Why You Should Use a Mouthpiece When Lifting
by Ryan Stinn
I've been using a mouthpiece for over three years now, which isn't a long time considering I've been competitively lifting for 14 years. Originally I noticed that I was under biting when setting up for bench press, as I set my traps into the bench I was screwing up the alignment of my jaw. I didn't want a full contact mouthpiece that would interfere with my breathing so I bought a common product by a company that rhymes with Thunder Farmer. However this mouthpiece has a hard plastic top that I found slippery when I tried to bite down, often times my upper teeth would slide around on it.
In October 2016 we attended the SWIS conference and trade show and ran into New Age Performance. I had heard of their mouthpieces from some of the athletes that had used them but never tried one. They were doing a balance test before and after with the mouthpiece on the spot so I had one molded and tried it out. The before and after was no contest in their testing and both Rhaea and myself took one home. After using it for about a month we decided we needed to sell these.
As I mentioned for me the problem was jaw alignment when benching but I quickly began using the mouthpiece for all three lifts and found it tremendously helpful. I was never someone that gritted my teeth before but now I was able to bite down and it was definitely making a difference.
People fall under one of two camps:
1) You clench your jaw while lifting weights. Your dentist probably hates you and loves you for all the work you are bringing them. I've known many people who have chipped teeth while lifting just from clenching their jaw. You need a mouthpiece to protect your teeth.
2) You don't clench your jaw while lifting weights. You should! There are a number of studies that show that clenching, especially while wearing a jaw aligning mouthpiece, can significantly increase performance. New Age Performance has a page on the studies around this if you want to get into the weeds a little bit!
The New Age Performance 6DS mouthpiece is designed for lifting, with all the stability and support you need while making it easy to breath. Some of the best lifters in the world are wearing these for a reason!
