Beginner Shirt?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

Hi everyone,

I’ve had a look through the Bench Shirt Sticky, but wanted to check a couple of things first.

I am at the stage now where I can comfortably bench 400+, close grip style. Recently I earned myself a partial pectoral tear doing going for a PR from pins set at my chest, so I am currently waiting for that to heal. NO bruising, but a little dip in the muscle and a pinching sensation when I press.

I have never used any gear before, but having looked through a load of thread on the topic, it seems that a Titan F6 is a popular choice for beginners to shirts.

Further, would using a shirt take some strain off my torn pectoral to allow for quicker healing before I start benching raw again?

I have heard that (assuming you are doing it right) an F6 can get you 100lbs or more on your bench, but I suppose that depends on lots of things.

Finally, as far as sizing goes, does this chart seem accurate?

http://www.pullum-sports.co.uk/clothing-and-shoes/powerlifting/bench-press/titan-f6-bench-shirt-nxg-/prod_95.html

I have a 48-49" chest whilst relaxed and deflated, arms by sides. My weight falls between 225-230lbs at the moment.

Thanks for any advice!

2

Go With the F6 or a metal shirt, Im not too sure that inzer is a good beginner shirt, but I am most likely wrong, check out efts.com and Liftinglarge.com too. If you get the F6, go with the 48. F6 is great, very easy to learn!

And the shirt will help the pec, although Id still be a little cautious and play it by feel

3

A couple things—

First, I’m getting used to my first shirt right now. It’s an old denim shirt my partner used to bench 600 in a while ago. Here are some things I’m learning–1) open backed shirts are easier to get into than closed back shirts…by a fuck-ton.

  1. You need an experienced spotter, shirt benching is 100% different than raw benching both in technique requirements and potential consequences. I very nearly killed myself with only 450 lbs. Only my alert spotter stopped it. because a) he was paying attention and b) he knew exactly what to look for in shirt behavior to recognize the dump and catch it early.

  2. get a loose shirt if it’s simply for training purposes and not competition. Talk to the titan/metal/inzer people directly by phone and tell them why you want to get the shirt, that it’s your first time with a bench shirt, whether or not you’ll be trying to put it on yourself etc.

4

Can’t go wrong with an F6 tbh… it was my first shirt and a great one to learn in. Chest size, or one size up if you want it loose (and assuming you’ve people to train with that your trust).

5

And here Dave, what the fcuk have you been doing with yourself to get that big and still stay so light???

6

Thanks guys

The only other thing is that I often won’t have anyone to help me get it on… would it be advisable to go a bit looser in this case? Such as a 50"?

Cheers Hanley. Recently (the last 6months or so) I’ve only been eating when my body tells me to. My waist has gone down a bit as such from 37/38 to 34/35, helping to create an illusion of bigness I guess! My weight dropped fairly quickly, and has settled around where I am now.

I’ve also been working a little more on refining things. More work on my rear/medial delts, teres and whatnot have brought about a better shape than my 240-250 “lump” days, lol.

Just trying to keep my weight roughly the same whilst gaining strength, cos I’m thinking of doing a sub 105k strongman comp next year.

All the best mate, thanks for the advice

7

unless you have face savers or saftey straps i would advise against benching alone in a shirt. youre going to dump. its a fact. and its hard as hell to unrack the weight yourself much less set the shirt by yourself. and i wouldnt settle for a random spotter unless its absolutely necessary. they wont know what to look for. aragorn was right about that. the key to look for is a good deadlifter so they can stiff leg the bar away from your face haha. i know that sounds bad but its true.

8

I would agree with the spotters thing. I can’t tell you how many times I’d have had my teeth knocked out if I didn’t have a (or three) very competent spotters around me while I was learning how to use the shirt.

It’s also going to be impossible to get in a proper fitting shirt alone, and near impossible for a looser fitting shirt. Also, a looser fitting shirt just doesn’t work the way you want it.

If you’re going to have a competent training partner/spotter sometimes, I’d just get a properly fitted shirt and use it only when he’s around. Otherwise you’re just asking for trouble.

9

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

It’s also going to be impossible to get in a proper fitting shirt alone[/quote]

Tell that to Mike Tuscherer

10

[quote]Hanley wrote:

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

It’s also going to be impossible to get in a proper fitting shirt alone[/quote]

Tell that to Mike Tuscherer[/quote]

Holy fuck-balls. I just watched his ‘solo shirt series’ on youtube.

I stand corrected. hahaha

11

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

[quote]Hanley wrote:

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

It’s also going to be impossible to get in a proper fitting shirt alone[/quote]

Tell that to Mike Tuscherer[/quote]

Holy fuck-balls. I just watched his ‘solo shirt series’ on youtube.

I stand corrected. hahaha[/quote]

Haha it’s pretty epic eh?

12

[quote]Hanley wrote:

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

[quote]Hanley wrote:

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

It’s also going to be impossible to get in a proper fitting shirt alone[/quote]

Tell that to Mike Tuscherer[/quote]

Holy fuck-balls. I just watched his ‘solo shirt series’ on youtube.

I stand corrected. hahaha[/quote]

Haha it’s pretty epic eh?
[/quote]

Epic doesnt even come close to desribing how amazing mike is. I cant belive Dave Tate said on “from the mill” that Mike Tuscherer has zero potential.

