Essential Equipment for Lifters

Here is a brief rundown of the essentials I bring with me to the gym, which I deem necessary for any lifter that is serious about progress.

Footwear

The typical gym shoes with the chunky padded soles, might be fine for the treadmill, but they won’t cut it when it comes to performing exercises like squats, deadlifts and rack pulls. To have smooth force transference from the foot, up the rest of the body, we are looking to be either barefoot, in flat shoes, or in weightlifting shoes. Now, actual weightlifting shoes can get quite expensive. Personally, I opt for something flat like a pair of converse or vans.

Just avoid the typical gym shoes with the thick raised soles underneath them, at all costs. Wearing these while lifting, is like trying to perform squats while standing on little bosu balls. The force transference from your feet up the kinetic chain, gets scattered, as you waste precious energy trying to stabilise yourself.

Professional weightlifting shoes can get very expensive, and if you are an olympic weightlifter, or powerlifter, then by all means, give yourself every competitive advantage you can get. But for people who lift as a hobby, a pair of converse will deliver the results you’re looking for.

The other advantage to using flat shoes instead of professional lifting shoes, is that you are training better mobility in your achilles tendon. The achilles tendon can be a major mobility hindrance for many people on the squat. Professional weightlifting shoes take this out of the equation by slightly elevating the heels. This is great in the context of a competition, but not so great in the context of day to day training. In our training, we want to develop better mobility. With weightlifting shoes we are sweeping these mobility issues under the rug, rather than addressing the root cause. Flat shoes will actually work to reverse this issue over time.

Lifting Belt

The purpose of a lifting belt is to assist you in bracing your abdominal muscles, thus adding stability to a vulnerable portion of the body i.e. the lower back, when performing highly technical compound lifts such as the overhead press, deadlift, bench press and squat. The front of the belt, gives your abdominal muscles something to press against, helping them to remain isometrically contracted throughout heavy lifts, protecting against power leaks. These power leaks can cause sudden movements in the core area, as a form of compensation, potentially leading to a downstream injury to the lower back.

The types of lifting belts I recommend are the ones with a solid back plate, made of either leather, or faux leather. Powerlifting belts can be quite expensive, but you can purchase one that will do just fine, for approximately $30-50. I would avoid the nylon ones with Velcro straps, as they don’t provide as much stability as the more solid, leather ones. I also personally prefer a wider lifting belt, but that is a matter of personal preference, and that will also depend on your height, and torso length.

When wearing a lifting belt, make sure the belt is placed on the portion of the abdomen above the belly button, and below the bottom of the rib cage. Beginner lifters think that the belt needs to perfectly surround the lower back, but remember, the purpose of the belt is to give the abdominals something to push against, with your abdominals providing insurance to your lumbar spine, as you lift. So as high as possible on the abdominals, yet under the rib cage, is the cue we’re using for placement.

As with lifting shoes, going for the market-leading options will result in unnecessary cost, with minimal additional benefits to our actual goal: to stabilise our core during large compound movements. The most affordable leather belt with a solid backplate, will do just fine.

Lifting Straps

Lifting straps take a significant amount of work off the forearms in pulling movements, allowing you to overload target muscles with much heavier loads. They are typically used in rows, deadlifts and rack pulls. I highly recommend the use of straps specifically in rack pulls on the hardgainer training plan. Your grip will be the first failure point when looking to increase the load you can handle on this exercise, yet your target muscles will be capable of handling much heavier loads, with the use of lifting straps. Check out this one minute video, on how to use lifting straps.

Grip Trainers

To compensate for the use of straps on some of our pulling movements, I like to use heavy grip trainers every now and then to train my grip and forearm strength. It’s really helped me to feel more confident in my grip when not using lifting straps. Every now and then, you will want to perform your favourite pull exercises without straps, just to know that you’re capable of doing so. Thus grip strength remains important, even on exercises, where you would usually use straps.

Grip strength is also seen as a marker of brain health in older adults[T]. Now, while this association probably moves in the other direction, that sound neurological health, leads to a strong grip, there is no harm in playing around with the hypothesis that this could work both ways. i.e. training your grip for a healthier nervous system.

The Final Word

These are my go-to pieces of equipment to support my training. If you lack any or all of these items, don’t use it as an excuse to not get started with just your body. Most gyms will have some of these, and if not, you’ll be just fine for months or even years in the gym, before you need to start buying some of these items. My advice is to acquire them bit by bit over time, and to never overspend, so you can easily replace lost, stolen or damaged equipment. There are little to no additional benefits in breaking the bank, and you cannot buy your way to a better physique. It requires consistent longterm effort. These items can simply augment the effectiveness of that effort.