Athletes often attempt to maximize the benefit of various physical activities by using equipment specially designed to increase speed and efficiency of muscle and aerobic workout.
Swimmers may wear gloves during exercise which have webs formed between adjacent fingers. Webs increase resistance to water, thus increasing aerobic efficiency and speed of the swimmer. It has been appreciated that in order to maximize speed during swimming, it is necessary to minimize weight, maximize buoyancy and maximize the proportion of the swimmer's body in air to the proportion of the swimmer's body in water. It is desired to maximize the proportion of the swimmer's body in air to water because air is a less dense medium than water, allowing less resistance to movement in the less dense medium. Thus, greater swimming speed is achieved by the swimmer where buoyancy is maximized. In the process of achieving greater speed and buoyancy, the swimmer using a webbed glove encounters greater resistance in the portion of the water in which his body is still immersed. Therefore, the swimmer achieves greater swimming speed and greater exercise efficiency through his increased muscle exertion.
Unlike swimmers, joggers may choose to carry an object, such as a weight, while running. U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,706 to Guthrie et al. relates to a jogging glove for carrying two weights: a first weight disposed on the palm side of the hand and a second weight disposed on the back side of the hand. The total weight carried by the glove may be varied by changing only the palm weight. In theory, the weight on the back of the hand is permanently bound into the glove to avoid misshaping and bulging of the metacarpal area on the back hand of the glove and to avoid interference with normal movement of the user's wrist.
In practice, the prior art leaves weights to shift in arbitrary manners and so can cause discomfort and irritation to the metacarpal bones and tendons of the back of the hand. Also, permanent backhand weights limit the function of prior art as weights cannot be significantly varied to accommodate different levels of fitness and arm motions in various sports.