Training equipment you need
You might have already bought your fancy workout clothes, your very sporty workout bottle, but are you really prepared? Well, probably not, but don’t be sad, there is some use of you being on this website, so I’ll show you what you actually need in order to tackle every hurdle during your workout, thus avoiding serious injuries and obtaining better results. Fashion is important, because it helps you to express yourself, but using so many equipments that make you look like a Christmas tree is pretty lame.
If you’re feeling too festive, just be a mistletoe instead, and hang yourself.
Wrist wraps
Do you sit a lot in front of a computer? Do you type a lot? Do you use your hands often (jerking off doesn’t count)? Do you want to keep using them? Then fucking buy these! How to use it? Only when you lift or push heavy, which means that you put it on exactly before the set and take it off exactly after it, then repeat this at the next sets as well. Wrist wraps not only help you to prevent injuries, especially if your lifestyle makes you more prone to them, but they also help you to channel more force, which is not only beneficial for strength training, but hypertrophy as well.
Wrist straps
Belt
Imagine your trunk is an empty can, and you need to fill it with as much air as possible to make sure it expands to all the directions, and then brace against it, fixating your entire lower and even upper back. Now if you use bigger weights, let’s say heavy deadlifts or squats, the belt helps you to fixate your core by adding an additional layer to brace against. This is it, not a rocket science, you don’t have to wear it throughout the entire training, you don’t have to tighten it so much you won’t be able to actually breathe in, and apart from the heavy squats and deadlifts you won’t really need them at all.
Lack of belt does not lead to injuries, but lack of bracing does, therefore, if the belt helps your bracing, then it helps preventing the injury as well. Here are some pics of some ugly hernias to remind you how important bracing is, and how they should never be neglected:
Towel
Slippers in shower
Shoes
There is a trend to use boxing shoes for lifting, and it never ceases to amaze me. Or people in running shoes, like wtf. The one thing lifting shoes need is the stability in a steady position, and boxing and running shoes are everything but such. I mean, one is designed for jumping and running, while what you need at the gym is just to stand steady.
Shoes or barefoot?
Shoe is a tool to provide you stability with non-slippery soles and slightly elevated heels. The non-slippery aspect is non-negotiable, while the elevated heel is depending on your anatomy and preferences. Also, many people are better when they can push the floor away by having a bigger surface of their feet on the ground, so you might experiment with wide shoes, toe shoes etc. as well.
Insoles?
If you belong to the group of people who have ankle problems, and neither wide shoes nor going barefoot helps, you need to put a bespoke orthopaedic insole in your shoes, and you’ll get an immediate, yet lifetime relief from any lower body pain. In case of ankle pain your body wants to take off some load from your aching ankles, therefore it will unnaturally overload your knees, hip and spine. But as soon as your feet and ankle get in the proper angle, it will ensure that your body won’t compensate the bad form.
Do you need gloves?
The purpose of gloves is to prevent your hands from mechanical injury, to prevent you from getting and infection and to transmit one to the others, and last but not least to help with your grip. Imagine your skin is sensitive, and it becomes so tough, that when you peel a potato or slice a carrot, then your hands will look dirty for half a week simply by colouring the rough skin. Also, it’s not the best to transmit your sweat to the equipment. Imagine there is a guy who hadn’t showered for days, goes to pee, and spritzes his yellow ammonia-smelling pee mixed with fermented cottage cheese from under his foreskin as remnants of the previous wankings on his hands, and then touches something, you touch it, and then you touch your face…yeah, he just gave you a precious facial. I don’t think I need to elaborate the grip part. Just pay attention to buy gloves that won’t interfere with your wrist straps or wrist wraps.
What about training clothes?
This is where you can cut the budget. You are perfectly fine with anything that allows free range of motion. Just pay attention to the hygiene, because you may look like a viking warrior and may feel like a stallion when lifting with a huge exposed skin surface, but dermatological infections aren’t very pleasant and they definitely don’t give a shit how intimidating you look. It’s like using sunscreen, you aren’t tough by not using it, you are just a moron who thinks he can beat the Sun. Anyway, if you sweat a lot, compression clothes can be a salvation for you. Just don’t get a boner in them please.
Knee wraps or knee sleeves?
Knee sleeves can help with your help when squatting heavy, while also adds a little strength to the game, plus they are IPF approved as well. For solely hypertrophy purposes, however, I’d not say they are necessary, and for the safety-level compression even the cheapest ones will be perfect.
You definitely don’t need knee wraps though. Indeed, they may help you to squat more, but only by their mechanical stiffness. So benefit? Zero. But can it do harm? Oh, yes, it can! It will alter your technique and it will put more pressure on your spine, abdomen, hip and ankle. So why on earth would you use them?
It has begun!
Hey all, it took me almost a year, but my blog-website combo is finally ready to go public. It's still not completely ready though, but I hope that by publishing I'll motivate myself more.