GRIPAD ® Blog

Are You Getting Everything you Need From Your Hand Protection?

The right hand protection can support your workout goals and protect your palms from injury, but there’s more to weightlifting success than any simple pair of gloves can provide. Your hand protection, like any other aspect of your gear, should be as tough and long-lasting as you are, and should be able to comfortably stand up to whatever challenges you deal out. Can your workout gloves pass the test? Ask yourself these questions, and if you answer no to more than three of them, it might be time for a change.

Your Hand Protection: Questions

1. Do your workout gloves allow a full range of motion? If your hands can’t move freely, your technique is probably being compromised. Poor technique means slower results. Give yourself every advantage at the gym.
2. Smell your gloves. Do they smell fresh, or do they stink? If so, that’s the aroma of thriving mildew and bacteria. Don’t expose yourself to infections or clammy hands. Toss those gloves and replace them with Gripads today.
3. Have you had the same gloves for the last year or more? Great! But if you’ve had to replace your gloves more than once or twice, they aren’t standing up to your tough workouts. Try durable Gripads instead.
4. Look at your hands. Are they clean and smooth? Are they callus-and-injury free? Are you proud or embarrassed to shake hands with an employer during a job interview? If you can’t be proud of your handshake, you need better hand protection at the gym.
5. Are you thinking about your hands too much while you work out? If you’re focusing fully on your next move, your hand protection is working. But if your hands are aching, clammy, sweaty, confined, not breathing properly, or otherwise distracting you, your gloves may be the problem. See if Gripads can make a difference.

Workout Tips: Staying Motivated

To attain great results (or any results) from a workout plan, we need patience. And we need to be willing to commit to a workout routine long enough for two things to happen:

1. If all goes well, our workout plan will eventually become an ingrained habit, and healthy habits—just like unhealthy ones—are not as easy to break. So when we begin a workout routine, we don’t need to look far into the future and make a fifty year commitment at a single bound. That’s asking too much. We just need to look toward a future when working out will come as naturally as brushing our teeth before bed.
2. Exercise feels great, both mentally and physically. But it doesn’t always seem that way at the beginning. Maintain your exercise plan long enough to start feeling the results, including post workout euphoria and the rush of trying on new clothes after dropping a few pounds. From that point forward, things will get easier.

In the meantime, keep these simple workout tips in mind to maintain your motivation:

1. Look for small rewards and celebrate them. You lost two pounds? Fantastic! Don’t let anyone laugh or take away your small victories. Each success builds on the last.
2. Surround yourself with support. Choose workout partners who make you feel encouraged, and give back the same energy. If you can’t find a supportive group, work out on your own until you find your feet.
3. Choose music and gear that feel great and don’t stand in your way. Wear comfortable, breathable clothing, protect your hands with Gripads, and choose your workout playlist with care. Small things can have a big impact on your progress.
4. Finally, be proud of the challenges you face and willingness to overcome them. It isn’t easy to push yourself to your physical limits, but remember: you’re doing the right thing, and you’re doing it for the right reasons.

Weight Lifting Tips for an Effective Workout

Looking for more ways to get the most out of your weightlifting routine? Keep these simple tips in mind while you’re at the gym and you’ll be on your way to a more effective workout.

Weightlifting Tips

1. Don’t stretch too much right before you begin. Stretching can provide a great way to warm and increase blood flow to tight muscle fibers, but too much cold, static stretching right before a weight training session can actually weaken muscles temporarily. Warm up first, then do a few dynamic stretches in which your body is moving and stretching at the same time.
2. Choose your goals and build your routine around them. Are you trying to gain strength or build mass? For stronger muscles and better athletic performance, lift lighter weights and do more reps. For big muscle mass, choose heavy weights and lift to the point of failure, then start again. For both goals, stay focused on technique.
3. Lift safely. Never let your raised arms move backward beyond the point of your ears, and avoid any move that places unnatural strain on your joints or back. Don’t lift heavy weights without a spotter.
4. Surround yourself with support. A great support network can do amazing things for your workout goals. Surround yourself with positive people, and make sure you give as much encouragement as you receive. If your gym is negative or demoralizing, find a new gym.
5. Choose the right gear. Make sure your gear is clean, safe, and well maintained. This includes clothing and weight lifting gloves. Instead of smelly, bacteria laden gloves that can restrict your range of motion, try moisture-wicking Gripads. These simple little pads slide on over your fingers and protect your hands from rough equipment without compromising your effective workout.

A Workout Diet Plan that Trims Fat and Builds Muscle

If you’re looking for ways to build streamlined muscle and melt away fat from problem areas, exercise will get you two thirds of the way there. But you’ll also need to support your cardio and weight lifting efforts with healthy lifestyle choices. This means plenty of sleep, adequate stress control and an effective workout diet plan. What kinds of food choices can help you bring on the muscle development and hold off the fat?

