Squat Briefs

I just bought some squat briefs not so much for the added poundage they may bring but for the support. They are really tight and hard to get one which is what I expected. But when I try to bodyweight squat they are really tight on the outside of my thighs so much that I can barely squat down.

I assume these are meant to be worn when squatting heavy weights which would make the breaking in of them a little easier? I just want to make sure I have the right size before I start using them. Any tips would be appreciated. I’m not the heaviest squatter (yet) but I am trying to progress in a fashion that won’t get me hurt and I figure these would really save the wear and tear on my joints a little bit.

RAW only zealots who have never fucking used supportive gear giving advice in 3…2…1…

LOL, I have use Titan centurion briefs and Metal Pro briefs. Mine are pretty tight and I can squat down and leave a shit stain on the floor if I want to wearing the briefs. Throw a belt on and I get 80# out of them :slight_smile:

YES the briefs will save your joints. YES you CAN become dependant on them to move weights. Really this is no different than when a guy has weak hamstrings, they will “cheat” and GM the weight up. your job will include being honest with yourself. IF you wear briefs all the time, your hips and glutes can detrain. Supplemental lifts will become necessary to maintain the muscles.

Briefs being tight is a good thing to some degree. If you can get in them in just a few min you’re GTG. If it takes 10 min of a side show contortion act, then send em back for the next size up OR stretch the legs a bit with a basketball. EFS has some great videos on stretching gear for a precision fit.

What brand briefs did you get? I may be able to offer first hand experience. I can elaborate on general brief squatting if you’d like via PM or here. Let me know,

Mike

StrengthDawg, Ive heard it both ways, but what do you think about briefs for an overload for a raw lifter?

[quote]mkral55 wrote:
StrengthDawg, Ive heard it both ways, but what do you think about briefs for an overload for a raw lifter?[/quote]

In a short answer, I LOVE it.

I started my “powerlifting career” as a “gym rat” not even knowing what supportive gear was. After seeing another guy squat in an Inzer suit I was intrigued. I asked about it and he opened my eyes to the whole gear game. After my hips / low back etc felt like shit all the time I gave the brief thing a try. My numbers took off. I’m not talking about my squat in gear numbers. I’m talking in general. I could now get more reps with numbers I was used to doing raw AND I felt great afterwards. For me this was a win-win situation. This was great for both strength and sized gains. Since you can add more weight to the bar with the gear, you CAN find yourself chasing PR’s and totally becoming a gear whore, which I have also done. For me lifting raw I get a certain kind of injury, I also get gear whore injuries for lack of a better term. For me the “zen” lies in the middle. Each training methodology has it’s pros and cons. Look, I get the whole " if I can’t lift it myself, it doesn’t count. Well, guess what, I can’t run 7 min miles barefoot. Does running shoes count as cheating? No one has a problem with playing golf with the latest gear but go to the gym and everyone’s a fucking martyr for THEIR chosen style of lifting… While I’m on this, allow me a bit of a rant. NO WHERE in real life do we get the conditions we have in the gym. What I mean by that is I have NEVER been presented in my almost 41 years on this rock a situation where I’ve found myself under a steel bar that was perfectly straight, with a near perfectly balance load on each side while I was given all the time in the world to set up and think form and all that. No where in the world have I found myself laying on a 12" wide, 15" off the floor, built to competition specs bench with the perfectly straight and balanced weight bar to do a bench press. Funny story,I used to lift with a guy who could deadlift in the mid 5’s. He was a “belts are for pussies” guy and give me shit for deadlifting with a belt. Said I had a weak ass core. Well maybe I do but that’s my problem. One time this guys wife slipped on the treadmill and about knocked herself out. This fucking guy couldn’t even pick up his hundred and something pound girl off the floor! WTF… Point is it’s a controlled situation so it’s fucking hilarious when folks get all pious and retarded about lifting in gear or raw. The choice is your’s, so lift however you want that keeps you in the game the longest. For me lifting in briefs on occasion keeps me fresh and in the game. I’ll take that before I take being the “guy who used to lift” any day.

thanks for your reply Strengthdawg. I got the metal pro briefs while they were on sale at elitefts. I may have to do the basketball thing. The legs are the only thing I can’t quite fit into. The rest is real snug.

