Although most serious lifters train at large gyms, rather than at home, nearly all of them have some personal equipment in a gym bag or locker. This equipment varies, depending upon what the individual lifter considers to be important. The following is a list of the personal equipment that I maintain in my gym locker and use regularly.

Gloves

Handling steel bars can be rough on one's hands. The friction of a steel bar, particularly one which is knurled, can cause significant damage to the skin, and in addition to building calluses, it can also create inflammation which will make it more difficult to lift during your next session. Some lifter's deal with this problem by using chalk on their hands. However, chalk tends to make quite a mess, and many chalk users refuse to clean up after themselves; consequently many gyms ban the use of chalk. I prefer to use gloves.

In my experience, the ideal lifting gloves should have the following characteristics:

• A tight fit. Loose-fitting gloves tend to slide around on a lifter's hands, causing an unstable grip and increasing the friction which gloves are designed to prevent.
• A thick leather palm. Most good gloves have a double layer of leather in the palm area and inside the fingers. A little padding is nice but not essential; it is the reduction of friction, not absorption of the weight, that is important.
• Longer cut-off fingers. Although the fingers of lifting gloves are partially cut off, they should extend to or beyond the first joint in the fingers (interphlangeal articulations). When performing "pulling" exercises, such as pullups, deadlifts, bent rows, and upright rows, the bar tends to pull away from the palm and toward the outward lengths of the fingers. Longer fingers on the gloves reduce the friction of that pulling on the inside of the fingers.
• Smooth nylon backing. The backs of the gloves should allow the lifter's hands to "breathe." Full leather gloves do not allow for that, which results in excess sweating inside the gloves. Cotton "netting" on the back of some gloves tends to bite uncomfortably into the lifter's hands.

Support Belt

Most weightlifting support belts are made of double layers of heavy leather, although many belts are now being made of thick, multi-layered nylon webbing. Generally, both are satisfactory. Leather belts are usually buckled with large, two-prong standard belt buckles, while the better nylon belts are buckled with a large snap-down pressure buckle which firmly grips the nylon webbing between the jaws of the buckle.

Support belts come in different widths. Powerlifting competition belts are very wide, and the full width of the belt extends all around the circumference of the belt. Training belts are usually narrower in the front and wider in the back. The usual widths of training belts in the back are four (4) inches and six (6) inches. The wider belts provide more back support, while the narrower belts provide more flexibility.

I usually wear my support belt rather tight when performing lifts that place great stress on the lower back. Those lifts include The Squat, The Deadlift, and Bent Barbell Rows. A support belt can also be helpful in controlling stress in the back and abdomen during The Bench Press. I often wear the belt during other exercises when it is not really needed, simply loosening it a notch or two. Once one is accustomed to wearing a support belt, it becomes no problem to wear it during most exercises, which may be preferable to frequently putting it on, taking it off, and leaving it on the floor where it may be forgotten or stolen.

Dip Belt

The purpose of a dip belt is to add weight to the lifter's own body weight for exercises, such as Weighted Dips and Weighted Pullups where the lifter usually exerts force only against his or her own weight. The primary advantage of the dip belt is that it can provide additional weight resistance without obstructing the natural movement of the exercise. A loaded dip belt can also be used in place of a hand-held dumbbell for added weight when performing One-Leg Standing Calf Raises, or in place of a "rider" when performing Donkey Calf Raises.

A simple rope is sometimes suggested for this purpose, but a rope can bite quite painfully into the lifter's waist and hips, particularly as the lifter becomes stronger and begins to use more weight. Although I personally prefer a belt specifically designed for this purpose, it is also possible to purchase a less expensive attachment which consists of a chain and a leather or metal loop that attaches to a regular weightlifting support belt. In either case, one end of the chain will be permanently attached to the belt; the lifter simple passes the chain through the hole in the weight plates and attaches the free end of the chain to the belt. The weight plates will then be suspended between the lifters legs.

Dip belts are available in both leather and nylon construction. I personally prefer the nylon construction because it is less subject to damage from the lifter's sweat, and because the leather belts require a "break-in" period and are rather uncomfortable with heavy weights until the leather becomes more supple.

Knee Wraps & Wrist Wraps

One of the greatest risks of lifting heavy weights is joint damage. This is particularly true with older lifters. Although the connective tissues in the joints will adapt to greater stress over time, they usually do not grower stronger as quickly as the related muscles. As as lifter increases in strength and gradually uses heavier weights, the risk of joint damage increases. Therefore, I personally believe that it is important to tightly wrap vulnerable joints when lifting the heaviest weights.

