Powerlifting Bench Press

What is powerlifting gear you ask?

Bench Shirts

There are numorous types of gear to help a lifter perform at his best. A bench shirt is a supportive shirt used to inhance performance on the bench press. These are most often used in powerlifting competitions. There are numerous brands styles and thicknesses. Bench shirts are usually made out of polyester, canvas, or denim. The purpose of these shirts are to conform to a lifters body and support certain areas to improve stability and technique. Some powerlifting competitions have strict rules on the types of shirts that are allowed to be worn during competition. This is done to make the playing field more fair.

Squat Suits

Lifting suits are another popular garnment used for big squats. These suits are used as a safety aid by supporting muscles that may need alittle extra help contracting. They also actually enable trainese to lift heavier weights by adding that extra support to the hip joints and glutes. There are many different brands of lifting suits on the market. Try several different brands until you have found a suit that you like. Manufacturers also make these suits with the locking legs. This small, but very useful feature, will prevent the bottom of the suit from sliding up on the thigh when performing squats. When this accures the lifter is actually losing some support. They have a few classifications of these suits a loose fitting suit for every day trainning (ie more reps, less weight). The second is a tight fitting suit which is used when doing heavier lifting such as trainning for a competition. The third and final suit is a "competition" suit which would be used when lifting the heaviest weights at the lowest number of reps. This suit should be roughly one to two sizes too small for the best support. This will be compirable to using a knee wrap. When using the straps of the competition suit, its safer and will help preserve the life of the suit, to only be used when the lifter is doing one to 2 reps at the heaviest weight. The downsides of using powerlifting gear is the lifter can become used to having the support and become to confident in their own ability to lift with proper technique. This could cause severe injury to anyone using or standing near the equipment being used. A good word of advice make sure there are no rips, tears, or stretched material on your suit prior to lifting. This could result in a failure of support and critically hurt the lifter and or spectators.

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