red wrapping hands for boxing gloves

How to Measure your hands for Boxing Gloves

A Guide on Hand Measurements for Boxing Gloves

Comfort is one of the most important factors of wearing boxing gloves. When practicing or having a bout, it’s imperative that boxing gloves fit your hands perfectly to avoid the risk of injury. This guide will take you through measuring your hand for boxing gloves to help achieve maximum support.

red wrapping hands for boxing gloves

The Size of Boxing Gloves

Boxing gloves come in a set list of sizes that are suited to the different types of sparring and practice which provides a handy base for measuring your hand to fit the right size glove.

The typical sizes for boxing gloves are generally between 10oz and 20oz. This allows for a level of versatility depending on your weight, hand size and the type of boxing you’re doing.

  • Training/Bag Gloves – These can sometimes be lighter than sparring gloves and are a lot more versatile, providing boxers with an all-purpose glove. The smallest glove size is 8oz and goes up to 20oz for people with a heavier weight.

  • Sparring Gloves – Sparring gloves have extra padding to protect you and your opponent when you’re hitting each other. It’s important to keep this in mind when measuring your hands for gloves as you may need a bigger size to compensate for the padding.

  • Competition Gloves – Competition gloves have less padding in the knuckles so keep this in mind during your measurements. They are designed with offence in mind, leaning more into combat than protection. 

The size of the glove also has a big impact on the style of boxing you’re doing. 10oz gloves will be more suitable for light training and speedy sparring while 20oz gloves are for heavyweight boxing, your punches considerably slowed due to the padding. So, before measuring, make sure you know what type of glove you’re going for.

Measuring Your Hands For Boxing Gloves

The first thing you’ll need to measure your hands for boxing gloves is a tape measure. The idea is to wrap it around the widest part of your hand (the knuckles), leaving the thumb free and then see what the result is in inches.

man wrapping hands with white wrap for boxing sparring

If you don’t have a tape measure, you can wrap a piece of string around your hand, mark it and then measure it against a ruler!

You will have noticed that boxing gloves are weighed in ounces so the next thing you have to do is translate the inches into ounces. There’s a wide variety of size charts on the internet to help you make the correct calculations, like the one below:

If your hand is between two sizes (7 ½ inches for example), you would round down to the lower number to allow for a snug fit so that the glove isn’t too loose.

You should also remember to try on boxing gloves while wearing hand wraps. This will help you find the best size boxing glove to wear as if you try on boxing gloves that fit perfectly without hand wraps, chances are it’s going to be far too tight when you do wear hand wraps. You don’t want to restrict blood flow!

It’s also worth measuring your weight as well on a set of scales. This is a good way to figure out how much padding your gloves should have. Lightweight body size should go for more lightweight gloves and vice versa. Make sure you weigh yourself in pounds.

Boxing Gloves for Women and Kids

Measuring your hand for boxing gloves also factors in age and gender in a subtle way. While most boxing gloves are unisex, gloves for women do have a narrower fit internally so that they can have maximum comfort. For unisex gloves, you can simply just consult the standard Size Chart and find the best size for the slightly smaller width of your hand.

brown haired woman hitting boxing pads with black boxing gloves

As for kids, their hands naturally wouldn’t fit adult-sized boxing gloves. They get their own Size Chart and corresponding measurements. The best sizes for kids are often 2oz, 4oz or 6oz. Older kids such as teenagers would likely break into the 8oz gloves.

 

Kids’ boxing gloves are exactly the same as adult gloves in all but size. They are still built for versatility and supportive comfort and make sparring and training a safer and more enjoyable experience.

Benefits of Having the Right Size Boxing Gloves

Having the right size boxing glove means you have the best boxing experience possible, improving your skill and enjoyment of the sport.

blonde haired man throwing punches with white cleto reyes gloves at pads

More padding provides more protection which is perfect for competitive heavyweight bouts and sparring. Different types of padding include horsehair padding or foam padding, the latter offering more protection. Padding is also one of the biggest determining factors in size so make sure you get the right gloves for your size and the activity for maximum advantage.

The right size boxing glove also brings with it a lot of versatility so that your hands are comfortable. This involves hand wraps, less padding for training exercises and a snug fit so that the gloves don’t move around as much. This reduces the risk of injury and makes sure your hands are getting the right kind of care, whether you’re training or sparring.

 

This level of care ensures your hands are getting proper circulation, protecting you not only from injury from fights but also from more damaging health complications. Too tight and the blood flow will be cut off which can lead to health risks. Poor blood circulation affects brain function that can lead to difficulties in concentrating as well as memory loss.

It can also damage the muscles in your hand and lead to them dying so if you feel numbness or tingling in your hands, that’s a good sign that your boxing gloves are too tight.

Boxing gloves are one of the most important parts of the sport so making sure you have the right size for you is imperative. Measuring your hands is quick and easy. Keep our advice in mind and you’ll soon be on your way to selecting the perfect boxing gloves and increasing the effectiveness and enjoyment of your training and fights!

Our Best Sellers: