This week's victim: "guy who lifts in gloves." I'd actually love to know who first started wearing gloves while lifting. You know the kind I'm talking about, fingerless pads that look like they belong more in a bondage film than in a weightroom. I'll admit, I wore gloves for about a month when I was 16, then I realized that my parts are on the outside. So here's the question: Why do people wear them?
My guess is it started sometime between the late '80s and mid '90s. I venture that guess because at around the same time, adolescent males became infatuated with being as "cut, ripped, torn up, etc." as possible. Their abs are clearly defined but i feel like these guys are missing something...oh yeah, any semblance of muscle! I can't say all guys who wear gloves are weak and small because I've seen older/bigger guys wearing them too. These guys aren't off the hook either though because often I've seen them wearing said gloves while doing some kind of HIT workout on machines. Wow, you guys are BAMFs (Dane Cook probably wears gloves too, that unfunny pussy).
Okay, so we know gloves suck, but why are they still so popular? Let's look at the purposes they serve.
1. Not letting your hands get calloused.
2. Thickening the handle of any object you are holding.
3. Letting the world know you're a tool.
Based on these three things, I can't see a single vaild reason for wearing gloves. Men used to be men; they worked with their hands doing hard labor. Meet any dude who raised his family in the '50s and '60s and I'll bet he's got a strong handshake and hands like a baseball mit, and just as rough. If you dont strengthen the skin on your hands, the next time you do a heavy deadlift(although these guys probably don't deadlift), have fun with your torn hand.
Look at #2. Whenever you thicken a handle, it makes the exercise more challenging. This could be considered a good thing (Fat Gripz are awesome), but in this case the guys probably aren't getting much overload, so using a lighter weight due to your piss-weak grip won't give much of a training effect. #3 is pretty self-explanatory.
If you're concerned about not toughening up your hands, so you use gloves, you probably shouldn't even be in the weight room. It's a special place where men and women go to push their own limits and show what they're really made of. Wearing gloves shows that you're made of marshmallows and wine coolers.
If you like this rant, drop a comment below! If you don't like it, you probably wear gloves in the weight room. If you've got any ideas of your own for WTF?!?! let me know in the comments!
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