Locking Apple Watch SE during work-out

The Apple Watch SE is not the best watch for tracking work-outs. I wear boxing gloves, lifting gloves and cycling gloves and all interfere with the SE by hitting the side button, causing distractions as I then stop to reset my watch.

So why can't the SE be locked within a workout? Why is it so hard to have a lock applied? It's almost as if this is a design fault because in reading the online forums, many have asked the same questions.

On my other Apple Watch, the water drop is used to lock the screen (still not great). At $1400 (AUD) for the SE, I expect a lot better from Apple. Much better.