We Need more supporters for weightlifting like Ed Coan :rolleyes:

[ghettostudmuffin]

I personally don't care whether someone does everything raw or uses all the latest gear he can to help get the weight up. I'm not interested in seeing equipped lifters taking their gear off to compete with raw lifters.

The only thing I use are wrist wraps for benching and a belt on max squat and deadlift attempts. That's it.

Like I said. I have nothing against equipment use in powerlifting, but majutsu has a point I think.

This is how I see it. Remember Kaz? I think he benched 660 or 666 in a t-shirt and wrestling singlet. No way you can tell me a guy in a double ply shirt benching the exact same weight is as strong as he is. He had to be as big and powerfully built as he was to push that kinda weight unaided.

I just can't see myself using anything more than a belt for spinal safety on limit attempts and wrist wraps to keep my wrists stable when benching. I don't like the idea of equipment helping me lift a weight. I want to know that it's only "my" muscles, nervous system and will lifting the weight.

Again, I have nothing against equipment, but I personally don't see myself using it. So don't go flaming me.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

I know that the shirts do provide some safety for the shoulder joints, but I believe that nowadays they are more about "helping" the lifter lift more weight than they normally could rather than protecting their joints. I mean honestly.

Getting 100-250lbs assistance from a shirt seems like "ALOT" of help to me.

Not knocking it. Just being realistic.

 

[wnt2bBeast]

Getting 100-250lbs assistance from a shirt seems like "ALOT" of help to me.

.

your absolutely right...
keep 2 things in mind for anyone else reading this thread..

1. you do not buy a shirt and automtaically bench 1-200+ more..you still need to work and train WITH a shirt..

2. there are federations that allow single or double ply and there are raw meets as well..there is a meet for everyone...

im not picking on you ghetto..all im saying is the crticism from even the pros is just bullshit..lift in your federation that conforms to your philosophy..

im pretty sure Andy Fiedler would do damage at a raw meet..yet chooses to lift double ply..he has a sick sick raw bench

 

[jcp2]

The bench shirt surpassed safety and ventured into the land of make beleive years ago, i don't even want to here the argument of safety when it comes to todays bench shirts. Now that being said, it is part of the game, if you want to compete in the big feds, you pretty much have to come equipped. You can sit here and give the same speech I always here about how much work it takes blah blah blah. What it comes down to is "when in Rome........". Lift the way you like, as it does not pay the bills.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

I agree.

If and when I do do some powerlifting in the future it would be belt only or totally raw lifting.

 

[Tiervexx]

using a bench shirt is like using a belt, only amplified. its for safety and yes, it helps.

I don't think that equipment should be totally removed, but you are making a fool of yourself if you want to pass it off as no big deal.

NOBODY has proven that they are strong enough to benchpress 1000 or even 800 lbs.

Kaz is still the best all around lifter ever. Yes, his records have been broken on paper but nobody has proven to be stronger, and isn't powerlifting supposed to be about pure strength?



This really is not meant as an attack, but I can't for the life of me understand why someone would want to use anything that helped them AT ALL. I know that if I do something I lose ALL feeling of accomplishment if I fear I may have been helped even slightly.


I tip my hat to gene, I really do, but if he is going to go around claiming to be the best ever he still needs to prove that.

 

[blut wump]

I tip my hat to gene, I really do, but if he is going to go around claiming to be the best ever he still needs to prove that.

That's not really an option for him anymore unless he want to rededicate himself to raw training. If he's spent a lot of time training with a shirt then his body will expect that shirt to be there beyond a certain weight. He will have trained his muscles with that expectation.

I can't see any good reason why the recognized world's number one in his discipline should jump off his pedestal to do a different type of lifting to become just a contender in another style before he feels the challenge to do that. He might equally tell everyone else just to get themselves a shirt and join the properly-equiped lifters. It's a pointless argument either way.

 

[Tiervexx]

That's not really an option for him anymore unless he want to rededicate himself to raw training. If he's spent a lot of time training with a shirt then his body will expect that shirt to be there beyond a certain weight. He will have trained his muscles with that expectation.

I can't see any good reason why the recognized world's number one in his discipline should jump off his pedestal to do a different type of lifting to become just a contender in another style before he feels the challenge to do that. He might equally tell everyone else just to get themselves a shirt and join the properly-equiped lifters. It's a pointless argument either way.

There is no possible way that you could seriously believe that "properly-equiped" can ever be put on the same level as RAW.

 

[blut wump]

There is no possible way that you could seriously believe that "properly-equiped" can ever be put on the same level as RAW.

We are in complete agreement. They are different events and to tell Gene R. to put away his shirt is as ludicrous as telling the raw lifters just to put a shirt on.

 

[jcp2]

There is no possible way that you could seriously believe that "properly-equiped" can ever be put on the same level as RAW.

Why isn't it on the same level. It is definately different. They are just completely different lifts.