Knee wraps (shown at the bottom the photograph) are intended for exercises that place extreme stress on the lifter's knees, particularly The Squat. They are much like the elastic bandages which we have all seen used to wrap injured joints, except that they are much thicker and stronger. When wrapped properly around the lifter's knees, they are painfully tight; they can only be worn for the duration of a single set of the exercise, and they must be removed immediately thereafter to avoid a loss of blood circulation to the feet. Powerlifters nearly always have others wrap their knees to avoid the physical exertion of wrapping them very tightly, and their wraps are usually so tight that they must be assisted in standing up because they cannot bend their knees! An excellent discussion of protection against knee damage, and the proper method for wrapping knees, can be found at Fred "Dr. Squat" Hatfield's What All Squatters "Kneed" To Know.

Wrist wraps (shown at the top of the photograph) are best used for exercises that involve a compression of the wrist joint, such as The Bench Press, and exercises where the wrists are resisting flexion against heavy weights, such as heavy Barbell Curls. Some wrist wraps are very heavy elastic bandages, much like knee wraps, except narrower. I prefer the type shown here, which are constructed of a short length of heavy nylon webbing, lined with neoprene padding, and fastened with hook-and-loop fasteners and plastic buckle loop. The tightness of these wrist wraps can easily be adjusted, and they be removed and replaced very easily.

Wrist Straps and Wrist Hooks

Wrist straps and wrist hooks are used for "pulling" exercises, such as The Deadlift and Weighted Pullups. Their purpose is to allow the lifter to maintain a grip against the resistance of a very heavy weight which might otherwise "pull" out of the lifter's hands before the completion of the exercise. Although lifter's should attempt to develop adequate strength in their forearm muscles so as to maintain a strong grip, straps and hooks can assist a lifter in concentrating on the execution of the exercise, rather than concentrating on maintaining an adequate grip.

Wrist straps are usually made of lengths of cotton webbing which are looped at one end. The lifter passes his or her wrist through the looped end of each strap, then wraps the remaining portion of the strap around the bar, using only the hand which is the wearing that strap. The lifter then grasps the bar over the strap, and the strap is secured by the lifter's grip. At that point, the lifter's grasp on the bar is supported by a strong strap surrounding each wrist, thus reducing the amount of strength needed to maintain a grip on the bar.

I prefer wrist hooks. Wrist hooks are very similar in construction to the wrist wraps which I use; a short length of heavy nylon webbing, lined with neoprene padding, and fastened with hook-and-loop fasteners and plastic buckle loop. However, wrist hooks also have metal hooks protruding toward the lifter's finger, then outward from the hand, which allows the lifter the "cup" the hooks in his or her palms. When the lifter grasps the bar, the hooks should also be placed over the bar. Most of the resistance is then passed to hooks attached to wrist, rather than to the lifter's grip. I personally prefer hooks because:

• They can be attached to the bar much more quickly than straps, and
• They do not depend on the lifter's grip to hold them in place.

Manta Ray ® & Sting Ray ^tm

The Manta Ray® and the Sting Ray^tm are manufactured exclusively by Advanced Fitness, Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio. These devices are the primary reason that many people, including myself, are willing to do The Squat and Front Squats as part of their weight training program. Both are made from high-strength polyurethane, and although they may seem expensive for "a piece of plastic," they are very well designed and are extremely sturdy, even when used with the heaviest weights.

The Manta Ray® is designed for The Squat, specifically the "high-bar" squat. It snaps onto the bar and transfers the load across the trapezoid muscles so that the load is distributed over as much as 1600% more surface area than the bar alone. This allows the lifter to concentrate more on the lift and less on the crushing weight placed on the back and shoulder muscles and the upper vertebra. It also stabilizes the bar so that the lifter does not need to use the strength of his or her arms to keep the bar in place.

The Sting Ray^tm is designed for Front Squats, an exercise which few people will perform without the assistance of a special device to support the bar. Without additional support, the bar is unstable, it crushes the lifter's deltoid muscles, and it has a tendency to roll down the arms or back against the lifter's throat. The device has two separate nodes, joined by a cord of the same material, which snap onto the bar and transfer the load across the deltoid muscles so that the load is distributed over as much as 1600% more surface area than the bar alone. It prevents the bar from rolling down the arms or back against the throat, and the bar will remain stable with very little manipulation of the lifter's arms.

Both the Manta Ray® and the Sting Ray^tm can be ordered on line, directly from Advanced Fitness, Inc.

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