bench shirt ?

[apollojay]

what is the deal with bench shirts and squat suits? i know powerlifters usethem but i have no idea why or waht they do. please shed some light in this for me. thanks in advance.
-jay

 

[bencher56]

your going to get many different opinions on this subject. personally i use both shirts snd squat suits. they give u better poundages and and they also give u support from some injuries.

 

[mad_dawg]

Bencher56 pretty well summed it up. They help with poundages and help give your body support. I think the latter is most important. They help keep the body together under the heavier weights allowing people to handle these weights more often with less injury. This in turn allows for the tremendous poundages being seen these days in competition.

Peace,
Mad_dawg

 

[apollojay]

how do they help? just holding everything tightly, sort of like knee wraps? i get the idea that they are just compresssion suits.
-jay

 

[Phreezer]

We use bench shirts (denim, double denim, poly, etc) to get more out of our lifts... In competition meets We must have our shoulders on the bench, and we must have our butts on the bench also we must also have our toes on the floor (some federations require that your feet be completely flat on the floor)..these are the rules, if your but, feet or shoulders ever leave the bench during a lift you are disqualified.. Now, basic knowledge tells us that when we are moving heavier weight the best way to do this succesfuly is to move it the shortest distance possible... the longer the distance the longer we have to maintain the weight, and the longer the distance the more effort it takes to move the weight..and thus increases our chances of NOT making the lift..so in this case..shorter is better...

This is where the Big arch comes into play... We try to get as big an arch as possible, Like sticking our stomachs up as high as we can.. We actualy bench off of our stomach's not our chests... And this is where shirts come into play.. We use our triceps more in our benching than we do our pecs... So when the weight is at the bottom (on our stomachs) we don't reallly have a lot of recruitment from our pecs (we still use them, just not as much) so the shirts help get the weight off of our stomachs...basicaly the shirts are so tight that they help reduce the weight a bit at the bottom....so by taking off that little bit of weight (the tighter and denser the shirt, the more weight it helps take off at the bottom) It allows us to be More explosive, and get the weight moving a little faster than we would be able to normaly (the extra momentum we get from this speed burst helps us move heavier weights... The shirt helps in the lower 1/4 movement of the lift, other than that, it's mostly just raw tricep strength...

Does this answer your question?

 

[apollojay]

yep thanks phreezer. stay strong.
-jay

 

[Jeremy88]

btw

i use a squat suit, not a bench shirt tho, but anywho, far as squat suit, you can nearly get the same affect in tight ass jeans....nothing but a rubber band affect, gives you the bounce and helps keep your form a bit keen....Adieu

 

[bencher56]

those jeans better br pretty sturdy bro, i would hate to have say 8-900 pounds on my back and my poor old levis blow out.. just kidding jeremy 88

 

[Phreezer]

those jeans better br pretty sturdy bro, i would hate to have say 8-900 pounds on my back and my poor old levis blow out.. just kidding jeremy 88

Bwhahahahahaaha!!!!