Bench press shirt technique

“What Type of shirt to get”

By Ian Smalley

There are many types of bench press shirts to use when bench pressing depending on what federation you choose to lift in and what they will allow, but primarily you can either choose a single or multi-ply shirt. These shirts can come with a closed back, a stretchy back, or an open back. The closed back shirts are so hard to get into that there not generally recommended. The same material that is stopping the weight in the front is also stopping you from getting into it in the back. The stretchy back shirts are used in federations that don’t allow open back shirts, and are easier to get into because the back of the shirt is “stretchy”. Open back shirts are the easiest because you basically just have to slide your arms in to put in on, like one of those painting smocks from kindergarten. Open back shirts can have Velcro added to the back by the manufacturer to help keep them in position during a lift.

Stretchy Back Shirt from Behind

Open Back Shirt from Behind

Once you’ve chosen your back style you need to decide what “ply” of shirt to use. Again,  this will depend on what federation you lift in. You can choose to use either a single ply or a two ply shirt for shirted bench pressing. As the name implies a single ply shirt should have only one layer of material on the chest plate and arms, the two ply will have two layers on the chest and arms. You can also have alterations made to your shirt done by the manufacturer or a tailor. Some of these include adding Velcro to the back of an open back shirt to close it up, dropping the chest plate down to create a “scoop neck”, or doubling over the chest plate and re- stitching it to create a “super neck”. All of these alterations create a performance advantage that should add up to moving more weight…if you know what your doing. One primary difference between the two types of shirts is that single ply shirts stretch out much faster and must be tailored regularly to maintain the proper fit. Multi ply shirts tend to last longer because there’s  more material to absorb the abuse.