A Healthy Workout Diet: Nutrition Strategies and Superfoods for Muscle Growth

1. If you work out heavily, your cells will experience high levels of wear and tear. Your muscles will also be adding new tissue as they undergo the hypertrophy process. For both tissue growth and cell repair, you’ll need plenty of protein, but make sure your protein sources are healthy. Avoid red meat (beef and pork) and load up on poultry, nuts, legumes and especially fish. Other great protein sources include eggs and dairy products like low fat milk.
2. Don’t skip meals, especially breakfast, and pay attention to your portion sizes. If you have to choose, it’s better to eat several small meals throughout the day than one or two big meals with nothing in between. But if you eat five or six times a day, you’ll need to keep your portions small and your choices healthy.
3. Drink plenty of water. It’s almost impossible to drink too much. Carry water with you if you need to, and remember: the greatest benefits of hydration come from water, not sugary juices or soda.
4. As with water, it’s almost impossible to eat too many green vegetables and colorful fruits each day. Chose these as often as you can, and supplement them with whole grain, unprocessed carbs like oatmeal.

Body Sculpting: Streamlining or Bulking Up Targeted Areas

Many of us embark on a workout plan in order to get healthy, prevent cardiovascular disease, or improve our performance on the sports field. But some of us just wake up one morning, take a look in the mirror, and decide to make some changes to what we see.

You’re beautiful just as you are. But there’s nothing wrong with launching a workout plan because you’ll like to change the shape or tone of specific areas of the body. Exercise is healthy, no matter what your personal reasons may be. Just make sure you keep your body-sculpting expectations reasonable and take an approach that’s likely to bring results instead of frustration. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Body Sculpting Workout Plans

1. Fat loss is not a site-specific process. Losing fat on any area of the body will happen as you burn more calories than you take in. So if you’re trying to trim the pad of fat that covers your stomach, crunches won’t help any more than pushups and cardio exercises. When it’s time to metabolize fat and burn it away, the body alone decides which fat reserves to tap into, and its decisions are unique to every person.
2. At the same time, muscle tone and shape are highly site-specific. If you’d like to build big arms, focus on the arm area and use the burn down method. Lift heavy weights to the point of failure, then take a 30 second break and start again. The same applies to the chest, legs, and other areas.
3. Definition, or the deep lines that show the outline of toned muscles, come from a combination of both strength-building and fat loss. Six pack abs, for example, don’t come from crunches alone, nor do they come from fat loss alone. They result from a focused workout routine involving both approaches. And even then, they don’t always appear on cue. Genetics can also play a role in how tightly our skin adheres to the muscles underneath.

Is Your Workout Gear Helping You…Or Holding You Back?

Depending on your chosen workout goals, the right gear can mean the difference between astonishing success, frustrating struggle, and easily preventable failure. But there’s no reason to let your gear choose your destiny. If you work hard and show determination and patience, a simple piece of faulty gear shouldn’t have the opportunity to stand between you and the weight loss or athletic performance you deserve. Let’s take a look at some of the key culprits when it comes to gear-related sabotage.

Choose the Right Workout Gear

Shoes

If your workout relies on heavy cardio, you need proper shoes. And if your workout goals are based entirely or almost entirely on running, you REALLY need proper shoes. Don’t cut corners. The care and attention you invest in your running goals should be directly reflected in the amount of research and cost you’re willing to invest in your shoes. Don’t be taken in by magical promises, but get online and find out what experts have to say about the shoe options for your specific sport. And when you invest in great shoes, take care of them properly.

Weight Equipment

Great weights and machines can help you reach your goals faster, and shoddy ones can actually increase your risk of injury. To stay on the safe side, let the professionals at your gym or training center choose the machines…but make sure you choose the right gym or training center. Before you buy home gym equipment, get recommendations from a professional trainer.

Hand Protection

Leather and synthetic gloves can offer adequate hand protection as you lift weights, but traditional gloves are not ideal. Gloves collect moisture, which can form a breeding ground for bacteria. They can also restrict your range of motion, compromising your results. Instead, try moisture-wicking neoprene Gripads. They allow your hands to move and breath naturally, and they stand up to rough use at the gym.

Workout Tips: Are Your Stretching Methods Holding you Back?

When most of us were children in PE class, we were taught a basic principle that seemed unassailable at the time: Stretching before physical activity is good. It warms up the muscles, increases circulation, and improves our range of motion so we can perform better. With that idea in mind, we would line up to touch our toes before heading off to an intense session of dodgeball or rope climbing.

But exercise science has come a long way since then. We’ve since learned that while stretching does, in fact, organize and align the muscle fibers, and this does have the effect of improving circulation and nutrient delivery, there’s more to an effective stretching routine that we once thought. Here are a few stretching-related workout tips that experts now recommend.

