# Back Strong and Beltless...



## BrotherIron (May 24, 2020)

When it comes to lifting, a weight belt has become more fashion accessory than essential workout gear

Remember when the only time you would see someone wearing a belt in the gym is when they were performing the heaviest squats, dead lifts and overhead presses? Now it seems everyone wears a belt regardless of what exercise they're performing or how heavy they're lifting. Squats? You MUST wear a belt. Bench presses? You SHOULD wear a belt. Biceps curls? Well, you know, just to be on the safe side...

It's getting ridiculous...

The trend to wear a weight belt has now extended beyond the gym. Trash collectors, truck drivers, and construction workers often spend their entire workday in a weight belt as do mail carriers, grocery clerks and even the pizza guy. Some companies have gone so far as to make it a mandatory safety policy that all employees wear a back harness. What's going on here? Do weight belts really protect the back? Will they make you stronger? Can the estimated 85 percent of Americans who will suffer from at least one episode of back pain in their lives find relief, and possibly even avoid surgery, by making a weight belt a habit?

Before I answer these questions, try to dig up recent pictures of the world's best Olympic weightlifters in competition. Isn't it interesting that they never use belts when performing the snatch, and seldom in the clean and jerk? Even in training you'll find many of these lifters train without any forms of artificial support.

*INTRA-ABDOMINAL PRESSURE TO THE RESCUE*
To determine whether or not weight belts can protect the back, it's necessary to first look at one of the body's support mechanisms for the spine: intra abdominal pressure.

As you bend forward, the pressure in your lumbar disks should increase in direct proportion to the degree of forward bending. When using heavy weights in the squat and dead lift, intra-disk pressure may rise 300% above normal--such high levels of stress could cause disk herniation if your body did not take measures to protect these structures.

When you bend forward your abdominal muscles contract, compressing the internal organs, forcing them downward into the pelvic basin and upward into the diaphragm. Through this intra abominal pressure mechanism there is a decompression of the two lowest vertebral disks (L4/5 and L5/S1). This decompression may be as great as 30% or as low as 6%. Regardless of the magnitude of the decompression, the important point to remember is that these two lumbar disks carry the greatest load of all spinal disks. If the intra-abdominal pressure mechanism is weakened or faulty, it will proportionally affect the other mechanisms, leaving the lower lumbar disks at a high risk for injury.

*ENTER THE WEIGHT BELT*
So how do weight belts fit into this picture?

When a weight belt is wrapped tightly around your torso, intra-abdominal pressure increases. This belt compression creates a mechanical phenomenon known as "hoop tension," and this hoop tension will enable you to lift more weight.

A good way to understand hoop tension is to visualize what occurs when you squeeze toothpaste out of the tube. When you apply pressure to the tube, the hoop tension forces the toothpaste to ooze out one end of the tube. Knee wraps utilize hoop tension around knee joint to help you lift more weight in squats. Because these wraps are compressive and restrict freedom of motion in the hinge joint, an extension force is created in direct proportion to the level of hoop tension. You can determine how much hoop tension contributes to your squat by seeing how much you can lift with and without wraps.

Hoop tension develops naturally when you contract your abs or artificially when you tighten your weight belt. The result is a "hydraulic amplifier mechanism" that assists in straightening the spine. Natural hoop tension is the body's innate mechanism for increasing your lifting ability. 

*Wait there's more!*
Weighing the value of potential increased strength from wearing a weight belt and potential risk requires you to understand the downside of weight belts as well as the pluses. For ex., there's a limit to how much intra-abdominal pressure your body will allow, and this is always less than the the pressure in the blood vessels that pass through the diaphragm. If you were able to exceed the blood pressure levels in these vessels, the blood flow to the heart would be stopped!

To ensure sufficient circulation to the heart, when you lift heavy weights your abdominal muscles only contract hard enough to develop the optimal amount of intra-abdominal pressure. Consequently, chronic use of a weight belt will DECONDITION the abdominal muscles' capacity to develop intra-abdominal pressure. This causes a big problem the day you show up to the gym without a weight belt. 

Because weight belts are usually very wide, they restrict motion in the lumbar spine. When you bend forward during exercises like squats or good mornings, 80% of the lumbar motion occurs in the lower two lumbar disks. With the addition of a constantly worn weight belt, the upper lumbar segments become partially immobilized, forcing the lower two lumbar disks to contribute more than their fair share of the work. This stress accelerates degeneration in these disks, which are the most commonly injured to begin with.

