Supplmental equipment for a powerlifting meet

[caveman]

I'm considering entering a powerlifting competition in October. It's an APA event and I'll be competing in the raw division, which does allow for 2.5m or 3m knee wraps. I'd like to come up with a list of all the stuff that would be helpful in maximizing my performance.

Here's what I already have:
3" Best Belt's powerlifting belt
Nike Romaleo I powerlifting shoes
Rehband knee sleeves

Here's what I think I need:
wrist wraps
knee wraps
deadlift slippers
singlet

Anything else? Elite FTS is having a sale and I'm planning to stock up now.

[Tom Campitelli]

Of the supplemental equipment you mentioned, I only have a singlet. None of that stuff is particularly important, especially if this is your first meet. If you really want to stand out at the APA contest, squat below parallel.

[caveman]

Ha! What footwear do you deadlift in? I go barefoot in my garage, but I've read that's a no-no at a meet. I am pretty sure that I can't pull as much when wearing my Romaleos.

[Tom Campitelli]

I pull in my Do-Wins. I've never missed a deadlift because of my shoes. I have, however, missed deadlifts because I wasn't strong enough. This is an area where personal preference comes into play. I feel like the support provided by the shoes outweighs the potential negative of pulling with a small lift under the feet.

[johnnys]

I'm considering entering a powerlifting competition in October. It's an APA event and I'll be competing in the raw division, which does allow for 2.5m or 3m knee wraps. I'd like to come up with a list of all the stuff that would be helpful in maximizing my performance.

Here's what I already have:
3" Best Belt's powerlifting belt
Nike Romaleo I powerlifting shoes
Rehband knee sleeves

Anything else? Elite FTS is having a sale and I'm planning to stock up now.

For what it's worth, a 4" belt for squatting feels like you're getting noticeably more support. I switched from a 4" to 3" Best because of a hip/glute issue for a year or so. I tried the 4" again in prepping for my first meet and stuck with it, still using the 3" for deads and sometimes benching.

[caveman]

I was wondering about the difference in belt width. I was also wondering if there was a recommended way to test out equipment and quantify the difference in terms of maximum weight lifted. Is it as simple as a working up a 1RM then waiting 5-10 minutes before changing a piece of equipment, or stance width, or grip or whatever and then seeing if you can lift more or less than the just performed 1RM? Maybe this is a good application for the video tracking software? Instead of doing a full 1RM you could work up to 95% or so and then just compare the bar speed of each? Working at slightly less than 100% should take some of the form errors out that are prone to show up when you are at your limit, and it should also be easier to recover from that rep and do it again while having it be a fair comparison for before/after the modification.

I ask these questions because I'm genuinely curious and not because not knowing the answer is preventing me from competing.

[Tom Campitelli]

You wouldn't want to do a 1 RM and then try again with another piece of gear that you haven't warmed up a few minutes later. After training with different belts over the course of several sessions, you would get a feel for what works the best for you. Since humans are not machines, you need repeated exposure to get a feel for what these things do. From there you will be able to infer what helps you the most. As an aside, if you are training with gear whose sole purpose is to store elastic energy across a flexed joint, then you are no longer doing strength training in the conventional sense.

[caveman]

Thanks Tom. That makes sense. I was hoping, naively, it would be more concrete. For example, going to a 4" belt from a 3" belt equals 5 more pounds on the 1RM squat for me.