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How To Keep Your Hands Warm While Gaming (Try THIS First)

Cold hands aren’t just annoying and uncomfortable while gaming, but they can also affect our performance. So, how can we keep our hands warm while gaming when it’s cold?

How To Keep Your Hands Warm While Gaming

You can keep your hands warm while gaming with the help of accessories like gaming / fingerless gloves, hand warmers, and warm clothing (socks, long sleeve shirts, etc). Hand exercises and stretches along with general exercise can also help keep your body temperature high and your hands warm.

Let’s talk about each of these in more detail below so that way you can keep your hands nice and toasty while you slay out.

Gaming Gloves

Gaming gloves are pretty much regular gloves, except they’re more breathable and generally have better grip for holding controllers, mouses, etc.

If you play with a controller, gloves are going to be a much more appealing option than if you’re playing on a mouse and keyboard.

It just feels a little weird using a mouse with gloves on. Using a controller will take a little getting used to, but is do-able.

When choosing gloves, I’d recommend picking gloves that aren’t too thick, otherwise it will be hard to connect your mind with your controller.

They need to be thick enough to keep your hands warm, but not so thick that you can’t feel what you’re doing. You also want gloves with decent palm / finger grips so you can hold onto your controller.

The ones I recommend are the Ironclad Gaming Gloves (click to see them on Amazon). Not only do they have amazing grip, they are also breathable meaning your hands won’t get all sweaty while using them.

I own a pair of these gloves, and although they did take some getting used to at first, they did help keep my hands warm when my gaming room was cold. Here is what they look like below.

Ironclad Gaming Glove
Ironclad Gaming Glove

Warm Clothes

Keeping your body warm in general will go a long way towards keeping your hands warm while you game. When I game and my room starts feeling a little cold, I throw on a long sleeve shirt.

This keeps my chest and back warm, and lets my brain focus on cooling down my hands instead of the rest of my body.

You can also throw on socks, a scarf, and even a hoodie if you also want to look deep and mysterious. Another great option is a wearable blanket like this one on Amazon.

You don’t want to overheat while you game, of course, but just dressing warm in general is a good way to keep your hands warm without directly covering them with gloves.

Sit On Your Hands (Between Games / Deaths)

If you play a game like League of Legends, CS:GO, or any other game where you get a bunch of time between deaths, you can use that time to warm your hands up.

I like to rub my hands together like I’m starting a fire or even sit on my hands (works extra well in shorts as you can transfer the heat from your thighs to your hands).

This is also great for battle royals like Fortnite and Apex Legends since you’ll probably be back in queue for a while when you die.

This gives you plenty of time to warm your hands up and prep for the next game.

You can also use this time to run some warm water on your hands (I’ll talk about this next) or to wrap a blanket around your body.

Warm Water

Before you start gaming, rinse your hands with some warm or hot water. You don’t have to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, just get them wet and warm under the faucet.

You can also re-warm your hands with water in between deaths or games. Of course, you want to dry your hands afterwards, but washing your hands with warm water will keep them warm for a game or two.

Some people will even keep a warm bucket of water next to them with a towel. Then they dunk their cold hands when needed and dry their hands off after.

But if you do choose to place a bucket of water close to you, just make sure it is not in a place where if it spills it ends up damaging your equipment.

Exercises and Stretches

Stretching and moving any part of your body will get the blood flowing to it. Your hands are no different, so you should always stretch and warm up your hands before playing.

There are many exercises and stretches out there specifically for hands that you can do. The classic is rubbing the palms / fingers of your hands together like you’re starting a fire.

Here is a great video that shows several stretches you can do with your hands:

Stretches also have the added bonus of preventing and helping carpal tunnel. Just don’t stretch too much or stretch beyond comfort because this could actually hurt your tendons.

Hand Warmer

Hand warmers are very popular with hikers, athletes, and other people that spend a lot of time outdoors. However, they’re also perfect for gamers!

Hand Warmers don’t need electricity or anything like that. You just take the hand warmer, snap it, shake it, whatever the box says to do, then hold it in your hand.

A lot of hand warmers are good for a one time use, but are sold in packages of 8 – 10. However, they do make rechargeable hand warmers that work just as well.

You can find all kinds of hand warmers on Amazon, at a good price too. Your local Walmart or Target should also have a good selection of hand warmers to choose from.

Fingerless Gaming Gloves

One thing that is annoying about traditional gloves and even gamer gloves is that many of them cover your fingers.

When your fingers are covered, it’s a bit harder to connect to your controller / mouse / keyboard / whatever.

Fingerless gloves solve this issue by keeping your palms warm while leaving your fingers open so you can handle your controller of choice. Of course, you could always cut the fingers off of regular gloves.

But it’s easier to just buy a pair of gloves with no finger sleeves. When it comes to fingerless gaming gloves, I prefer the MIBR Gaming Gloves from Ironclad (click to view on Amazon).

The quality is awesome. They are grippy and breathable; however, since the fingers are exposed I will admit that they will not keep you as warm as the closed fingered gloves would.

But if you can handle a little extra cold, then I prefer these over the covered fingered gloves because I like being able to feel my controller more. You can see me wearing them below:

Ironclad Fingerless Gaming Gloves
Ironclad Fingerless Gaming Gloves

Eat More

Believe it or not, your body actually warms itself up a little bit while you’re digesting food. So if you eat a big meal full of foods that take a while to digest, your body will warm up.

Now you have the perfect excuse to snack while gaming! If you want to eat healthy, there are plenty of foods, like unsalted nuts, that take a while to digest and aren’t full of calories, salt, and sugar.

Heater

This is the most obvious answer, but of course it won’t work for everyone. However, I’m obligated to mention it.

Playing next to a space heater is a good way to keep your whole body (including your hands) warm while you’re gaming.

If you live in a rented space, make sure that you are allowed to have space heaters. You also need to be very careful, as space heaters can be dangerous.

Stay in the room when they’re in use, do not use them while you’re sleeping, don’t plug them into power strips, and make sure the one you use has an auto-shut-off feature.

Amazon has a great selection of space heaters here, but you can just as easily get one at your local department store.

Why Is It Important To Keep Your Hands Warm While Gaming?

It’s important to keep your hands warm while you game because warm hands will move and react much faster than cold hands. When your hands are cold, it means blood is not circulating through them properly. Poor circulation will limit your reaction speed, and make it hard to move fast and accurately.

Everyone is different, but gaming with cold hands is objectively worse than gaming with warm hands. That’s just how our bodies work.

When playing competitive games, it’s important to have solid reaction times, and hot hands move faster than cold hands.

Of course, you don’t want your hands so hot that they’re sweating, but you need them to be comfortable. Folllow the tips above and your hands will be sizzling and ready for victory.



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👋 Hey There, I'm Eric!

Since 2018, I've been making streams come true.

I like gaming, streaming and watching other people stream. I created this website to help streamers, viewers, and gamers answer questions they have regarding live streaming, gaming, and PCs. I am a Twitch affiliate and currently stream on Twitch 3 days a week. I also have a Youtube channel where I make videos about streaming. I hope you find my content helpful. Feel free to stop by one of my streams to say hi.