Impact PowerLIFT Mouthguard Review
Last updated on April 5th, 2024 at 09:08 am
My first mouthguard was when I was kid. I got a custom one made by my dentist. Jump forward about 20 years and I decided I could use one in the gym. I ask my dentist and he tells me to go out and get a cheap one at the store. I did that for awhile, but they honestly suck. This lead me to find Impact and try out their custom mouthguards. After being very happy with it, Impact reached out and asked if I had interest in testing their new PowerLIFT Mouthguard. I said yes, and here we are today.
Key Notes
Impact took your normal mouthguard and trimmed the fat, added some muscle where it counts, and has built a mouthguard FOR powerlifters. What I’m saying is, they don’t make mouthguards that powerlifters can wear, they specifically looked at powerlifting as a sport, the needs from a “protect your teeth” standpoint, and built a mouthguard to match.
Background
If you haven’t seen it, I did a review awhile back on Impacts original weightlifting mouthguard. Long story short, it was just as good as the dentist model (and significantly cheaper) and infinitely better than the cheapo stuff (and only marginally more expensive). When you factor in the longevity paired with everything else, they are a no brainer compared to every other option I’ve seen.
Crazy enough, they decided they could do better. They could reinvent the wheel entirely for powerlifters and build a mouthguard that suits our sport. This is what we are looking at today.
Impact PowerLIFT Mouthguard Overview
Since powerlifters have very little actual impact concerns, they were able to remove everything from the front of the guard. This means most people who see you wearing one, would never even know. This also means less disturbance to your breathing patterns. Better breathing means better performance, big win there.
They also trimmed a majority of the underneath as it sits on the back of your front teeth. Again, little actual impact means only minor needs here. Again, this means better breathing, it also means better talking. So, you can easily wear the mouthguard throughout your workout even with training partners. I’ve taken phone calls with mine in and not had issues.
THICCC
Last, they took the back piece of the guard which covers the molars, and SERIOUSLY beefed it up. We are talking a legit few millimeters of extra material here. Think of your last PR, you probably bit down HARD as you grinded out that final few inches of the rep. All of the teeth on teeth issues in powerlifting come from your teeth, primarily the molars, crushing and grinding against each other. With the powerlifting mouthguard, you now have a solid, thick, layer of protection. So, you can grind out your PRs without grinding down your teeth.
Personal Experiences
Ok, so the above is the “product specs” so to speak. But I want to make sure I add in any personal notes as well.
First, one of the things I liked about the previous version was the customization. This isn’t necessary with the new guard as you have nothing “visible”. I’m not sure how to say this other than… It feels like you are missing out on some of the fun, even if it is completely unnecessary. It would be nice if they could figure out a way for customization to still be included, without moving away from the slimmer, cleaner, and more powerlifting appropriate build.
Second, the fact that the guard doesn’t go on the front of your teeth at all, means the piece that sits behind your front teeth has a little wiggle room. It isn’t terrible, but considering how snug the older model was, and how snug the molar piece is, it is certainly noticeable. On top of this, this is the only piece I can tell impacts my speech at all.
My tongue rolls and rubs on this piece when talking. Again, we are still far better than the store-bought models, and even better than the previous model, but it is still a thing. The only other downside here, is that if they don’t clip/cut/trim this piece VERY cleanly, you have some interesting jagged edges. I had one I had to cut off. Again, I’m nitpicking here, but calling it out.
Positives
The rest is all positives. The thicker material in the back fits nice and clean on the teeth and essentially disappears when in use. No one would probably even know I have a mouthguard in, and sometimes I forget until after the workout. I don’t have any need to take it out between sets, even really hard and high rep sets. We aren’t seeing any impact to breathing mechanics, my mouth and jaw aren’t in some artificial alignment, and I’m not leaving my workouts with any pain or discomfort from the guard.
The only other POTENTIAL concern I have, is longevity. The main mouthguard piece, being beefed up, is going to outlast the old mouthguards for sure. But the front piece is SO thin, I have potential concerns that it might tear or simply snap at some point. If in a year this doesn’t happen, I’ll update this with a note. The good news is, even if it did, you could trim your guard to be two independent pieces that just slip over the molars. Since publishing this, I have had this mouthguard in regular use for close to 3 years, and no issues.
Final Thoughts
When I opened up the package, I was skeptical at first. It was such a different design I was confused. Almost instantly I realized that the guard was made FOR powerlifters, not just suitable for them. Their ability to trim the fat and add some muscle in the right places really did work well.
I’m not a mouthguard designer by any means, so some of this might not work. But the only real idea in my head is potentially, could you take the two molar pieces and wrap the guard around the front of the teeth, instead of the back. This would give you a spot to still add a logo or show off some custom colors, it would get the guard out of the way of the tongue entirely, and you wouldn’t likely have the same slightly loose fit. (Impact has not changed the overall design of their POWERlift Mouthguard since I wrote this).
The other option might be to simply drop the front piece entirely, and just give two independent molar guards, a left and right. Again, this would remove the tongue on guard issues.
Wrap Up
In the end, Impact managed to make improvements in every aspect that truly matters here. The guards are better at protecting a powerlifter’s teeth, they don’t impact performance/breathing, and fit great. Everything else is just icing on the cake if they can address. And what is amazing, is this is their Beta test. I’ll be excited to see what others feedback looks like and what their production model ends up like.
You can buy your own Impact PowerLIFT Mouthguard at this link.
Joe Gray
My name is Joe Gray - aka Gray Matter Lifting - and I've been lifting at home since 2013. In that time I've built a badass gym, deadlifted over 600lbs, helped grow r/Homegym to over 1 Million subscribers, created the Garage Gym Competition and written a ton of posts here on this site. I love the Garage Gym Community... If you do too, I hope you stick around.
