I’ve been thinking a while about opening a couple of threads for people to give their opinion and experience with current powerlifting equipment. It’s a topic that often comes up, and you never seem to get something comprehensive that covers more than one brand in one spot. Since to my knowledge Biotest doesn’t supply powerlifting equipment, this would be the best place I know for unbiased information.
I think it would be great to have a thread to go to if you’re a beginner, or simply shopping around for something different to what you wear currently.
The threads I’d like to open are:
Suits and Briefs (A Gear Guide)
Bench Shirts (A Gear Guide) &
Sleeves, Wraps and Everthing Else (A Gear Guide)
Of course this will be useless without a lot of participation, and it would clutter up the forum for a while. So I’d like to get a show of hands to see if its agreeable to you all.
Tried to add this before but it didn’t go through:
I don’t think it’ll work without the input of the more experienced lifters, those that coach as they encounter a greater spectrum of equipment ( I’m looking at you, apwsearch!), and some clear guidelines to evaluate equipment on, i.e. carryover, difficulty to use, break in time, comfort, durability.
I promise I’ll try to come up with some decent criteria and air them in this thread if it looks like there’s enough onboard to go through with the proposal. Naturally I’m open to suggestions, so fire away!
Synthetickiller, I’d be asking the mods to sticky it once it gets going to the point that it’s useful. I’d also be asking for some moderation to stop it degenerating into another raw vs. gear debate.
I like the idea of this thread. I’ve tried a few things myself and will be able to contribute some. W.E.C. is very knowledgeable about bench shirts - tip of the hat.
I’ll bite, but my only PL gear experiences is a rage-x and a pair of inzer briefs. I have used just about everything under the sun as far as sleeves, wraps, ab braces, belts, etc.
My suggestion is that everyone starts posting their experiences with different gear, and we (you) keep editing the first post with all the information members present. If I have time later in the day I’ll do a write up of my new Tommy Kono waist wrap and knee wraps.
Also, I think some of this stuff should be grouped. For example, APT swears their wrist wraps are all different, I haven’t noticed any difference other than length and I have 4 different pairs.
I’ve used inzer, metal, and titan gear as far as bench shirts go both poly and denim, and have experience with metal and inzer squat and deadlift gear, all of their wraps, and apt’s too. Team members have used pretty much everything from every company so I would definitely be willing to offer my advice/opinion on this stuff.
I will contribute as well. I own and have used tons of different gear as I like to try stuff out to see what I like best. I have I think around 10 bench shirts, 4 pair briefs, and 8 suits. Single and double, poly denim and canvas.
I’m new to powerlifting, so a guide to gear would be a huge help. Unfortunately I can’t walk into a store and try on squat suits until i find one i like…
Good to see that there are plenty of powerlifters out there that do have experience with a range of gear. I’d like to hear what you guys would recommend.
… So how does this work? Do we start new threads or can we ask questions now? I’m excited already…
[quote]tmcg86 wrote:
I’m new to powerlifting, so a guide to gear would be a huge help. Unfortunately I can’t walk into a store and try on squat suits until i find one i like…
Good to see that there are plenty of powerlifters out there that do have experience with a range of gear. I’d like to hear what you guys would recommend.
… So how does this work? Do we start new threads or can we ask questions now? I’m excited already…[/quote]
Hold off starting threads for a bit. Need to allow some time to figure out how to make this:
*Easy to contribute to, useful and get things close to right the first time, as well as
*Awesome
Until enough time has passed so everyone has a chance to get involved, starting threads would be a bit premature (apparently being premature is a bad thing?). Not everyone checks this place every day. Some of those selfish bastards are busy working, dealing with family, training!
Of course, questions and suggestions about how the hell to do this are great, and so long as it stays in this thread I don’t see anything wrong with it.
I’ve got a gear question re: the metal IPF squatter. I’m a dive bomb squatter in single ply, train pretty much old school progressive overload, I don’t sit back much but more of opening my groin. I get less carry over out of the titan nxg than I used to from a Z-suit or the old marathons. Guess I’m just not sitting back enough, but after almost 20 years I don’t really want to change my squat form.
How’s the rebound in the metal suits? and has anyone else who doesn’t really sit back in a squat had any experience with them?