Bench press shirt technique

“Getting the shirt on and set”

By Ian Smalley

The best way to do this is to put one arm in to the point were it binds up on your forearm, then raise the arm and have your partner grab it with two hands and start working it down until you get the cuff to the elbow. Some people use gardening gloves because of the extra grip, if the shirt is very tight or new this may be more necessary than if the shirt is worn in. Where your body weight is at is also a huge factor in how the shirt fits. Many times just being full or depleted can completely change how tightly the shirt fits in different areas. Once both arms are pulled up to the elbows, pull the shirt over the head and pull the slack out of the bottom. Now… there are two main factors that will determine how the shirt performs from here when bench pressing.

…# 1 is the position of the seam on the sleeves. The farther towards your bicep this seam is, the more the shirt is going to lock up early, the more toward the elbow it is the later it will grab. This is one way to tighten the shirt, essentially twisting the sleeves, but it must be set that way from the beginning when you first put your arms into the sleeves. So putting your arms into the shirt with your palms facing up will create the arm twist when you return them to a palms down after the shirt is on.

… #2 is the position of the chest plate. The higher up toward your neck the chest plate, the later it will load, and the lower down it is the sooner it will load. Many lifters have bombed at meets by pulling their chest plate down too low on their opener and been unable to touch because the Bench Press shirt is “too jacked”.

twisted-bench-press-sleeve-set-up