One of the main concerns for every CrossFitter is hand protection when monkeying around on the rings or rig. I have been searching for years for the answer to my soft office hand problems. Is this it and will I now be finally able to do high volume gymnastics without a rip? 

Look and Feel

I went for the green colour of the Picsil Azor grips, as they look epic this will surely make them easier to find in my gym bag. Other colours include a white and a tan colour.

The slick and simplistic design on the grip and wrist wrap make you want to wear them unlike some other grips on the market. That’s a good start. The leather on the gloves is thick but very soft and even with sore hands it still feels better than gripping the bar with bare skin. I get an XL, as I prefer them sitting just above the knuckle so that when the leather is wrapped around the bar my body weight is being held by both my wrist and my grip. This also makes the finger holes easier to slip on and off between movements within a workout.

Performance

As I have a relatively weak grip I prefer the two finger grips, so skin contact on the apparatus is maxmised. Once I decided on how I wanted the grips to fit based on personal preference (above or below the knuckle) I spent time to trying to wear the grips in. However, the truth is you don’t need to. The soft leather means you can pretty much jump on the rig and perform reps straight away. So far, I have done a lot of volume with toes to bar, bar muscle ups and pull-ups in the lead up to the CrossFit Games Open and they have been incredible. The soft leather morphs to the shape of the bar and gives your hand the grip required to perform your sets. Picsil have recently upgraded the wrist wrap on all their grips. The new velcro fastening is thicker and stronger meaning it also offers more support to the wrist.

As I chose to have my grips oversized to enable a fold fit over the bar, this can take some getting use to for ring muscle ups. One thing to note too is that I found that the grips can be too grippy on occasion (if that’s possible). Moving through the hand motions on the bar muscle ups can be tricky when the grips are fixed to one position. You have to release the bar to enable the hand turn for the rep. 

To Conclude

The grips look and feel great on and are unrivalled for over the knuckle fitting hand protection. They are quite pricy, but you do get what you pay for. They grip the bar brilliantly and so far have been a real asset to my workouts. I do recommend any rig based activity.

These are available from React Nutrition using code JT10 for £28 with free delivery!!!

JT