I’ve posted early about my interest in competing in powerlifting. What I want to know now is what do you all recommend as entry level gear. Something that I can use without an extensive knowledge of how to work with and wear it.
Also, do the poundages you lift need to be considered when choosing a shirt or a suit. I can bench 390, squat 602(fractional plates for this one) and deadlift 620. Do i need to take these into consideration for what gear I need. For instance I know a good shirt to start with is a standard blast shirt from Inzer, but would an EHPHD shirt be better for the poundage i can lift?
The biggest factor in selecting gear is to first decide is you want to compete. If so, you then need to find a federation that suits your needs/schedule/whatever and get the best gear you can afford for your federation.
I’m lifting in a IPA meet in April and so I bought METAL doubleply gear. This is the best I could afford that maximizes the gear rules.
Should you choose as USPL fed, you’ll have to run with singleply. It really comes down to federation.
It should be noted that finding a good training partner with knowledge about what you want to do is CRITICAL. A tripleply denim is useless if you can’t master the shirt.
My course of action would be to first get a pair of METAL briefs for squatting, regardless of competition. Some might argue that they’re expensive compared to Inzer power pants. The difference is unreal. It’s worth every penny. As for a shirt; doubleply, open back with a cut nect Inzer denim. Find someone with experience in this shirt and prepare to hit some serious PRs.
If you squat with a wide stance and you decide to lift in a fed that doesn’t allow canvas I would recommend a Titan Centurion, you can also use this to deadlift in if you pull sumo. You may want to order a suit that is a size or two larger than what you would need in competition so you can acclimate to the groove.
As far as bench shirts go, I wouldn’t recommend anything from Inzer, especially not those stiff-backed hd, hphd and ehphd shirts. In my experience those shirts are crap 1) they’re more expensive than the Titan Fury or F6 2) even though they claim to be the strongest material available evrything I’ve ever bought from Inzer stretches out after three or four sessions (and then you have to be a new one which as I stated before top of the line Inzer gear is double the price of Titan gear) 3) the ehphd’s have to be very tight to give you any carryover and they have stiff, closed backs which make it very hard to get on, wear and learn the groove in when the shirt is tight already, the fury has a soft back…easy to get on and off, MUCH more comfortable 4) Inzer’s service sucks! I have had to cancel numerous orders from inzernet.com and friends have had to cancel Inzer orders from other retailers because they forgot about the order or lost it, etc, etc,.
Honestly Titan’s service sucks too, if you order directly from them, but they have a few distributors that have great service. If you decide to go with a fury you need to talk to them about your arch, if you don’t arch get the regular fury, if you have a BIG arch get the F6. And get a bigger size than competition fit to learn in, just like the squat suit. If you decide to go with Titan Gear call Ken Anderson at 469-767-3132 he got all my gear to me in 2 days and it fit perfectly.
the only reason i mentioned inzer is because i live in the same town as the company and have started to get in contact with them etc since they were local but im going to look into all the things yall recommended thanks anymore things yall can tell me would be great i appreciate the help
Just GO Metal from EFS, since they have the best customer service/support. Because they use the gear they can talk to you about it and what you can do to make alterations if needed. It is worth the price.
I just started using Titan gear, and am more than happy with the Fury and Centurion I got. I actually have two of each (one ‘comp’tight fit, the other ‘meet’ tight fit). I have talked to quite a few people who have used both Titan and Metal single ply stuff. From what I have heard regarding single ply, is Titan is better from the get-go. metal stuff needs to be tailored for most. However, for 2-ply everyone who I have talked to that uses Metal is freakin’ blown away. I see on a lot of discussion boards a lot of 2-ply lifters like the Inzer stuff. I don’t have experience with either Metal or Inzer, just the Titan stuff. I love the Titan stuff I am using, but if I make the jump to two-ply there is a very good chance I will go with Metal.
[quote]chtdrmn wrote:
the only reason i mentioned inzer is because i live in the same town as the company and have started to get in contact with them etc since they were local but im going to look into all the things yall recommended thanks anymore things yall can tell me would be great I appreciate the help[/quote]
Stick with the Inzer stuff if you want to. Truth is, every company makes good stuff. Inzer does have the widest variety. I can’t help you much with squat and deadlift, I personally have never used equipment for these lifts.
For bench, I would personally skip the blast shirts. They are very uncomfortable, hard to get on, and don’t help much. In my opinion, the lesser shirts are not worth anything, and the EHPHD is too expensive for what help it gives you.
For the bench shirt, go with a single ply Rage. Just get the basic Rage, not the Rage X. Rage X is a lot more shirt. Its relatively inexpensive, gives you good support, and its not too hard to learn to use. It has the stretchy back, so its much easier to get on as well.
All I can say for suits is that my training partners really like the Inzer Z-suit and the hardcore, they each use a single suit for squat and deads.
Some good advice–Stick to single ply gear for now. For a beginner, its easier to learn, and its legal basically everywhere.