Help Deciding on Bench Shirt

OK so I was under the impression that my meet would have a raw division, but was just informed they don’t (despite being on the entry form!). So I need help in deciding two things:

  1. What Bench shirt to get

  2. What briefs or possibly deadlift suit to get

The UPA allows up to 2 ply bench shirts to be worn and unlimited on the briefs. The catch is, I’ll have 2 weeks to learn them. For this reason I’m thinking a 1 ply bench shirt, plus I plan on competing in federations that only allow single ply.

I know the deadlifting suits won�??t add too much weight to my lift, and money is tight, so that’s why I’m asking about the briefs.

Thanks for your help all!

Oh btw I’m doing a push/pull meet.

I’m thinking of either the Inzer Blast Shirts or the closed back Phenom as I’m a high groove bencher. I read on criticalbench.com that these shirts are good for high grooves.

Any thoughts?

Lift raw anyway. 2 Weeks in not enough time to learn equipment.

Yeh, lift raw.

The blast shirt is shit and uncomfortable by all accounts tho I haven’t used one.

The single ply phenomn is pretty crap too. I wore one that took about 20 mins to get into and only got about 20kg out of it.

If you do get a good shirt it’ll either be too loose to give decent carryover, or you’ll end up bombing.

Why are you looking at briefs and not a full squat suit? (tho my thoughts from the above would apply here too)

Oooohyeah,I second what Pemdas is saying. You could get hurt by not knowing your gear, due to you having to learn the groove of how it bends.

[quote]Hanley wrote:
Yeh, lift raw.

The blast shirt is shit and uncomfortable by all accounts tho I haven’t used one.

The single ply phenomn is pretty crap too. I wore one that took about 20 mins to get into and only got about 20kg out of it.

If you do get a good shirt it’ll either be too loose to give decent carryover, or you’ll end up bombing.

Why are you looking at briefs and not a full squat suit? (tho my thoughts from the above would apply here too)[/quote]

Only doing push pull so not much reason to get a squat suit yet.

lol I guess I’ll go to a gun fit with a knife, aka lift raw.

[quote]CrewPierce wrote:
Hanley wrote:
Yeh, lift raw.

The blast shirt is shit and uncomfortable by all accounts tho I haven’t used one.

The single ply phenomn is pretty crap too. I wore one that took about 20 mins to get into and only got about 20kg out of it.

If you do get a good shirt it’ll either be too loose to give decent carryover, or you’ll end up bombing.

Why are you looking at briefs and not a full squat suit? (tho my thoughts from the above would apply here too)

Only doing push pull so not much reason to get a squat suit yet.

lol I guess I’ll go to a gun fit with a knife, aka lift raw.[/quote]

Ohhh missed that. I just assumed since you were talking about briefs you were squatting!!

I hear what you’re saying!! My first equipment meet I squatted in knee wraps, bench in an f6 I had 4 or 5 weeks in and pulled raw.

Haha well looks like I’ll be even less…well equipped, for the comp than you were Hanely!

The stupid event form has a raw group but the event director said they don’t keep records of the raw lifts.

Oh well there are no records for my weight and age group anyway so I still win! haha

You might as well get some single or double ply briefs now. It doesn’t take any time at all to learn them. If you’re planning on lifting in a fed that only allows legless briefs, get a pair of those, otherwise get some legged briefs.

[quote]johnnytang24 wrote:
You might as well get some single or double ply briefs now. It doesn’t take any time at all to learn them. If you’re planning on lifting in a fed that only allows legless briefs, get a pair of those, otherwise get some legged briefs.

[/quote]

It’s only a push/pull… Getting that much support for the deadlift probably isn’t a good idea.

Actually crewpierce, do you pull conventional or sumo?

[quote]Hanley wrote:
johnnytang24 wrote:
You might as well get some single or double ply briefs now. It doesn’t take any time at all to learn them. If you’re planning on lifting in a fed that only allows legless briefs, get a pair of those, otherwise get some legged briefs.

It’s only a push/pull… Getting that much support for the deadlift probably isn’t a good idea.

Actually crewpierce, do you pull conventional or sumo?[/quote]

I pull conventional

Hey Crew,

I have had good experience with Metal gear. I will go out on a limb and say the metal ace briefs are bar none the best on the market.

I use them to pull in as well, they offer some good support on my hips.

I have no clue on a shirt. I would advise starting off with a single ply however, maybe the IPF metal shirt, or the Titan’s seem to be very strong from what I have read.

Good luck, keep us posted.

Monopoly

[quote]Monopoly19 wrote:
Hey Crew,

I have had good experience with Metal gear. I will go out on a limb and say the metal ace briefs are bar none the best on the market.

I use them to pull in as well, they offer some good support on my hips.

I have no clue on a shirt. I would advise starting off with a single ply however, maybe the IPF metal shirt, or the Titan’s seem to be very strong from what I have read.

Good luck, keep us posted.

Monopoly[/quote]

Thanks Monopoly! Once I have more time to get used to the equipment I really want the Metal IPF line. Thanks again for the support and advice!

[quote]Pemdas wrote:
Lift raw anyway. 2 Weeks in not enough time to learn equipment. [/quote]

I agree, but worth getting a shirt anyway.

Two weeks is too soon. Anything that is remotely worth a damn takes more than a few sessions to get familiar with. Even a starter shirt like a stock single-ply F6 or a RageX will take several sessions to get the hang of them. Two weeks out is not time to change your gear plan.

Going forward, especially with cost as an issue, I would recommend a rageX, F6 or katana. These all sell new in 120-150 range. As single-ply shirts they will stretch out a lot. However, you can send them back to Inzer or Titan and have them taken in and they will be as good as new.

As a conventional puller, you won’t get much out of briefs or most suits. An Inzer Champion makes for a decent cheapo DL suit (about 40 bucks). It won’t give you a lot, but it will give you as much as some pricier DL suits. The only DL suits that are really worth much to a conventional puller are the Metal suits. One of these will set you back about 150-200, but they really bmack a big difference once you get the hang of pulling in them.

I’ve never seen single ply briefs. Where can you find some and are they IPF legal?

[quote]daraz wrote:
I’ve never seen single ply briefs. Where can you find some and are they IPF legal?[/quote]

inzer, metal, titan web sites. not hard to find at all. briefs are not ipf legal. so they can only be used in training if you’re competing in an ipf affiliate

The only metal briefs I see are all 2-ply…

And I can’t find any on the titan website, but I see some on the inzer website.

http://www.inzernet.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=GROOVE

These? Only 20$?

[quote]daraz wrote:
And I can’t find any on the titan website, but I see some on the inzer website.

http://www.inzernet.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=GROOVE

These? Only 20$?[/quote]

Those Inzer groove briefs pretty much suck. If you want single ply briefs, go with the Titan single ply briefs. On Tian gear, your best bet is probabaly to order form one of their distributors. Liftinglarge.com (I forgot lifter who runs this one) and Pricilla Ribic (plgearonline.com) both carry Titan and they ship much faster that Titan does.