Looking the Part with Bodybuilding Gear
Sports have become their own fashion world. Many clothing companies exist to create clothing that enhances performance, while looking good and accentuating the physically-fit bodies of competitors. Many of these articles help to absorb sweat, keep the body warm or cool depending on climate, provide grip, prevent chaffing and, put bluntly, keep the athlete focused on his or her activity rather than on whether or not he or she is comfortable.
For bodybuilding, however, these perks have been ignored for a long time. The average power lifter is often seen in shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. However, some companies are now realizing that even bodybuilders can benefit from technology, technology that has advanced far beyond the weight belt and lifting gloves. Bodybuilding gear gives attention to the bodybuilder as athlete; it helps the power lifter fulfill his or her potential.
Shopping 101
For many bodybuilders, a trip to the gym has nothing to do with clothing. They rarely pay any attention to what they look like; when they dress, all that matters is their dedication and determination. Many big name brands do not focus on bodybuilders at all; they focus on the more popular sports of football and baseball, the commercial sports with celebrity endorsements. However, training for many of these sports includes elements of bodybuilding, and if these athletes can benefit from specialized clothing attention, so can bodybuilders.
Thankfully, bodybuilding gear is slowly, but surely, earning its place on store shelves. Performance power lifting gear is built for function, not aesthetics. Unlike clothing designed for other sports, bodybuilding gear is not intended for a runway, only for the weight room.
Bodybuilding gear companies have researched extensively the needs of bodybuilders. Fabric development and construction is essential to promoting productive, healthy workouts, and some of these technologies have been borrowed from the military, space programs and medical industries. Textile science is crucial to bodybuilding gear; clothing not only hides the body, it protects it and challenges it. Compression garments in particular have found a place in the bodybuilding world.
The material literally helps bodybuilders pump out more sets and repetitions. The clothing fits tight enough to provide the muscles with leverage, allowing for them move through complete ranges of motions, supporting them in both the pushing and pulling movements. The compressive forces boosts power, at least for a short time; however, this boost leads to more work in the same amount of time, which leads to far more muscle synthesis. Bodybuilding gear can even protect the body as well; the same support given to muscles is given to joints, ensuring that the body can last long enough to achieve the dream of the mind.
