Being firmly entrenched in--or even on the far side of--middle age, I have in recent years made a solid commitment to working out five days a week at the local Y, including one day a week with a personal trainer. I therefore welcomed the opportunity to try out the SPRI fitness gloves, as I have developed thick callouses on my palm (especially where my wedding ring rubs) and on more than one occasion felt like I was going to slip off a piece of equipment due to sweaty hands. My primary observation regarding the SPRI gloves is this: You need to give them a little time before deciding whether you like them. My very first impression after putting them on was a little negative: They were somewhat uncomfortable, and I thought they maybe even got in the way when I was on the chin-up machine. But by the end of my first workout, I was a fan. Maybe they stretched a bit or molded to my hands (they've got a wonderful soft squishy feel!), or maybe it was just a matter of getting used to how they felt, but I now use them regularly and greatly appreciate how they enhance my workout. First and foremost, they prevent my sweaty hands from slipping on the equipment. I can now keep up with whatever my sadistic trainer thinks up for me, including doing planks on a medicine ball. ;-) Second and also very beneficial, my hands don't get sore after multiple reps of a given exercise requiring me to grasp onto something. It's too early to tell for sure yet, but I am optimistic that using them regularly will help minimize or reduce the callouses I've developed. Another advantage of these gloves that was highly important to me is that the finger-less design allows me to write and operate my phone easily while wearing them. I keep a workout log listing the various weights/repetitions of the exercises I do, and I need to be able to record the data as I work out. I also need to be able to control the music player on my phone, because doing a workout without music is, well, just dreadful. I consider myself an average sized person (5'4", 132 pounds at the writing of this review), so I requested the Small/Medium size to review. They seemed perhaps a little tight/small when I first put them on, but as I mentioned earlier, they either stretched with use or I became used to them, because they now feel like they fit perfectly. Edit: After using these gloves for a couple of months, the seams on the palm of the hand started giving out. Because I really liked the feel of these gloves, I ordered a second pair at a time when amazon was running these gloves as a low-cost "add-on" item. I ordered a size up, in case the original problem with the seams was that they were too small/tight for me. The second pair, however, also only lasted a couple of months before the seams started to give way. So I have now adjusted my rating downward a star. The gloves still work, for the most part, even with gaps along the seams.
