| Powerlifting
Equipment It seems that that new generation of bench shirts are taking
over from the blast shirts that everyone was using. Titan have the Fury or the F6, both of
these are the same, excepting that the F6 is designed for people who take a good arch when
they are benching. The arms of the F6 are attached so that they are pointing straight up
when you are arched. Inzer have the Phenom, this does not seem to popular as Titan's, but
it did arrive just after the Titan, so may not have picked up a following yet.
This new generation work slightly differently to the old shirts. The old shirts were just
successively tighter and less stretchy material. The new ones have just a very non
stretchy section between the arms across the chest and the arms stiched in so they are
pointing directly forward ie at 90 degrees to the body. This should in theory make it
impossible to bring your arms back and bring the bar down to your chest; and with a
light bar this is the case. You need quite alot of weight to even get the bar down. Some
lifters have to literally pull the bar down to the chest and of course when you relax that
pull the bar starts back up on its own. Its then up to you to have the strength to do the
last half of the lift on your own. This then means that you could bench press the amount
of weight that you could do a top half partial lift. These new shirts are just a bugger to
get used to and to get on in the right place! A little out and it doesn't work, just right
and you're lifting 20 to 60kg more than you've ever lifted.
Just to complicate the matter Titan have just brought out a new shirt called the Katana,
which I believe is only just in the country and hasn't been used at a British competition
yet. (July 2006)
Most lifters use the same lifting suit for both the squat and the deadlift. Titan's NXG
material is about the most advanced. You can have one tailor made by Titan to your
dimensions at just a little over their standard price. This will still be lower than you
could buy a standard sized suit from any UK retailer (ie Pullum Sports or BP Sports). It's
worth thinking about a tailored suit as most peolpe are likely to a different shape to
that of the standard suit shape.
Erector shirts are rarely used in my experience and not worth looking at to begin
with.
The other great improver of squat totals is knee wraps, if you are not using them (not
allowed in unequipped competitions) then they will you as much as a squat suit. the best
ones seem to be the Inzer double red stripe, but a lot of people swear by all makes. If
for example you are ordering a lot of stuff from Titan then go with their wraps as
well.
For your info Titan's site: http://www.titansupport.com,
Inzer's site: http://www.inzernet.com/
Remember if you are ordering stuff from the US:
1. Prices in the UK are roughly the same in UK pounds as they are in US dollars, i.e. 100
USD or 100 UKP. This gives you an idea of the savings that you can make, but obviously
there is extra shipping costs and time.
2. There is likely to be a customs charge when it arrives.
3. It's best to order by phone and chat to someone there first. It's worth the price of
the phone call to make sure you've got it right.
4. Make sure that everything is IPF legal (anything that passes the IPF is also suitable
for BWLA). There are lots of Powerlifting federations around especially in the US that use
equipment that gives far more help than anything that would get into a BWLA
competition. |
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