Guide To Buying A Weightlifting Belt

Some heavy lifting exercises such as deadlifts put a lot of pressure on your spine and core. Your torso automatically braces itself when you’re doing these activities, but your spine bears all the brunt. A weightlifting belt helps you brace for this heavy lifting by compressing your abdominal cavity.

The belt doesn’t give you extra strength and lifting ability. It’s a secondary support mechanism that compresses your abdomen and gives you something to push out against so that you can brace. You won’t suddenly get superhuman strength to lift significantly more weights. However, by bracing your torso and stabilizing your body, continued use of the belt will help you increase your rep count and even allow you to move to heavier weights.

Make sure that the belt fits you well; it should be tight but not overly so. Ideally, you should wear the belt so that it’s just over your navel. You can adjust the position if it feels like the belt is digging into your ribs during exercise.

Use it only when there’s a heavy load on your spine. Remember that a weightlifting belt is a tool, not a crutch. The exercises that require a weightlifting belt are squats, deadlifts, bent-over rows, and Olympic lifts. Due to the added support on your abs, the weightlifting belt helps you squeeze out 2 or 3 more reps, provided your technique is correct. By improving your body’s biomechanics, the belt helps you break performance plateaus.

• Don’t use a weightlifting belt for every exercise. You don’t need a weightlifting belt for other exercises like curls, extensions, presses, etc.
• Don’t use a weightlifting belt if you suffer from high blood pressure or conditions such as a hernia.
• If you aren’t confident about your lifting technique yet, do not use the belt. Perfect your form first and then start using the belt.
• Use the belt sparingly, only when you feel that you need extra support during big lifts.

It’s a breathing technique that increases pressure on your chest. Lifters use this maneuver to stiffen their torso when they’re lifting heavy weights. Here’s how you do it:

1. Inhale deeply into your belly and then hold your breath.
2. Elevate the pressure against your core by bearing down on your stomach muscles, as you would do while straining during a bowel movement.
3. After holding this position for about 10 seconds, breathe out forcibly.

When you perform this technique while weightlifting, a belt would help constrict your core muscles more and help give your torso the strength to lift better. It is vital to use proper form when doing this to avoid the risk of injury.

The weightlifting belt is a tool that helps you brace your abdomen and eases the pressure off your spine when you perform heavy exercises such as deadlifts and squats.

A weighted belt, on the other hand, has a chain, and you can add weighted plates on it. You then wear the belt and perform exercises like dips and chin-ups. By adding the extra weight, you put more stress on the muscles you’re trying to target. So, if you wish to train for maximum strength and test the limits of your body, you can add as much weight to the belt as you wish.

Not exactly. Weightlifting belts help stabilize and strengthen your core, but they will not help you get a six pack. You mostly use these belts to perform exercises like deadlifts and squats to get the stability your body needs when lifting heavy loads.

Yes, it does. By stabilizing your trunk, the belt reduces the bending of your spine when you lift. The belt helps brace your spine during heavy lifting, which creates Intra-Abdominal Pressure (IAP), keeping your core rigid. An increased IAP translates to a strengthened and stable core.