A bench press shirt, being a stiff supportive shirt, is often used to improve performances in a bench press. This shirt is most often used in powerlifting competitions to enhance their 1 rep max. The shirt is primarily an artificial shoulder guard and pectoral (chest) guard for weightlifters. The shirt which acts like a compressing a powerful spring helps resist the bench press movement, thereby giving a boost off the chest and also give optimum protection to the shoulders. The extremely tight fit of a bench shirt absolutely supports weightlifter’s shoulders and deltoid muscles when lifting.

If a shirt that correctly fits your lifting technique is carefully chosen, and you learn how to use the shirt well, it’s capable of improving your bench lifts as much as 10-15% for a low-quality shirt or 30%+ for a quality one. However, it is important to carefully choose your shirt as choosing a badly fitting shirt – choosing one that does not fit your technique, or failure to learn how to use the shirt correctly could do more damage to your 1 rep max than what it was when you do your lifting without bench press shirt.

However, you wouldn’t have to worry because there are lots of bench press shirts on the market which gives you a good option to make the right choice for yourself. But make sure when you are choosing your bench press, ensure you are choosing the one that best suits your lifting technique.

​Types Of Bench Shirts

When choosing a bench press shirt to enhance lifting, it is good you know there are different types of shirts and they are mostly not serving the same purpose. Bench press shirts could be a single- or multi-ply in thickness. They are usually made of polyester, denim, or canvas. These shirts could also come in different styles and fitting type which is why it’s important you train or practice in a particular brand of the shirt before you can conclusively decide which one will fit well with your lifting technique. The brand type of the bench press shirt you wear goes a long way to determine the way you lift weights in them. The wrong brand simply translates a bad lifting in the gym.

​ Single Ply And Multiple Ply Bench Press Shirts

Bench press shirts, as earlier said, could come in different layers sew into them, and that’s what determines if they are going to be a single ply, double ply, triple-ply or more.

In a single ply bench press shirt, only one layer of polyester or denim is sewed into it, while double has two layers in critical areas; triple ply shirts has three layers of material sewed in critical areas. One thing about the amount of materials sewed into these shirts is that the thicker these shirts are, the more resistance they are able to give and thus translates to more additional power for the bencher. However, most bench press today has nothing less than double ply in order to provide more protection to the shirt in the face of extreme loads which could cause ripping off of the shirts.

“One thing about the amount of materials sewed into these shirts is that the thicker these shirts are, the more resistance they are able to give and thus translates to more additional power for the bencher”

Polyester (Poly) Shirts

This is, of course, the first design on the market and so they are the most popular type of bench press used by benchers today. Few things you should know about the Poly shirts are:

They are made with one or two layers of polyester

They provide a good resistance and power to the shirt

Usually fit tightly into the bencher that it may be extremely uncomfortable sometimes

Getting them on or removing them could be very difficult

Not recommended for beginners

Your armpits are likely to bleed with poly shirts

Denim Shirts

The denim shirts also are similar to the poly shirts, but a bit more comfortable but works in the same principle.

It is more flexible than polyesters and therefore provides more support

Denim shirts exacts a lot of pressure on benchers and are therefore not suitable for every bencher

It is more flexible than the poly bench press shirts and so do not need to be worn as tightly as the polyester shirt

Wearing and removing is much more convenient

It can support much more weight

Whichever shirt you choose to bench, one important thing you shouldn’t forget is that it’s important you practice in the shirts before deciding on which to choose because your lifting skill and convenience in those shirts will determine if you will be going with such shirt.

“Whichever shirt you choose to bench, make sure you practice in the shirts before going for such bench press shirt”