-
Join the Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum The Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum is dedicated to no nonsense muscle and strength building. If you need advice that works, you have come to the right place. This forum focuses on building strength and muscle using the basics. You will also find that the Ausbb- Australian Bodybuilding Forum stresses encouragement and respect. Trolls and name calling are not allowed here. No matter what your personal goals are, you will be given effective advice that produces results.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.
Please consider registering. It takes 30 seconds, and will allow you to get the most out of the forum.
0ni
Registered Rustler
Will you be doing ab work?
If not, it would be awesome to see the results
You could use weighted plank score to test before/after
I didn't get a belt until I had squatted 180. I did the full smolov program beltless (save for 1RM attempts). I train without the belt in general.
I also have only just started doing ab stuff, I hit my 240kg squat having not done ab work ever (apart from heavy squats/deads etc).
All this is just personal experience, obviously, but I would say you don't need a belt until you are 140+ range for squats. Hell I'd say 180+.
I also have only just started doing ab stuff, I hit my 240kg squat having not done ab work ever (apart from heavy squats/deads etc).
All this is just personal experience, obviously, but I would say you don't need a belt until you are 140+ range for squats. Hell I'd say 180+.
Last edited:
kaz
iLift
Clearly you didn't read my post correctly. I never said anything about weighted planks.
WTH do I need citation for? (Brb googling something that agrees with what I'm saying to make me look right)
I never do ab work. I competed in states without a belt and only started wearing one because my competitors were. Did it make me stronger, no. But why let others have an advantage on the platform?
0ni
Registered Rustler
lmao I didn't even argue that
I've said that people competing should wear one from the start and people should always do extra work for the midsection
I just said that the barbell squat isn't enough alone for strengthening the obliques and you would move up in weight faster for all the extra work
RyanF
Member
The belt doesn't lift the weight for you. Hey, I can squat more with a barbell on my back than with two dumbbells in my hands, so the barbell must be doing some of the work for me. Sound accurate? I didn't think so.
Knee wraps, squat suits and bench shirts assist their respective lifts because they resist the eccentric at the joints they target, and will spring back towards the lockout position. They really do some of the work. The belt, however, does not resist the eccentric in any way, nor does it spring back for the concentric. What it does do is give your abs something to push against, in the same way that the bar gives a load to push against. Used correctly, this increases the activation of the core musculature, rather than taking over the core work. In doing so, your hips and legs are then able to move more weight while you squat. They have no direct assistance from the belt. A squat suit functions almost like additional muscle mass at the hips, and knee wraps function almost like additional muscle mass at the knees -- they take loads that your muscles cannot -- but a belt allows those same muscles to do more work, rather than doing work for them.
Anyway, back to the original question, my opinion (and whatever status we'd all like to apply to our thoughts, all of our conclusions in this thread are opinions) is that the right time to use a belt is when it's beneficial for you to do so. That's probably not the first time you get under the bar, but I see no reason to arbitrarily say that you need to be able to lift x amount of weight or have y amount of experience before you should belt up. It's probably a good idea to wait until you have decent, reliable technique on the squat before you add a belt into the mix, but even just the feeling of the belt against your lower back may be useful for cueing good form, so it may have that benefit for rank novices.
Ryan, I think I will take the opinion of the 200kg + squatters over your and Oni's regurgitated internet articles. At the end of the day those guys know how to build a strong core and squat big numbers. Just remind me again where is your squat at? Has wearing a belt aided you attaining that squat? Oh wait thats right it doesn't matter because you like me squat sweet fuck all so we should probably take the sage advice of those in our presence that can squat, after all it stands to reason that their methodology works, they have the runs on the board.
kaz
iLift
0ni
Registered Rustler
The 200kg squatters said exactly the same shit you dingus
That it doesn't fucking matter, it's personal preference and you should be doing ab work anyway
What Ryan posted wasn't even from an internet article, I went and looked up internet articles that said the same thing and it came up with a shitload of blogs from +200kg squatters
Hurf durf, don't think things through, just lift brah
That it doesn't fucking matter, it's personal preference and you should be doing ab work anyway
What Ryan posted wasn't even from an internet article, I went and looked up internet articles that said the same thing and it came up with a shitload of blogs from +200kg squatters
Hurf durf, don't think things through, just lift brah
kaz
iLift
What's the point of articles/Googling. If you ain't learning from experience as a lidter are you really qualified to even give advice?
Or is everything on the internet true? Not sure because 10yrs ago people didn't have the luxury of Googling and they had to trial and error lifting and equipment to learn.
Or is everything on the internet true? Not sure because 10yrs ago people didn't have the luxury of Googling and they had to trial and error lifting and equipment to learn.
D1cko
Extra Large Member
So if someone wears a belt from the start and ends up squatting 200+, does this mean they couldn't do fuck all without one due to a 'weak core'? I don't think so...
Food for thought- if I can squat 10kg more with a belt, wouldn't this be good for the strength of my quads, hams etc...since I'm overloading them by 10+kg than I normally could?
Food for thought- if I can squat 10kg more with a belt, wouldn't this be good for the strength of my quads, hams etc...since I'm overloading them by 10+kg than I normally could?
Goosey
.
For the most of us, Over the long term, long term, it's better not to rely on a belt, suit wraps or shoes, but on adding plates every workout, you young blokes should not have a problem with this at all, if you do you are spending too much time over thinking things.
0ni
Registered Rustler
I bet my jimmies that if two identical people started lifting with the exact diet, training protocol etc one of which used a belt on their top sets and the other did not, the one that did not use the belt would be better at beltless squats and the one that used a belt would be better at belted squats
The solution is simple once past beginner stage spend some time squatting both with and without a belt. Get the best of both worlds.
Think I remember reading Ed Coans training, in the off season he started training squats beltless adding a belt only right at the end of a cycle. He would do deficit deadlifts beltless in the off season only adding a belt when competitions were close.