[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:

[quote]mkral55 wrote:
StrengthDawg, Ive heard it both ways, but what do you think about briefs for an overload for a raw lifter?[/quote]

In a short answer, I LOVE it.

I started my “powerlifting career” as a “gym rat” not even knowing what supportive gear was. After seeing another guy squat in an Inzer suit I was intrigued. I asked about it and he opened my eyes to the whole gear game. After my hips / low back etc felt like shit all the time I gave the brief thing a try. My numbers took off. I’m not talking about my squat in gear numbers. I’m talking in general. I could now get more reps with numbers I was used to doing raw AND I felt great afterwards. For me this was a win-win situation. This was great for both strength and sized gains. Since you can add more weight to the bar with the gear, you CAN find yourself chasing PR’s and totally becoming a gear whore, which I have also done.

For me lifting raw I get a certain kind of injury, I also get gear whore injuries for lack of a better term. For me the “zen” lies in the middle. Each training methodology has it’s pros and cons. Look, I get the whole " if I can’t lift it myself, it doesn’t count. Well, guess what, I can’t run 7 min miles barefoot. Does running shoes count as cheating? No one has a problem with playing golf with the latest gear but go to the gym and everyone’s a fucking martyr for THEIR chosen style of lifting…

While I’m on this, allow me a bit of a rant. NO WHERE in real life do we get the conditions we have in the gym. What I mean by that is I have NEVER been presented in my almost 41 years on this rock a situation where I’ve found myself under a steel bar that was perfectly straight, with a near perfectly balance load on each side while I was given all the time in the world to set up and think form and all that.

No where in the world have I found myself laying on a 12" wide, 15" off the floor, built to competition specs bench with the perfectly straight and balanced weight bar to do a bench press. Funny story,I used to lift with a guy who could deadlift in the mid 5’s. He was a “belts are for pussies” guy and give me shit for deadlifting with a belt. Said I had a weak ass core.

Well maybe I do but that’s my problem. One time this guys wife slipped on the treadmill and about knocked herself out. This fucking guy couldn’t even pick up his hundred and something pound girl off the floor! WTF… Point is it’s a controlled situation so it’s fucking hilarious when folks get all pious and retarded about lifting in gear or raw.

The choice is your’s, so lift however you want that keeps you in the game the longest. For me lifting in briefs on occasion keeps me fresh and in the game. I’ll take that before I take being the “guy who used to lift” any day.
[/quote]

Yeah that last bit is why I’m thinkin about it. I’ve always lifted/competed raw, thinking Id maybe get into gear later, but that might be backwards.

Also the only reason I pull beltless is cuz I havent figured out how to get pounds out of a belt yet haha

This is interesting…would those inzer power pants or groove briefs work for a raw lifter simply looking to avoid hip issues which I get when going even a little wider than usual. Overloading from time to time would be nice as well

Matty, I’ve talked with guys about the power pants. Some love em, some hate em. Say they are a bitch to get into and offer little support for the effort. Kind of like an Inzer blast shirt. The groove briefs are like thick under armor undies… not worth shit. Save your money. In total fairness tho, I can only speak directly on the Titan Centurion, Metal pro and Ace gear cause that’s what I own, oh and a Metal King squatter that’s my little brothers, that I’ve used once or twice.

The titan gear is super stiff and has great stopping power when worn with a belt. The “rebound” one can get is from the suit locking up. It is single ply of course so it will stretch out a bit, mine stretched about one size larger if I had to guess. The worst part of all single ply gear is it will bite the piss out of you. It will literally leave bruises at the crease of the hips and maybe around the leg openings. ( The Katana bench shirt I own is an armpit killer!!)

The Titan didn’t really change my squat groove other than wanting to pull my knees in a bit as I descended. “Knees out” right? lol. The King squatter is similar but not as supportive IMO. Titan it seems, rules the roost on single ply gear. I got the wide stance pair. The crotch gusset has stretched the most so I lost a bit of support there but not a show stopper. Squatting narrow stance with this brief feels weird as shit but they do make a narrow stance version. I aint buying two pairs to cover all the bases.

The metal pro briefs are 2 ply. very comfortable. a little bit less stopping power as the Titan briefs but these give a bit of rebound, which is great for free squatting and box squatting alike. These briefs leave very little to no bite marks on my legs / hips. If one wants to squat but not have a ton of support, just squat without a belt OR roll the briefs down out of the way and belt up.

