Original Lifting Grips The Alternative to Gym Workout Gloves Comfortable & Light Weight Grip Pad for Men & Women That Want to Eliminate Sweaty Hands Gym Gloves (Single Pair)

Note: First off, the company has requested me to write an unbiased review in exchange for a pair of free pads. Having said this, I rarely write any reviews but since I'm getting something free for my time and they're truly great. Then why not?Bought the firm pads a few months ago and haven't been disappointed one bit! Recommended to my friends, and even had to buy another pair when my younger brother took mine. In my honest opinion, it is truly the best bang for your buck! No, really and I'm not exaggerating! It's under $10 and I couldn't even find cheapo gloves around that price. And didn't have to worry about the sizing.I would agree with everything the company claims except for one to an extent, which is "Maximize your lifting with padded support". This may be true with the soft pads but unlikely for the firm. One of my gym buddy bought all three and said the firm is the thickest. Since the pads will protect your hands from getting 'torn up', you should be able to lift your hardest on everything, except some pulling exercises. Some that comes to mind right now are lat pulldowns, bentover rows, shrugs and deadlifts. The firm pads will make the bar thicker, then your grip wider, thus being weaker. Sure, this will make your grip strength stronger in the long term but there are times, which are most of the time, that you just want to lift heavy a** weights. In these cases, you just have to use straps. Yes, I understand you can go lighter and aim for 25 or 30 reps and get the burn, but really. No, REALLY?!Probably, the main reason this product caught my eye was/is the no sweat hands claim. I have hyperhidrosis and these pads are a life-saver. My hands are sweaty half the time and worst with warm/hot temperature. Before with gloves, my hands would be all wrinkly like I was in the pool for 20 mins. Now, my hand can 'breathe' and can use paper towels whenever I need to. And not to mention the gawd awful smell after every workout. I do hand wash the gloves and the smell does go away but the texture are never the same again. I haven't smell anything from the pads yet, but if they get too dirty or I think they need a cleaning, I just grab some wet wipes and that's it.For barbell benching, from wide to close grips, I use suicide grips and definitely feel safe with these pads. With the bar making the pads concave, I can focus more on my benching. This goes for shoulders and arm routines with normal grips.Some would say having calluses makes you manly and I do agree, but my girlfriend beg to differ.Even after a few months of use, they're still in good shape and either sides identical doesn't hurt. Before, I thought about buying the ones with the finger loops but thought what would I do when one of the loop breaks? Yeah, it had more color options but the prices were much higher too.Yes, it looks plain and really nothing to talk about. Just 2 black rectangular pads that look more like drink coasters than anything else. But if you're a serious lifter and actually break a sweat working out? I can't recommend another product more than this one. I will never go back wearing gloves again. And great for open jars too.Now, where are my free pads?

*** Update***In November 2014 my soft grip pads gave in, after almost 2 years of weekly use. I am still using them at home, but I needed a new pair for the gym because they are breaking in the middle. In order to ensure longer performance this time I have bought a firm grip. It doesn't feel as good as the soft grip, but it's still a very solid product, which I would recommend to anyone, and over gym gloves. These firm grip pads still ensure protection and grip for your hands, and I believe will last longer (Not that two years is not long enough...). Overall, I think I wouldn't buy again a soft grip, but I guess I will re-assess in the future. I still prefer this to any type of gym gloves, in fact I have re-purchased them, instead than buying gym gloves. Their advantage in my opinion is that you can use them or not, depending on the type of lift, in a snap, no need to take anything on or off. They offer very good padding, in fact probably superior to any glove, without the sweating. I would buy them again, and again. See you in 2016 :-)I stumbled by chance into these gloves, while looking for gym gloves, and was intrigued. I was not a fun of gym gloves, but my hands were getting a lot of callosities, and more specifically they were hurting on a lift, thus impairing it. These pads feel slightly awkward at first, but they absolutely work. They significantly reduced my callosities, and made it easier to lift dumbbells or barbells. I do not need anymore chalk for deadlifting and can concentrate on the lifting rather than on the grapping. Also, with these my hands don't sweat. On some lifts they are particularly awesome, most of all I would say chin-ups/pull-ups. I thought not having a bag or not wearing them would have been a pain to carry them around, but actually that is not a problem at all. I just put them inside my pants at the wais and they don't slide away. I recommend these, and believe these are superior to gym gloves. Also, quite cheaper than many models of gloves.