Bench shirt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A bench shirt is a stiff supportive shirt, used to improve performance in the bench press, most often in powerlifting competitions. Bench shirts are usually made of polyester, denim, or canvas and come in single- or multi-ply thicknesses.[1]

Different powerlifting federations have different rules governing allowed equipment - for example, the only supportive equipment allowed by the 100% Raw Powerlifting Federation for bench press is a leather belt[2], whereas the International Powerlifting Federation stipulates that support shirts must be "of one ply stretch material"[3]. As the same lifter's performance may vary significantly depending on the presence and design of a bench shirt (for example, Scot Mendelson, whose shirted bench press record is 1070 lbs, while his unshirted best is 715lbs), records across different federations or categories may not be directly comparable.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Levin, Josh, "One Giant Lift for Mankind: The race for the 1,000-pound bench press.", Slate, 2004-08-09. Retrieved August 8th, 2007.
  2. ^ 100% Raw Powerlifting Federation Rules (PDF), p. 4. Retrieved August 8th, 2007.
  3. ^ International Powerlifting Federation Technical Rules (PDF), p. 11. Retrieved August 8th, 2007.

[edit] External links

The Powerlifting Watch federation comparison IPF proposals for Shirt removal [1]

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