This is an excellent video by Neil Deighton, discussing the benefits of wearing a belt when lifting. Check it out below:
Hi there guys this is Neil Deighton, I'm back with a new video. This time it's gonna be about why you should wear a belt at least some of the time. So what does a belt actually do? Now when you wear a belt, what we're looking to do is force our stomach into the belt so we're getting a lot of air into our stomach and basically we're trying to breathe out whilst holding our breath and what that's gonna do is it's gonna force your abs out into the belt and it's gonna create more intra-abdominal pressure. That in turn aids the erector spinae in extending the trunk. And basically what that means is moving from a bent over position at the waist to a straightening at the waist.
Now you can see how then becomes important when you're looking at an exercise like squats. If it aids keeping more upright, chances are you're not gonna lose the weight forward as easily. If you take the belt off and try the same weight as your max with the belt, a lot of the time is you'll see guys they'll get to the bottom then they won't be able to stay in position to let their legs do the work. After all it's no change in the legs, all that's changing is the intra abdominal pressure and you're aiding the leverage for your erector spinae. So your legs haven't got weaker but you're missing the weight because you're falling forward. So what you might hear other people say is “well I don't wear a belt because I make my own belt” and what that is, is your transverse abdominae which is your deepest abdominal muscles. Without a belt what you're doing is you're training them, and if they get strong enough they're gonna do the same job. Now I can see their point for that, especially for a recreational trainer and it's a good idea to train those muscles so we've got a problem here. Basically because if we're not using a belt we're gonna use sub maximal weights compared to with a belt. There's no getting around t really, eventually you might build up to what you can do with a belt but for people on squats it's very, very rare. I don't think I've ever really seen many powerlifters squat without a belt in competition because a belt aids the lift unless you've got an extremely big gut and that's maybe gonna help itself.
So what's the problem with dropping the weight, well the problem is gonna be you're putting less stress on the other muscles. If your causing the limiting factor putting a belt on you're gonna put more stress on your legs because you're using heavier weight, if you take the belt off you're gonna work your core harder but you're working your legs less. Simple as that so what's the solution. Well in my opinion and what I like to do is I do my warm-ups without a belt and then I do my work sets with a belt. So each week progressively my weights will get heavier, my last warm up sets will get heavier so I am getting stronger without a belt at the same time but I aren't missing out on the heavier weights and the more stress on the muscles by using a belt. Also on down sets where you lower the weight and do the reps there, any assistance movement I tend not to wear a belt. So you're kind of getting the best of both worlds. Just to add to that, if you're learning how to use a belt properly so as I say there is a skill to using a belt, it's not tightening it up as tight as possible and it's done its job. To start with you want to be leaving the belt a little bit looser and just get used to forcing your abs out as hard as you can into the belt and that's what's gonna create the intra-abdominal pressure, that's what's gonna help you with your lifts.
What you're also gonna find is it's gonna affect your technique a little bit, you'll get a bit of propeo receptive feedback. So what that is, is basically queue for your brain to tell you what kind of position your body is in. So I'd advise if you're starting to use a belt to use it from around 50% all the way up just to get the technique right with a belt. Now some people might mention other people, deadlifters, Konstantinovs he doesn't use a belt. There aren't many to be fair, big deadlifters who don't use a belt and most of them are super heavyweights maybe find it a bit restrictive. There are some people who don't get on with belts so well deadlifting, but chances are when you get used to a belt, find a belt that works well for you. There are different belts out there now, you've got your Spud Inc belts that don't have the buckle at the front. They'll help a little bit in getting down to the bar, especially for bigger guys. But using a belt is always gonna increase that intra-abdominal pressure, it's always gonna increase your leverage so at the end of the day you're always gonna lift bigger weights with it, you're gonna stress the muscles harder using a belt. So whether you're bodybuilding, powerlifting if you're using a belt you're gonna work your other muscles harder. As I say any squat movement you're short changing your leg development without using a belt because you're not using as heavy weights as you could to stress those muscles.