A Simple Guide to Effective Stretching: Workout Tips

1. Static stretching, or stretching performed while standing or lying in place, may actually reduce our muscle strength and diminish our abilities for a full 30 minutes afterward. Experts are still trying to determine what causes this effect.
2. Instead of static stretching, try stretches that happen while the body is in vigorous motion, since these moves tend to bring better results. Keep your knee straight and kick your left leg out in front of you as high as you can, then your right leg. Then crawl across the gym floor, staying as low to the ground as you can.
3. Before you begin your dynamic stretching exercises, warm up with a light jog or ten minutes of mild aerobic activity. Your heart rate should be noticeably elevated before you begin the first stretch.
4. Once you’ve warmed up, then done a few dynamic stretching moves, begin your activity right away. A pause or extended period of stillness can actually reduce the benefits of the stretch, and may not provide your muscles with adequate heat, circulation, or protection from injury.

Nutrition For a Healthy Workout

So you’ve decided it’s time to do something about the little pad of fat around your middle, and for the last few weeks, you’ve been getting up early and hitting the gym at least three times per week. Congratulations! You’re off to a great start. It won’t be long before you start feeling some of the long term benefits of physical activity, including better circulation, better sleep, more confidence, and a brighter general outlook. With a little patience, you’ll also be trimming away that belly fat and toning up your arms, legs, and core.

But are your morning workouts enough to bring the results you’re looking for? More to the point, will they bring results soon enough to keep you motivated until your new plan becomes a settled habit? Without proper nutrition, the answer may be no. Great nutrition can support a healthy workout plan and get you closer to your goals. But a healthy workout won’t take you very far if you cut yourself off at every turn by making poor eating choices. Here are a few simple dos and don’ts.

Nutrition and Your Healthy Workout: Don’ts

1. Don’t start eating more because you’re working out. Just let your belly rumble for a little while until your body begins to adjust. Enjoy the feeling of hunger. It makes meals taste better, and it reminds you that your workout is effectively burning calories.
2. Don’t skip breakfast. Even though you’re trying to lose weight, don’t leave the house without a quick bite of oatmeal, an egg, or some toast with peanut butter.

Nutrition and Your Healthy Workout: Do’s

1. Let yourself go when it comes to fruit and green leafy vegetables. You can’t have too many of these, and if they satisfy your new feelings of hunger, all the better.
2. Change your protein sources. Instead of red meat, choose lean poultry, fish, nuts and legumes. Your body will thank you, and you’ll get the message when you see your results at the gym.

How the Right Workout Gloves Can Help You Reach Your Goals

No matter what your workout goals may be, and no matter the challenges of your specific sport or activity, the gear you choose can mean the difference between steady, rapid progress and slow, frustrating results. Choose the right shoes and find clothes that wick moisture away from your skin and fit just snugly enough to stay out of your way.

And as important as any other part of your gear, choose the right workout gloves. Lifting weights with your bare hands can lead to abrasions and blisters that can slow you down and even cause infection and injury. So you’ll need to protect your hands if you’re serious about making progress with your resistance training. But what kind of workout gloves provide the best benefits? Look for these features.

Effective Workout Gloves

1. Great workout gloves can last through one tough session after another and work as hard as you do. Gripads have super-tough, double-stitched seams that stand up to any abuse you can deal out. Between workouts, you can just toss them in the washing machine, which you can’t do with gloves made of leather.
2. Your workout gloves should protect your hands without restricting your range of motion. While traditional gloves cover the whole hand, Gripads just slide on over your fingers. With Gripads in place, your skin can breathe, your hands can move, and you can forget about your hand protection and focus on your technique.
3. Workout gloves should wick moisture away from your skin. Traditional gloves can collect sweat, and a constantly moist environment feels unpleasant and can breed germs and mildew. Gripads don’t do this. They’re made of lightweight neoprene that keeps your palms clean and dry.

Weight Lifting Tips For Beginners

If you’re just starting to work out for the first time, congratulations! You’re taking the first steps down a path to a stronger body, better health, and a higher quality of life. As you start making regular appearances at the gym or on your running route, trainers, workout enthusiasts and well-wishers will probably provide you with plenty of advice and weight lifting tips. As this happens, keep an open mind, separate hype from common sense, and discriminate based on what works for you. Remember, while the best weight lifting tips apply to almost everyone, our bodies are still unique. Some weightlifting tips work well for some and not as well for others. With that in mind, consider the following.

Weight Lifting Tips:

1. Protect your knees, shoulders, and back. Don’t overstrain these areas, and immediately stop any move that causes pain, pinching or tingling. One avoidable injury can undo months of progress, so be bold, but smart.
2. Enjoy the process. How do you feel at the end of your workout? If you’re like most of us, the answer is fantastic. No matter how tough the middle may be, stay strong through to the end and enjoy the feeling of well-being and accomplishment that comes from pushing yourself to your limits. There’s no better long term motivator.
3. Choose the right gear. Comfortable clothes, well designed shoes, and proper hand protection can mean the difference between great and mediocre results. It can also mean the difference between a fun, sustainable workout routine and an unpleasant chore. Everything, including your hand protection, should be durable, breathable and moisture-wicking.
4. Surround yourself with support. If you feel sensitive to criticism, work out privately for a while to protect yourself while you build a strong foundation. Otherwise, choose workout partners who build you up, and make sure you give them back the same level of energy and encouragement.