Hand and Grip Pain Was Making Me Hate My Dumbbells, Until I Got These Perfect Little Pads

As a Peloton devotee, most mornings are spent turning my living room into a home gym. On bike days, it’s as easy as hopping on the bike, but on strength days, my space really transforms. Because I live in a 1,000 sq ft house, my home gym setup is like a game of Tetris. I have larger weights here, smaller ones here, the mat is over here, and when I need to actually use it all, the coffee table gets dragged to the side and it all comes out and my living room is now (like magic!) a gym.

One thing that helped my cobbled together home gym setup immensely was Peloton weights being sold at TJ Maxx. If you don’t know, Peloton had a huge spike in business during Covid (that’s when I converted to Pelotonsim), they ramped up production on everything, and then when people started going back to the gym they had to deal with a huge surplus of product. So they sold it to TJ Maxx and Family, who sold it all at a significant markdown. This is the only reason I own Peloton weights. But they’re perfect for my setup. The Peloton dumbbells are square, so they are great for things like renegade rows, but they’re also great for stacking on top of each other.

I have a little tower of Peloton weights under a secretary in my living room, and it’s perfect. I tried to find a dumbbell rack that would fit in my space to no avail, and while I would love a rack, the stacked weights work perfectly fine. BUT, and here’s where the actual rec comes in, thanks for hanging in there, the Peloton dumbbells hurt my hands.

Maybe my hands just aren’t tough enough, maybe it’s because of arthritis, maybe it’s just a personal preference, but the handles of the Peloton dumbbells are very uncomfortable for me to hold. It got to the point where I was using towels wrapped around the handles because my hands just couldn’t take it. There had to be a better way!

I looked into weightlifting gloves, tape to wrap around the handles, and also just getting calluses on my hands/improving my grip. But then I decided to try Grip Power Pads, and they are exactly what I needed.

Everything I had explored up until Grip Power Pads seemed so complicated. These pads are just that - pads that you hold in your hands before you grab dumbbells. They can be used on any weights, anywhere. I have taken them with me when I travel, although using other dumbbells did prove that my hand pain issue is specific to Peloton weights (which, again, are perfect for my house setup, and weights are pricey, so they’re staying).

There are, of course, certain situations where the pads aren’t the most convenient (ie, alternating snatches, alternating dumbbell swings, alternating anything really), but 90% of the time, these are the perfect solution for my own, admittedly very specific, problem.