I know you need to have some bend in your elbow and yes - your core should take most of the weight. I also had a pair of Specialized gloves with the lil gel thingy in the palm by the thumb and I lost all the feelings in both hands in that area and had tenderness there for days. I bought a different brand of gloves (Trek) and that seems to have helped greatly! I always think:

scrape gum off shoe (read thread about cadence) and
light hands, strong core

when I'm riding the road bike.

Now if I can just figure out why the PI attack shorts have messed me up fairly bad!