13

[quote]brauny96 wrote:

Epic doesnt even come close to desribing how amazing mike is. I cant belive Dave Tate said on “from the mill” that Mike Tuscherer has zero potential.[/quote]

When did he say that??? Link???

14

Mike STUCHINER.

third video.
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/mill2.htm

15

Mike Stuchiner is PAPER. A totally different person. Look him up on wendler vision. He lifts out of florida i think. previously with bob youngs i believe. theres a vieo out there also called “paper pulls for elite.” that is mike stuchiner.

16

[quote]pvoosen wrote:
Mike STUCHINER.

third video.
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/mill2.htm[/quote]

ooops, my bad, I though he said mike tusherer.

17

The F6 is a good shirt. For the right bencher, there are a lot of good shirts out there. By the “right bencher”, I mean a guy under 5’10" with average to short arms and arm thickness proportionate to chest size. For the rest us, getting a good shirt is a proces of trial and error. My only beef with the single-ply F6 (or almost any single ply shirt for that matter) is that they stretch out very quickly.

I don’t believe the myth of getting too much shirt for a lifter new to shirted benching. I have seen a lot of novices to shirted benching. Put them in a 2 or 3 ply shirt and teach them to work the weight down, they seem to learn to touch. For a bencher with a 400+ bench, I wouldn’t bat an eye at putting you in top-line shirt like a super phenom, double katana or a double rage X. You are strong enough. If you plan on competing in a fed that allows these shirts, buy one now and learn to use it.

As for the pec tear, I have had two of these and they are really pretty easy to heal from. When I have come back to benchign after a pec tear (after taking two or three weeks off), I did 3-board presses in a shirt. Below 3 boards, it seems like my chest started getting a little into the movement. Shirt work will allow you to keep training heavy weights if your pec is still a little sore. But ultimately, it will not necessarily rehab you for raw benching. For that, you’ll still need to get your raw movement back. Things like high-rep low-weight dumbbell presses, light band presses, and flies will help with that.

18

[quote]Pinto wrote:
The F6 is a good shirt. For the right bencher, there are a lot of good shirts out there. By the “right bencher”, I mean a guy under 5’10" with average to short arms and arm thickness proportionate to chest size. For the rest us, getting a good shirt is a proces of trial and error. My only beef with the single-ply F6 (or almost any single ply shirt for that matter) is that they stretch out very quickly.

I don’t believe the myth of getting too much shirt for a lifter new to shirted benching. I have seen a lot of novices to shirted benching. Put them in a 2 or 3 ply shirt and teach them to work the weight down, they seem to learn to touch. For a bencher with a 400+ bench, I wouldn’t bat an eye at putting you in top-line shirt like a super phenom, double katana or a double rage X. You are strong enough. If you plan on competing in a fed that allows these shirts, buy one now and learn to use it.

As for the pec tear, I have had two of these and they are really pretty easy to heal from. When I have come back to benchign after a pec tear (after taking two or three weeks off), I did 3-board presses in a shirt. Below 3 boards, it seems like my chest started getting a little into the movement. Shirt work will allow you to keep training heavy weights if your pec is still a little sore. But ultimately, it will not necessarily rehab you for raw benching. For that, you’ll still need to get your raw movement back. Things like high-rep low-weight dumbbell presses, light band presses, and flies will help with that.[/quote]

Brilliant information, thanks Pinto.

My chest feels a lot better now, it’s been about 2 weeks and I can bench without pain now. It still feels a little odd, but that may just be psychological.

I’m going to keep looking at different shirts, I’m not in a rush at the moment as I still need to find a reliable lifting partner to help me on with it and spot me (I have plently of un-reliable ones already).

So far the take home message seems to be;

look into multiply shirts
ensure you have someone to help with getting the shirt on, and spotting

Is there anything else crucial that I’m missing?

Cheers guys

19

Few more thoughts on shirted benching.

Training a shirted bench is much different thatn training a raw bench. There are many schools of thought on how to go about this, but most good shirted bench programs will include a fair amount of board pressing. If you want some specific ideas on how to set up shirt program, just let me know. For a newcomer to shirt work, I would recommend doing most of your bench workouts in a shirt until you get compfortable with the groove.

Plus, your progress is going to heavily depend on tricep stength and handling weights far in excess of what you have been benching raw. Shirt work, but it’s very nature, trains tricep strength and handling unnatural amounts of weight.

Learn to set up on the bench perfect every time. A good set-up is a make-or-break in a shirt.

For a lifter at your strength level. I would strongely recommend having more than one spotter. In a good shirt, I could see you getting into the 600lb+ range of work weights (especially on boards). It is hard to properly handoff a 600lb+ bar to someone by yourself. It is even harder to spot a heavy weight like that if the lifter dumps the bar forward or loses it over his face. Also, the average yob around a gym don’t know how to spot a big weight.

Because of the safety issue and because you will learn quicker if you bench with other lifters that know how to use a shirt, I would storngly recommend trying to find a good crew to bench with. This can be tough if there is no one in your area that does this kind of stuff. If that’s the case, I recommend making a road trip once or twice a month to train with a crew like that.