted by too much padding going on and can also feel your fingers better. Only thing is they are not very durable using them for grippers…might have to buy them frequently.

Cloth tape didn't occur to me, will get some and try that. I think knurling is part of the problem, feels like I've taken sand paper over my hands, so just wrapping my gripper will probably help a lot, thanks for the suggestion. 

Noted on the gloves, I'll probably get some to try but just using cloth tape may fix this. Lower weight with knurling was fine but when I went up the knurling really started to hurt. 

Thanks

[Zebra]

1 hour ago, Busa said:

Hand cream is good in the UK I use a brand called "working hands" as I work with my hands all day they do get beat up far too often.

If you feel you want to use gloves the cotton gloves which are either PU or  Nitrile-Coated on the palm are decent I would not get latex.

If wanting all leather then Goat or next best Kangaroo both very thin and 2 to 3 times more shear than Buckskin.

Thanks for the brand suggestion. I've used udder cream but never tried working hands, will give that a try too. 

I also appreciate the glove suggestions, I'll get some of each and try them. Cloth tape on the knurling of my gripper may fix this, if it doesn't having the gloves will hopefully let me get back to my normal volume from what I had to cut back to. At least assuming the volume I'm doing isn't a problem. 

Thanks

[slazbob]

35 minutes ago, Zebra said:

Cloth tape didn't occur to me, will get some and try that. I think knurling is part of the problem, feels like I've taken sand paper over my hands, so just wrapping my gripper will probably help a lot, thanks for the suggestion. 

Noted on the gloves, I'll probably get some to try but just using cloth tape may fix this. Lower weight with knurling was fine but when I went up the knurling really started to hurt. 

Thanks

No problem. Hopefully it makes a difference.

[matek]

1 hour ago, Zebra said:

I'll do that. I moisturize but it's not a regular thing, normally when I tear my hands up working and they're not healing right. No schedule. I'll make one and start. Thank you for the suggestion. 

Thank you for the glove recommendation too, will get some to try. 

No worries.

And since you've mentioned grippers, if the handles are too sharp for you, you can easily make them smoother. Most gripper handles are made from aluminum, so a course sandpaper will work, you don't need to file it or something like that

[Busa]

Is this for torsion spring hand grippers? I would not wear gloves for that the gripper shooting out your hand springs to mind. I was thinking more for pinch, plate lifts to protect the web area.

That looks a lot of volume what form of grip training are you doing?

[CruxGripman]

Unfortunately have no experience with gloves, however, I 100% agree on moisturizing your hands, may I suggest liquid lanolin.

i was getting a lot of tears for while due to the volume I was doing, and I haven’t had a single tear since I started using liquid lanolin, you can order it on Iherb, and it is very affordable and will last forever

[Zebra]

10 hours ago, matek said:

No worries.

And since you've mentioned grippers, if the handles are too sharp for you, you can easily make them smoother. Most gripper handles are made from aluminum, so a course sandpaper will work, you don't need to file it or something like that

Oh, yeah, you're right. That also never occurred to me, I'll do that today, thanks. 

[Zebra]

9 hours ago, Busa said:

Is this for torsion spring hand grippers? I would not wear gloves for that the gripper shooting out your hand springs to mind. I was thinking more for pinch, plate lifts to protect the web area.

That looks a lot of volume what form of grip training are you doing?

I'll watch out for that. To answer your other question, I had severe sleep apnea and got it maybe ten years ago. I didn't know I had it. So for the last decade I've had hypoxia and been operating on basically no sleep. I didn't know what was wrong I couldn't think and my health kept getting worse but I decided I'd work out even if I couldn't manage anything else. I just kept increasingly volume and weight on this and everything else I do for years with absolutely no thought or plan other than to keep going. Finally got a diagnosis and treatment  and realized a lot of what I did makes no rational sense. If you wouldn't mind, could you direct me as to where I could find normal grip routines? I'm still not at 100% so I apologize for asking if it's obvious on here and I missed it. 

Thanks 

[Zebra]

8 hours ago, CruxGripman said:

Unfortunately have no experience with gloves, however, I 100% agree on moisturizing your hands, may I suggest liquid lanolin.

i was getting a lot of tears for while due to the volume I was doing, and I haven’t had a single tear since I started using liquid lanolin, you can order it on Iherb, and it is very affordable and will last forever

Just ordered some, thank you very much for the suggestion and for including a picture of the product. 

[Cannon]

On 5/12/2024 at 1:32 AM, Zebra said:

I'll get some of each and try them. Cloth tape on the knurling of my gripper may fix this

I had better results taping hot spots on my fingers rather than the handles directly. 

[Blacksmith513]

21 hours ago, Zebra said:

Oh, yeah, you're right. That also never occurred to me, I'll do that today, thanks. 

 

On 5/12/2024 at 2:16 AM, Zebra said:

Thanks for not judging me. I'm not and will never compete. I may compare myself to others for the limited purpose of determining if I'm being an idiot.

On that note, I am wondering if part of the problem is volume. I started maybe 7 years ago at 70 pounds 3 sets 10 reps. I still only use basic grippers but until I had to cut back a few weeks ago I did drop sets first 170 pounds 360 reps then 150 pounds 252 reps across 36 sets. I'm fine for the first 24 or so sets but after that it really starts to hurt. It didn't get bad until I upped my drop set weight to 150 pounds from 100 maybe four months ago. I didn't plan any of this, I just increased reps and weight without really paying attention. Based on some of the routines I've seen on here I seem to be doing more volume at less weight than most people aim for. I'm wondering if I'm increasing my risk of overuse injury for no good reason, in addition to the hand pain. If you or anyone else care to weigh in I'd appreciate it. 

Thanks

Hope the lanolin helps, its In the shave soap I use and it always leaves my head feeling great. 

That is a lot of volume and knurling can be tough on hands.. But in time they should be able to handle a lot..

[climber511]

Not sure what your "goals" are and what you're training besides grippers.  "To me" it seems like an awful lot of volume - if the goal is improved one rep max - I'll venture a guess your training is not optimal for that goal.  As a VERY general rule you want most of your training to be between 70 to 80% of your one rep max - not just in grip but pretty much everything.  And for way fewer reps than it looks like you are using.

As to the dry hands.  I've been rock climbing for 40 years now and my hands live in chalk - and creams are OK at best.  To really address your issue you should address the skin issue from the inside - meaning added oils to your diet - this was what sorted out my skin problems.  Try shots (like a shot glass) of Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Flax Oil - Fish Oil etc.  Do one a day - then2 - 3 etc. until you start feeling "greasy" or your bowels rebel.  Then back off - for me at least this was the cure to my problems - your skin will thank you.