If I could use only one piece of equipment for my water workout, it would be webbed gloves. Webbed gloves increase the surface area of your hands, creating more resistance and increasing the intensity for your upper body. Since you are not holding the equipment in your hands, as with other pieces of resistance equipment, your fingers do not get cramped, and your elbows and shoulders are able to move more naturally. You can adjust the amount of resistance by changing the position of your hands – slicing through the water for the least resistance, making a fist for moderate resistance, and making the palms face the direction of motion with the hands open for the greatest resistance. Sculling with the palms flat helps you balance in shallow water, and helps you stabilize in deep water. The added surface area of your hands enables you to travel faster, especially in deep water. Sculling with webbed gloves or accelerating the hands toward the bottom of the pool in deep water provides lift when you want to increase the intensity of your cardio by elevating the shoulders out of the water. Click on the links below the photos to see video demonstrations using webbed gloves.
Webbed gloves provide drag resistance in all directions. You can lift the water up, push it down, sweep it to the side, or move it in a diagonal pattern. You can use webbed gloves to strength train any muscle of the upper body. If you want to focus on one muscle group, you can spread your fingers and contract that muscle against resistance, and then return to your starting point with a slicing motion. For example, if you wish to target the middle deltoids, spread your fingers and lift your arms to the sides (abduction), then slice back down. You can target both muscles of an opposing pair by keeping the fingers spread. In the previous example, you work the middle deltoids with your lift to the side, and then pause and press back down with fingers spread to work the latissimus dorsi. For more information on the benefits of using webbed gloves, see Laurie Denomme’s blog post Water Weights for Water Exercise: The Secret Tool.
There are two main types of webbed gloves for water fitness: fabric gloves and neoprene gloves.
Fabric Gloves. I prefer fabric gloves because they allow more freedom of movement in my hands and they are more comfortable. I get my webbed gloves from Hydro-Fit. They make Wave Web Pros and Wave Mitts with holes for the fingers to extend through. Their website has information on how to choose the right size, sample exercises using webbed gloves, and a video showing how to remove the gloves to extend their life. Laurie Denomme likes H20 Wear‘s Chloroguard Gloves. Other companies that make fabric webbed gloves are AquaJogger and Water Gear.
Neoprene Gloves. Neoprene is a family of synthetic rubber; it maintains flexibility over a wide range of temperatures. Neoprene is much thicker than the chlorine resistant fabric, and so it is not as easy to bend the fingers or make a fist. You can get neoprene gloves with closed fingers but most of the ones I have seen have openings for the fingers. Some companies that sell neoprene gloves are Speedo, Theraquatics, and Sprint. Put “webbed aqua gloves” in the search bar at Amazon and you will get pages of webbed gloves all colors and prices. Most of them are neoprene. A few are nylon, which will not last long. And there are some made out of silicone which would be way too stiff for a water fitness class.
Which do you prefer: fabric or neoprene? Let me know in the comment box below. Also let me know if you have a favorite brand. You will enhance your workout with webbed gloves no matter what type you prefer. My book Water Fitness Progressions has lesson plans designed specifically for use with webbed gloves, but you can use them for most of the lesson plans in the book, and for any water workout.
See you in the pool!
This is an awesome article. Thank you. I have clients who have cold hands wear neoprene to keep their hands warm.