I like to see natural bench pressing instead of using those rubber suits. It seems like the weights are staying in the low 700's. Still, the most impressive weight lifting I have ever seen is these guys clean and jerking 588 lbs.
I personally like watching raw lifting more then equipped lifting as well. Just at least keep in mind though, it's incredibly difficult to use those bench shirts those guys are wearing. I'm talking on another level of difficulty, and the only guys that know how bad it is, are the guys using them. Only the single ply suits feel like rubber. And those are only good for a few pounds. The guys like mendelson that get over 1000 pound benches are using nylon shirts. I tried one of those nylon shirts on once. It was absolutey BRUTAL. In most cases it takes like a fucking team of people just to get the damn thing on and off.
So we had just 315 on the bar, i unracked it, and my buddy (the guy whos shirt i was wearing) literally stood above me and had to push down on the bar pretty hard, just to be able to allow the shirt to give enough that the weight could even lower a bit, and still it only came like half way down. I think he said it takes around at least 500lbs before the shirt will give enough that you can even get it down to your chest or something. It seems like more though. If you watch the videos, there are dudes benching 550-600lbs and they can't even get the bar to touch their chest. They're literally having to pull the bar downwards. That's why its going to slow down to the bottom, because hitting that last inch or two on the chest isn't all that easy.
I remember the feeling of that nylon ripping into my chest, it literally felt like i was going to tear a pec or something. You have such thick stiff fabric that is being forced by the weight of hundreds of pounds acrossed your chest. Not a pleasant feeling.
Also, those shirts are very expensive and have to be custom tailored. Each shirt fits a little differently so you essentially have to learn the shirt. They are much more dangerous to use because the shirt works off of a certain groove. Since your lifting a few hundred pounds more then you normally would, if that weight slides an inch or two forward and falls out of that groove theres nothing you can do, the bar is going on your chest. My very first powerlifing meet i remember seeing a shirted lifter drop 600 plus pounds right across his fucking neck. The entire place just went silent as he layed there. They didn't let him move from the bench until evac got there. Was scary as shit actually, we thought the dude was fucked. To be honest to this day I don't know what happened to him after they rolled him out on the stretcher. In my opinion shirted lifted is by far the dangerous of all the weightlifting sports. At least with the squat rack (monolift) there are straps to catch the bar.
It takes a lot of specific time training in that shit. I could not imagine having to wear that thing for a couple hours a session.
also have to consider that the same guys who bench huge numbers in shirts, ALSO bench huge numbers raw (scott mendelson). I think they just want a new challenge or are addicted to the numbers or something). you still need the strength you would normally, but you also need the skill to be able to get the shirt to provide an advantage. most people who start in equipped lifting don't get much advantage from the gear at all. Only after a lot of experience do your numbers start to go up. You don't just throw a shirt on and start benching 200lbs more then normal.
anyways I know there aren't many powerlifters here so considering this is a thread about powerlifting I thought I'd share some info that might help keep peoples minds open. You just have to look at raw and equipped lifting sort of like two different sports. They might look the same, but in reality what goes into it is totally different.
