New/Young Lifters ~ Bench Shirt 101 ~ Ted Arcidi On Shirts ~ Critical Bench On Shirts

We believe Ted Arcidi and Critical Bench are very accurate concerning the use of a bench press shirt and injuries. We do however believe that you must train more than one or two times with a shirt prior to a meet as you must get used to using the shirt. You may have to try several brands or types of shirts to find one that fits your groove or style of benching.

Brands of Shirts
There are a several brands and TYPES, experiment around until you have the shirt that works best for you. Karin, Inzer and the new favorite of many lifters Titan are the top names. All have excellent shirts. Be sure that the shirt you order is legal for the Federation you lift in and tell the order clerk you purchase from the Federation to make sure they send you the correct shirt.

You will need to purchase a bench press shirt from one of our distributors or be at a great disadvantage. These shirts will add approximately 10%-15% for a low quality shirt or perhaps as much as 20%, 30%+ to your single paused legal bench press with a good Inzer, Karin or Titan shirt after you learn how to use your shirt. Never lift in a low quality or worn out shirt with tears or runners. You may have the shirt tear out during your lift. You are lifting more than your body is trained to work with naturally which could cause you to lose control of your lift and become injured.
Karin Extreme Power Lifting Equipment
All of your lifting needs in one location. See clips of big time benchers.

What does a shirt add?
A poor shirt or one that does not fit right may add as little as 10%-15% but most lifters will get at least 20%, 25% or 30% after they learn to use a shirt correctly provided it matches their bench style and fits perfectly. If you are benching 400 raw a 15% add is a 460 bench. Not bad for just changing your lifting shirt. Some lifters depending on the equipment rules have gotten even higher percentages (45%-50%) from a bench shirt. Get all you can in building without the shirt. Some say these shirts are legal cheating. It is not cheating if you are in a equipped meet with one on!!They may not be allowed in all contest and the double ply shirts are illegal in some Federations. If these guys get 15% to 30% from equipment and 20% to 25% from drugs they have increased their advantage over a clean lifter by 40% to 60% and that is just not right.

Bench Press Shirt Information
Got a neat quote from an online powerlifter argument wpapowerlifting@yahoogroups.com concerning bench press shirts.

A Bench Press Shirt is to a Powerlifter what elevator shoes are to a short man.
(Bet that sentence got a lot of attention from the on-line forum croud).

Workout
Real strength gains are made without the shirt in the power rack, block benching and chain benches as described in Exercise and Assistance work in routine three and four. If you will do those assistance exercises along with bodybuilding until about 30 days before a contest you will find your shirted bench has gone way up also when you move to the single and tripple routines for the shirted contest. You may want to use a Powerliting routine while training for the contest, but not all year long. We asked a top shirted lifter about his routine and he said. "I will train several months prior to the contest without a shirt to build strength as you don't build strength wearing a shirt. I will then work with a shirt for about thirty to forty five days prior to the contest to become accustomed to it again. I use the tightest shirt possible in big meets only to the point I can get the weight to my chest and still be able to lock out the weight. I believe in working to the chest and avoid developing a weak spot so many shirted work out lifters develop. You also will be more muscular working to the chest without a bench press shirt." Many lifters wear a shirt constantly whether training for a contest or not. Some say you need to start wearing a shirt at least sixty days (OR MORE) before your contest but not for every set of reps. It takes time to adjust to a shirt and learn how to use one properly. Start out wearing a loose fitting shirt when you start doing sets of five repetitions, slowly work up to a contest shirt as the weight gets heavier and repetitions decrease. The contest shirt should be a double ply (experienced shirt users only) if allowed and work your way into the tighest shirt possible (injury). It will be very uncomfortable, but will get you a larger contest bench. Look at the truly clean bench presss contest (if you can find one) and the totals aren't much better than many years ago.

Getting Weight Off Your Chest
The tighter the shirt the more weight you can explode off of your chest with provided you are strong enough to handle the weight and have the lock out strength. You have to find the happy medium of shirt and strength.
Bench Press ~ Board Useage ~ Chain Useage.

Safety
When you study the history of bench shirts you will find that they were designed to help prevent injury. They provided some support like those of a biker but did not help you lift the weights. Bench Shirts provide no safety to a lifter due to the way they are used and constructed now. There are more rotator cuff and other injuries with these shirts than ever before. A super tight shirt of any type but not so tight that you cannot manage to get the bar down to your chest with your own body weight can provide some positive help physically. When you have problems getting the bar down to your chest because the weight is not heavy enough your shirt is not being used for safety or support but to assist in getting more weight up. This is why you see lifters constantly trying to get into a smaller shirt to get more leverage. This will work if you are strong enough to lock out the heavier weight but this will also cause injury. The old school lifters seldom had shoulder tears etc., some may say that they weren’t benching the amount of weight we do today, NOT TRUE! Look at how many lifters in the 60's and 70's are on the hall of fame link list below.

These shirts pull your shoulders forward, may force you out of the groove, but allow you to handle more weight than you have actually developed your body to handle. They cause extra strain across the shoulders and the extra poundage you aren't developed to handle may hurt your wrist and elbows along with your shoulders or neck according to a medical professional.

Dependent on Shirts
Shirt lifters have become dependent on the shirt getting the weight off their chest and for triceps support. It can take a long time for shirt addicted lifter to learn to bench again before they would beat anyone that has been lifting in non equipped meets. The only reason these shirted lifters would be beating anyone that does not use a shirt is the fact that most all lifters are now forced to wear a shirt in order to compete if you want to win or set records. We know one guy that is now on drugs in order not to give up poundage's to the other lifters that don't get tested or beat the test and said he is using a shirt for the same reason.

What Lifting Should Be.
Lifting is suppose to be about lifting not about who has the best equipment. A Bench Shirt if correctly used will help you get more weight up but this does not make the lifter in them for really a better lifter. The old contest were at least fair and the records were not fake. We wear a shirt as we cannot afford to spot someone in a contest as most of the Federations now allow shirts. A lighter weight class lifter recently broke a record that was 25 years old in a bench-shirt. How can he really claim this record? If a record was set in a raw contest it should not be broken in a shirted contest.Look at the farce the cheating has caused in baseball, BADE RUTH still holds the real record!

Non Shirted Raw Contest
Some lifting Federations still have non-equipped contest and completely non-drug contest. This means no bench shirt, squat suit or deadlift suit and in some cases no wrist wraps, drugs or ammonia. We notice that these raw contest tend to make the lifter pause for real when the shirted contest are not much more than a touch and go. This does not make any sense but that is the way the Federations are set up today. There are fewer and fewer raw contest. Aronld is going to have a drug tested raw bench contest with $50,000 prize money in the near future. This is a step in the right direction.

Click here..Article on overload principle and full reps vs partial reps.

SCOTT MENDELSON is the greatest non shirted bencher and recently became the best shirted bencher also.

Non Shirted Bench Press Hall Of Fame

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Statements contained herein have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat and cure or prevent disease. Always consult with your professional health care provider before changing any medication. Do not do any of our routines without having been declared physically fit to exercise by your medical professional.