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. 

 

back to East Midlands powerlifting

 

 

 

 

Hit Counter