Weight Training Gloves With Wrist Support

Nearly 1 million weight lifting Americans ended up with injuries severe enough to land them in the emergency room, The New York Times reports. While many of the injuries were from exercisers dropping weights on themselves, others did suffer sprains and strains, two types of injuries weight training gloves with wrist support can help reduce.

Description

Weight training gloves with wrist support are short-fingered gloves that include an attachment or extended glove length at the wrist. Used for weight lifting and other activities that require heavy use of your hands, weight training gloves that include wrist support offer additional protection and stability for your wrist.

Materials

The gloves are generally leather or a breathable man-man fabric that wicks sweat away from your hands such as neoprene, or a combination of the two. The weight training gloves' wrist wrap usually consists of the same material as the glove and extends about 2 inches up your wrist. Some gloves feature rubber padding on the palm for extra cushioning or mesh inserts around the glove for extra breathability.

Features

The wrist support usually fastens shut with Velcro, which makes the cuff fully adjustable to snugly fit your wrist as well as easy to put on and remove. Gloves come with varying finger lengths, with the shorter fingers offering a more natural feel yet still able to absorb sweat and oils. Rather than rubber, some palm areas are reinforced with leather or padded with a cushioning gel beneath the fabric. Most of the gloves are machine washable and come in sizes ranging from small to extra-large.

Benefits

Weight training gloves offer myriad benefits, Muscle Hack reports, with additional benefits from those gloves with wrist support. The gloves reduce the risk of calluses, reduce pressure on your hands and provide a better grip without a slick layer of sweat between your hands and the weights. The gloves' cushioning also takes some pressure off your wrist, even without the wrist wraps. Gloves with wrist support offer even more support and stability for your hands while they help you keep your hands in the proper position to reduce the risk of over-extension injuries.

Prices

Weight training gloves, sold at fitness and sports retailers, generally cost less than $50, as of November 2010. The least expensive gloves start as low as about $12, but their wrist support is often just an extension of the glove length, rather than a full-fledged cuff. The higher-end gloves can go for as much as $35 or $40. The materials and features play a part in the prices.