Look for a Bench Shirt

I am going to be in my first meet come March.  I am dropping weight, and will be about half way to my goal by the time of   the meet.  After the meet, I still plan to lose 25 pounds or more.  Therefore, I don't want to spend a lot of dough on my first bench shirt as I will likely only wear it to one or two meets.

I am considering an Inzer blast shirt – either the Standard Blast or maybe the HD Blast.

Any experience with either of these shirts? I am not expecting, for the price, to get a tremendous amount of carryover from the shirts, but I am looking for an introduction of sorts to bench shirts. Thoughts?

I’ve used the Blast and extensively used the EHPHD, and I implore you to take deep into your heart the message that you really, really, really don?t want one.

They are the medieval torture device of the bench shirt world. They are hard to get into, painful to use, and not very effective. Moreoever they have to be very tight to get anything out of, so as you lose weight, the shirt will rapidly lose utility.

If you are lifting in a single poly league, get a Rage/FuryRageX/F6. Since the Katana came out you should be able to find a fury/f6 fairly cheaply.

If you are lifting in an unlimited league get an open back double denim (Karin or Inzer): They are the least affected by bodyweight fluctuations.

Either the FageX/F6 or the Denim will be more forgiving of weight loss, easier to get into, and give you better carryover than any of the first generation Inzers.

[quote]W.E.C wrote:

They are the medieval torture device of the bench shirt world. They are hard to get into, painful to use, and not very effective. Moreoever they have to be very tight to get anything out of, so as you lose weight, the shirt will rapidly lose utility.

[/quote]

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Start digging around for an NXG+ Fury or F6. They are out there.

I look at it this way. Those shirts hold their value pretty good. You could still get a good shirt. Use it for a meet and still get a lot of money for it selling it on ebay.

I would recommend a blast shirt to anyone. it takes about 4 people to get it on hurts worse than anything and all that for a 10lb. boost. Fury or Rage or Rage x are all good. Even for a beginner.

Yeah, the Blast shirta are just one step up from those UnderArmor shirts- in single ply that is. A tight fitting EHPHD with multiple plies can be a damn good shirt. But, in terms of simple first shirts, I would go with a tight-fitting F6 or RageX.

Thanks for the advice. I think I will give Titan a look. One of the gyms I train in carries Titan so going through them I may pay a little more but at least I know I’ll get fitted well.

Thanks again, everyone.