Earlier this year, I tried out the new Metal Canvas squat suit. Disappointingly, I blew the crotch out and since I was a few weeks out from a meet, switched back to the Jack. Since I squatted well at the meet, I pretty much forgot about the Canvas until now.
But with the XPC Finals only 4 months away, I decided to give it another go. Although I had the old one fixed, I also order a new one because I had heard that metal fixed the issue causing the blowouts.
When I first got the suit, It was clear that Metal was serious about addressing the stress point in the crotch. There is now a large patch of thick polyester spanning from one leg to the other covering the point where the blowouts were originating from. It certainly LOOKED promising, but the proof would be in how it performed.
Here's how it went:
Warmed up wth the bar, then took 150 for a few, followed by 260.
Put my Ace brief on, then took 350, followed by 440
Put my suit bottoms on for 530, which was high, but about where you'd expect a weight 200lbs below my opener to be.
620 got to about the same spot.
Took 710, still with straps down and no wraps, and got it to about an inch high. I should note though, 710 is pretty good for a straps down squat for me, especially considering I'm nowhere near meet shape.
Put the straps up and knee wraps of for my last lift with 760. Now that I had gotten used to the new groove, I was able to let this go a bit more, and got it to about parallel. Not quite breaking, but very close. Stood up pretty easily with it, especially considering this was my heaviest squat at my last meet. I felt like I could have taken 800 without an issue.
I closely inspected the suit afterwards, and it was as good as gold, not a stitch out of place.
I'm THRILLED with how the suit performed! 760 is around a second attempt for me, so to handle it this far out from a meet is huge. Once I start doing more overload work, to accommodate to the heavier loads, I think I'm gonna hit a big squat in this suit in Columbus!