In the days of z-suits and blast shirts, that was fine to do. Most people that still do this are getting shit all out of their gear.
With any new style of gear, you are not setting yourself up for success. Putting on the gear is not as simple as putting it on and then instantly getting poundage out of it. The first time I wore a bench shirt I droped about 315lbs on my head after i missed it at lockout - at the time my bench was 340 raw.
With something like a bench shirt - you have got to figure out what angle you want to put the sleves at, if you should have the shirt all the way seated, where you should touch, optimal set-up (yes - its different then raw lots of the time). change your grip width, learn how to flare your elbows at the right point in the lift etc.
When i first got my katana, it took me about 8 weeks/sessions to get a weight to touch my chest. If I had thrown on this shirt 4 weeks out I would have bombed out. This is a single-ply ipf legal shirt, which now even comes in a stronger model.
You dont always have to be in the gear- or full gear every week. But you have got to be working on it. What ive gathered from talking to many elite lifters is that raw training has its place in the offseason, but those 12 weeks before a contest you got to be using your gear constantly. I think something like 2 weeks in gear, 1 week out or even 1 in and 1 out could be a good system as well.
|