Constant use of a weight belt also affects the natural rotation of the lumbar spine, reducing the work of the lumbar stabilizer muscles. This deconditions and destabilizes the lumbar spine, an effect which also accelerates the onset of disk degeneration, destruction and possibly osteoarthritis.

Finally, *prolonged/constant* use of a weight belt can affect your natural diaphragmatic breathing pattern, resulting in overuse of the accessory respiratory muscles. Clinically, this "chest breathing" is associated with tension headaches, poor posture and accelerated degenerative changes in the cervical spine.

*WEANING YOURSELF FROM THE BELT*
If you currently use a weight belt *ALL* the time, I suggest weaning yourself from it--don't go cold turkey! You need to retrain and recondition the abdominal mechanism first.

Start by wearing your belt only when performing lifts of more than 60% intensity and eventually work up to wearing it for lifts of more than 85% of your 1RM.

*The fact is: prolonged use of weight belts all the time contributes to dysfunction and potential injury in the lumbar spine. *

I'm not advocating never wearing a belt... NOT at all. I'm merely stating that you should not wear one ALL the time.  I believe that a belt should be worn with lifts greater than 85% to help keep the lifter as a safe as possible when performing heavy lifts.  Forgoing wearing one with lifts under 85% will help to keep your abdominal wall strong and keep dysfunction at bay. 

*Belts a great but remember they are a tool to be used some of the time and NOT all of the time.*


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## Sicwun88 (May 24, 2020)

Thanks for the good information!
I never wear a belt or use straps,
Only on my heaviest lift,
Never when just training!


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## Uncle manny (May 24, 2020)

Never use a belt unless I wanna get silly and try some 1 rm prs squating or deadlifting once in a blue.


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## sfw509 (May 24, 2020)

Good info.

I never wear a belt. I don't really do 1RM 's. When I go heavy I focus on sets of 3 or 4. I just don't feel a belt is needed. Maybe I am not going heavy enough. Hahaha.


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## tinymk (May 24, 2020)

I only wear a belt on heavy squats, never on dead’s even in meets.


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## Metalhead1 (May 25, 2020)

Agree. They are a tool, but I quickly realized I was having a difficult time when i only put it on once or twice a session. Sometimes missing my top lifts only to take it off ans get the lift without. 

Now, it's on every set of squats and deads so I will be able to utilize it to the full potential.


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## BrotherIron (May 29, 2020)

Metalhead1 said:


> Agree. They are a tool, but I quickly realized I was having a difficult time when i only put it on once or twice a session. Sometimes missing my top lifts only to take it off ans get the lift without.
> 
> Now, it's on every set of squats and deads so I will be able to utilize it to the full potential.



For me personally, I don't wear it for every set on squat and pulls.  I put mine on at 80% 1RM for pulls and squats.  I put on my knee sleeves when I hit 70% 1RM.  This way I strengthen ligaments, tendons, etc so they'll be able to handle the heavier weights as I increase my 1RM.


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## Gibsonator (May 30, 2020)

good read.
I always joke that the guys wearing weight belts thier whole workout are gonna snap thier back up one day picking up a penny off the ground lol.


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## bigdog (May 31, 2020)

I belt up for heavy squats and heavy bent over rows. I don't like wearing it at all personally but those 2 lifts i have to


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## TODAY (May 31, 2020)

Would you mind citing sources for this article?


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## BrotherIron (May 31, 2020)

TODAY said:


> Would you mind citing sources for this article?



Sure.  Here are the sources for the article.*

References:

*

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## TODAY (May 31, 2020)

BrotherIron said:


> Sure.  Here are the sources for the article.*
> 
> References:
> 
> ...


Hell yeah. Much appreciated, dude.


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## Maxmaximorum (Jul 16, 2020)

A funny thing I found is that any belt will do to some degree because a huge part of the belt is a just a cue for creating intra-abdominal pressure.
Pick up a kettlebell with nothing then pickup a kettlebell with a useless piece of rope around your waist or just the normal belt that holds up your pants. You will feel how much more braced you feel and almost involuntarily because you naturally create more pressure with something to push against, even if not tight or thick or anything close to a lifting belt.


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