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My First Shirt from Karins arrived today

JDarty6173

New member
Well about 30 minutes before heading to the gym UPS arrived with my Karins Double Denim Bench Shirt... And what a coincidence, today just happened to be my ME bench day and had Reverse Band Presses Planned... Well I get to they gym a little early and try the shirt on to see how it feels.. And man this thing was stiff... I also noticed that the seams on the side of the chest looked closer together that pics I have seen of these shirts.. But hey, I've never used a shirt before so I really didn't know what to expect... This shirt was ordered so that it would take around 470 to touch...Well my crew arrives and I decide to spray the shirt down with some water before I get around to using it a few sets in, and since it felt so ungodly stiff I really soaked it on the seams and across the chest...

Well I get to my last shirtless set and hit 460 for a PR... Then I shirt up, keeping the collar high and spraying a little more water here and there... So I load up 500 on the reverse band and get under it and needless to say i didnt feel comfortable in the shirt..But oh well, I knew I would have to get used to it...

Well it felt good when I unracked it, but then all hell broke loose.
About 3 Inches down I found myself fighting to pull the bar down...But to no avail...the bar came to a complete stop MAYBE halfway down, probably about 1/3 the way actually...So my spotters went ahead and grabbed it...Then I tried the same again with the same result....

Well the pain I felt during the lift was horrible...My tris are bruised to hell and back.. I honestly don't see how it would be possible to bring any amount of weight down to my chest..And if it did I'm almost certain my arms would be severed at the shoulders or the shirt would explode...

So now I guess I'll be calling Karins Back tomorrow about some alterations...Or I might try a couple more reps with it on my DE day first...Good news is it fits well in the arms and shoulders...It just appears that the chest area is too narrow....Anyone have any words of wisdom for me on geting weight to touch, or is it definitly just too tight? Also, I was trying to bring the bar as low on my abs as I could with a wide grip with index just inside rings and elbows tucked hard and tight.. Unfortunatly I never got the bar low enought to feel the groove of the shirt....
 
im not an expect, but something that i think

You said it would take around 470 to touch. And you also said you went for a reverse band press w/ 500. so wouldnt the bands take off too much so it wouldnt touch??
 
Deciever said:
im not an expect, but something that i think

You said it would take around 470 to touch. And you also said you went for a reverse band press w/ 500. so wouldnt the bands take off too much so it wouldnt touch??

That would be my take on the situation....given that scenario I wouldnt expect the 5 to touch either. I would try it without the bands before I sent it back.
 
Yeah I thought about the bands being the problem, but I was only able to bring the bar down about 6 inches so most of the 500 was still there considering that I have very long arms...I had one of my guys measure my bar distance at lockout and at full lockout the bar is about 21 inches off my upper abs ... I was using blue bands set so that it took 135 to touch my chest... But considering it was reverse band, that is the reason I'm thinking about testing it again on DE day monday...But if I get a weight to touch it feels like I'll be cut into on either side....But then again this may just be part of the break-in process...But I will definitly be slapping some duct tape on the back of my tris next time...
 
Yeah Deceiver the long bench stroke sucks bad for benching, but should work out pretty well for deadlifting...Right now I can Pull 600 both Sumo and conventional raw...The only problem is my grip...I've trained BB style for 5 years using straps, so I really need to bring my grip up..

Hannibal, that what I was thinkin....It didn't feel like 500 would even come close to touching, but i will try it without bands before calling about alterations...And in the mean time I really see the need for some extra tricep strength...
 
JDarty6173 said:
Hannibal, that what I was thinkin....It didn't feel like 500 would even come close to touching, but i will try it without bands before calling about alterations...And in the mean time I really see the need for some extra tricep strength...

21"??! I can't imagine. I mean I am 6'2" with relatively long arms, and my stroke is about half that. Without actually seeing you bench I would think that there had to be a way to reduce that distance somehow...unless you are 7' tall.

I would definitely try the shirt again without the bands. In the meantime train the triceps...perhaps you can meet the shirt half way so to speak.
 
Hannibal, I just measured My wingspan from fingertip to fingertip with arms fully extended out to my sides and it came to about 76 inches or 6ft 4 in and I am Just slightly over 6ft tall.. the measurement of my stroke was with a medium grip not a wide competition grip...But if you'll notice Deceiver's stroke is just a couple inches under mine will probably be even greater than mine in a year or two at his age...But I have been working on decreasing my stroke distance further, so hopefully I'll be successful there...

I think on Monday after speed bench I'll just keep loading up the bar until I can find what will touch...It may be way over what I can lock out, but hey, thats what spotters are for right...And it will give me some measure of what alterations might be necessary... If I can get 525 or less to touch I'll probably just keep it as it is and use it once I have the strength for it and just purchase a second shirt, possibly a Titan Fury.. Afterall, I really don't know what all federations I might decide to compete in, so I'll probably need a good Poly at some point..
 
about my bench stroke, my grip is narrow (pinky inside the rings) so thats why my stroke is so long. Once i get used to a wider grip, the arching, tucking the shoulder blades, i should be down to around 10-12 inches... hopefully i'll have that down in a few weeks.
 
Deceiver, that sounds like my bench.. I usually go with Pinkys about 1 or 2 fingerwidths inside the rings...But I definitly will be working on getting the stroke down some...I have been benching BB elbows out style for over 5 years up until 7 weeks ago when I started training Westside.. I have almost no arch and what i consider poor form on tucking my shoulder blades.. Maybe eventually I'll attend a Westside Seminar and see if Dave himself can straighten me out some...
 
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