I'm a fitness writer—here's the one inexpensive Christmas gift I'm getting my gym buddies in the Cyber Monday sales
A simple pair of weight lifting gloves can protect your hands and make your strength training feel a little bit easier

If, like me, you don't think calluses are anything to brag about, you'll probably want some decent fitness gloves for your strength training sessions. I'm getting all my friends a pair for Christmas after discovering this year that you can get them with built-in wrist support (which was a game-changer for me, with my notoriously weak wrists).
When you get to a certain point in your fitness career, the handy knurling on barbells and dumbbells starts to chafe and you end up with lumps, bumps, and blisters on your palms. The next time you go to pick up a dumbbell, you may find sore spots on your hands prevent you from being able to enjoy your strength session and making steady progress. You could try lifting cheap weights without the knurling feature, but in my experience, they end up slipping all over the place in your sweaty hands.
The beautiful, simple, and inexpensive solution is gloves.
I favor this pair from ATERCEL, which are reduced by 44% for Cyber Monday, but I'll be getting several different types, depending on the friend I'm buying for.
ATERCEL workout gloves: was $19.99, now $11.16 at Amazon
Save 44% One of the best deals I've found on workout gloves overall, these ATERCEL gloves do exactly what they say on the tin. They're padded to help protect your hand while you lift, with wrist support to help prevent injury. If you've already got wrist wraps or use straps to lift, they have gloves without the in-built support feature for 56% off this Cyber Monday too.
VINSGUIR padded weight lifting gloves: was $16.99, now $12.79 at Amazon
Save 25%. These gloves have a touch more padding than the ATERCEL gloves above but they don't feature much in the way of grippy webbing. The padding still serves to boost grip friction though, and unless you're handling something very slippery, you should still be able to get a solid grasp on your weight.
ihuan ventilated workout gloves: was $20.00, now $15.98 at Amazon
Save 20% These workout gloves offer the most ventilation, with a mesh design of silicone-printed neoprene that helps with breathability and grip. They also come in a range of colors, unlike most other brands.
Pair a set of these gloves with some of the best kettlebells and you're onto a winner.
Not sure what weight you should pick up for your strength training session? See our guide to the best Black Friday weights deals , with round-ups of kettlebells, barbells, dumbbells and more.
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Lou Mudge is a Health Writer at Future Plc, working across Fit&Well and Coach. She previously worked for Live Science, and regularly writes for Space.com and Pet's Radar. Based in Bath, UK, she has a passion for food, nutrition and health and is eager to demystify diet culture in order to make health and fitness accessible to everybody.
Multiple diagnoses in her early twenties sparked an interest in the gut-brain axis and the impact that diet and exercise can have on both physical and mental health. She was put on the FODMAP elimination diet during this time and learned to adapt recipes to fit these parameters, while retaining core flavors and textures, and now enjoys cooking for gut health.
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