The briefs will prevent your legs from being pushed out and will make things comfortable ( I guess to describe that would be trying a rope around both knees so that you cannot spread your knee out any further than a certain distance). You will be able to squat down to “hams on calves” if you like no problem. The best part about the pro briefs is I can squat as narrow as I like and as wide. The briefs work with any stance.

I’ve been squatting with these things for about 4 years now. They have stretched very little and still work as if they were brand new, which has been a real bargain in terms of cost / product life. One caveat to that is if you are a single ply competitor, you would be served well in getting the gear you plan to compete in. But yeah, for a lifter who’s looking to save his hips so that he’s not a broke down old man that used to squat “XXX(X)” pounds, I’d recommend the pro brief without reservation.

The ACE suit is simply amazing. Stops me dead in my tracks AND rebounds as if I had a spring on my ass. The suit is very thick. Like body armor thick. You strap up in that the straps will stop you dead and slingshot your ass upwards. But 1/2 way up it’s still “all you”. I get about 150# out of the suit back in my prime. I have been on a raw kick so I haven’t been in the suit in 2 years. I also have a new in the bag Metal jack bench shirt that I bought on sale, then had a shoulder surgery. lol I need to get in that thing.

Told y’all I was a gear whore :slight_smile: Like I said in another thread. Lifting in and out of gear is like fucking a stripper and a choir girl. Both are fun but do slightly different things to ya / for ya :slight_smile:

EDIT: I think Clint says it best here…

- YouTube

What do the briefs do to spare the hips that chains or reverse bands wouldn’t?

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:
What do the briefs do to spare the hips that chains or reverse bands wouldn’t?[/quote]

The briefs will actually compress & give support to your hips & groin region. It’s a completely different feeling. There are days that my hips & hamstrings are so locked up that I can barely get under the bar. The briefs will let you work through this. It’s hard to describe

OP,

I think you made a wise choice but Metal equipment can be a bit stiff when you’re breaking them in. The material will stretch out after use. There are many ways to stretch them out as earlier posters have alluded. They should be tight. Perhaps uncomfortably so at first. Especially seeing as though this is your first piece of gear (I think?) – if you can get them on I’d say they are good.

Another thing to consider, you can always have a seamstress re-adjust the stitching so that they are tighter – but it’s much harder to do the opposite if you don’t have enough material.

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:
What do the briefs do to spare the hips that chains or reverse bands wouldn’t?[/quote]

To expound on what Frank said, let me put it in these terms. When you do a reverse band bench the wrists still must be held tight like always even tho the weight at the chest is lighter. The briefs work like a set of wrist wraps do. You cast the wrists up and this supports the joints so you have to focus less on the wrists bending backwards and this allows you to press your ass off and maintain your training regimen while you rehab the wrists.

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:
What do the briefs do to spare the hips that chains or reverse bands wouldn’t?[/quote]

I posted a reply but it didn’t take??

Short answer…
Ever do a reverse band bench wearing wrist wraps? Same idea. The wraps keep things tight and all that. Takes some of the strain off of your beat to shit wrists so that you can worry about pressing.

This thread is making me want to try overload squatting in briefs. Would an old squat suit be good enough? I have a single ply Inzer Z suit.

[quote]grettiron wrote:
This thread is making me want to try overload squatting in briefs. Would an old squat suit be good enough? I have a single ply Inzer Z suit.[/quote]

I suppose anything is better than nothing but even a brand new Z suit was not very good back in the day and is certainly not very supportive by todays standards. Give it a shot. It may help lead you to the dark side… muaahahaaa. muaahahaahaaa… muuahahaahahaahahhaaaaaaa!!!

Thanks for the info Dawg, I was just going to hit submit for those groove briefs until I read your response!

[quote]MattyXL wrote:
Thanks for the info Dawg, I was just going to hit submit for those groove briefs until I read your response![/quote]

Glad I could help. If you do get something it HAS to have the leg material. If it does not, it will not work.

Y’all are in luck. The METAL Viking briefs are on sale for $96. Which puts them less than the Predator pants and the Titan Centurion. Would be an awesome pair.

http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=204&pid=905