Versa Gripps!!!

This is long overdue, but I bought Versa Gripps a couple months ago and they have seriously made a huge difference for many many exercises in my workout program.  Now I can't even imagine going to the gym without them!  My grip has never been that strong, and once I started using heavier weights during workouts, I realized that a lot of times my hands would get tired before my arms or whatever other body part I'm working.  The most prominent example is during deadlifts.  Back then I was using 80 lb barbell for American deadlifts (now I use 100... woohoo!  lol), and towards the last couple reps of my first set, the barbell would start sliding out of my hands!  It would end up barely hanging onto my finger tips.  Second/third/fourth sets would get progressive worse and worse.  And I do always wear workout gloves but it didn't matter.  It was frustrating and annoying.  Versa Gripps helps tremendously with this issue.  They actually work better than I thought when I bought them.

If you haven't heard of them, this is what they look like:

So you use the grippy flap part and wrap it around the weight that you want to use, then you actually wrap your hands around the Versa Gripps rather than the weight itself.  It helps keeping the weight in your hand and it redistributes some of the weight so that it's hanging off of your wrist.  It doesn't hurt my wrists at all though.  I think I would have seen some signs by now since I've been using them 5 days a week for a couple months already.

As the picture shows below, you wrap the Versa Gripps inwards or outwards from your palm based on whether the exercise you are performing is a pulling or pushing motion.

I find that I don't really need them for pushing, because I never had slippery issues with pushing exercises when my regular workout gloves on.  But it helps sooooo much with the pulling motion.  For all exercises that require pulling, I immediately could increase my weight and my hands don't get sore at all anymore.  Although, I'm not sure if this is actually a positive, since I am no longer training my grip strength.  But I think training other muscles is more important to me than training my grip strength right now!

I actually wear these with my workout gloves on at the same time.  I posted this pic on instagram a couple weeks ago:

Speaking of workout gloves... I am really in need of some new ones too!  Mine are totally falling apart.  I was going to buy new ones but then I thought I'd just use Versa Gripps sans gloves instead.  However, I have found that I still prefer wearing gloves at the same time.  It helps even more with a better grip since my skin doesn't make contact with the Versa Gripps - sometimes my hands get a little sweaty and still slips a little even while using the Versa Gripps.  So yeah, time to get some new gloves again.

The Versa Gripps come in different series - Fit, Classic and Pro.  They are all the same price, which is not cheap, at $52.  I got the Fit series, because they are made for a smaller hand.  But I kind of want to try the Pro series since they look slightly longer which would be nice for machines with wider grip.  The pro series also come in camo print!  I wish they would list the measurements of different series they carry so that I could decide if it's worth another $52!

They do look kind of silly in the beginning when they are more stiff.  Now they have molded to my hand more so they are more inconspicuous.  I have not seen anyone else at my gym with these babies.  They are missing out!  Hahaha!  But then again, a lot of people don't even wear gloves!  So, although quite pricey, I think they are a very essential investment for me.  $52 is normally what I spend on one workout tank, which I may wear once every couple weeks.  I've been using the hell out of these since the day I received them!  That's already less than average cost of $1 a day and decreasing at a rapid rate!  :D