Many people don’t have the habit of wearing protective gear when they train in the gym. Maybe you don’t think it is necessary, but today I want to say that protective gear is very important both from the point of view of safety and training effectiveness. So today we’re going to talk about what kind of protective gear you might need to work out, and how to choose one.

1. Gloves

Gloves should be the most known fitness equipment, often can see wear gloves at the gym fitness, since it functions don’t need to say more, you can have a certain non-slip effect, and not easy to hand out of the cocoon, but I’m not used to gloves, because when the fitness body direct contact with equipment for the target muscle feelings I think is strengthening. However, it is highly recommended for female bodybuilders because no woman wants to have calluses on her hands.

2. Hard pull power belt

As the name suggests, it helps you hold the barbell during a hard pull. Some people feel that they can complete a certain weigh, but their hands can no longer hold the main barbell, so at this time, you need a booster belt. There are actually two types of booster belts. One is the one shown in the picture above. In use, a long belt needs to be wrapped around the barbell. It is more troublesome to use and it is not comfortable to hold the barbell. I prefer the following one.

It’s easy to use and it’s more comfortable to hold the barbell. For heavy weights, the former is recommended because it holds the barbell more firmly, while the latter is suitable for fitness enthusiasts.

3. Elbow pads and knee pads

These two are put together, because they are used in the same way, and they are divided into two styles, sleeve type and winding type.

The sleeve type is easy to use, just put it on the elbow or knee, but it will become loose after a long time. Some people think that the sleeve type knee pad is actually a simple protective gear. You are wrong if you think about it. In the world powerlifting competition, especially in a very strict powerlifting organization like IPF, the rules are strict, and players will try their best to improve their performance, such as buying sleeve-type knee pads that are 2 sizes smaller than their knee size. During the game, let a few people help themselves to pull up. Like the advanced protective gear we produced in the picture, the thickness of a knee can reach 7 mm. You can brainstorm what is the concept, which is equivalent to squatting down. Then there is a 1.4 cm thick thing stuck between the upper and lower legs, which can directly improve your squat performance (theoretically, but the improvement is not very large, usually a few kilograms)

The above picture is the winding type, the winding type is more powerful than the sleeve type, because it is elastic, so the tighter you tie it, the greater the feedback force it can give you, except for that In addition, it is very important for the stability of the knee joint. If the knee joint cannot be stabilized during squatting, the risk of injury to both the lower limbs and the waist will increase, and it will also affect your training weight. The same goes for the elbows during bench press.

4. Wristband

The wrist brace here is not sleeve type. The sleeve wrist brace is mostly used in sports such as volleyball and tennis. The wrist brace used in fitness is winding type, which is to better fix ours. The wrist joints reduce the pressure and damage on our wrists. For example, when performing biceps curls, you can choose to use a wrist brace to ensure that the wrist is in a neutral position to avoid injury.