@chris_ottawa We were talking about this earlier in another thread so I thought I’d share some thoughts. I tried my last set with a belt, and I would say that I still get roughly the same amount (30-40lbs) out of it. So right now its looking like a 1:1 increase in beltless vs belted pulls. I need to do more belted reps to verify this though. If this is indeed true, its probably best to just belt up from the first set. Not worth the risk of injury going beltless all the time when the same gains can be made belted.
Here’s one of the last beltess sets of 365 today. I think my technique has come a long way but the rounded upper back is tough to get rid of:
If you’re not used to wearing a belt you will get less out of it. You aren’t training for a beltless deadlift competition so you might as well do all your work sets and the last couple warm ups with it. You could do other deadlift variations without a belt, but I don’t think that’s a big deal either way. If you feel that it’s an injury risk to lift without a belt then wear the belt.
There’s nothing wrong with upper back rounding (for deadlift, NOT the squat), that’s not high risk for injury but it’s more of an advanced technique. You seem to be doing alright with it so I wouldn’t worry, unless it hurts the only real problem is that you can have a hard time locking out a heavy pull but it’s a tradeoff for better leverages at the start. Your lower back, which is where back injuries normally occur, looks pretty close to neutral. If you can brace properly then you might be able to get away with it, but like I said before you don’t want to overdo the deadlift volume because it will wear down your back and can eventually lead to injury. RDLs or SLDLs with a totally neutral, braced spine would be a good way to get some extra volume in. Trap bar deadlifts too.
Yea good point. This is the first time I’ve used the belt in over 5 months. It may take a few sessions to get the technique back. I’ve never had pain with the upper back rounding, but I’ve gotten lower back pain after over-extending the lockout. I do intend to do several sets of RDLs (extremely light weight) every week. I did really slow eccentric RDLs as far as my flexibility would allow with 135lbs last week and my hamstrings were pretty sore afterwards. Definitely worth keeping in.
Tried the first single without the belt and the rest with the belt. I don’t know if I need to break in the belt again or something but it feels like I can’t set up the same way with the belt. I don’t really remember this issue happening before. It’s almost like I can get my back into a more neutral position without the belt. I don’t see too much of a difference on the videos. Maybe the weight is too light to really feel the contribution of the belt. Hmm…anyways here are the clips belted and beltless:
Looks about the same to me. Ur not a neutral back puller in either lol that’s alright. As long as you feel safe and strong.
I’ve had and still have my own share of difficulty with belted deadlifts vs beltless.
So stuff I’ve noticed so far is that I need to actively get my upper back into neutral with a belt because I guess the belt helps the lower back to be in neutral and tight but my attention is there so I get lazy with the upper back.
Belt has helped me loads on pushing reps. Low reps haven’t quite gotten it working to make it better. Work in progress
I think it has to do with how I’m positioning the belt because I didn’t have this problem before. It could also be that I feel the effects at more maximal weights. The belt helped me when I was I was right below the knee, not off the floor. I think the only solution is to keep wearing it lol. I watched some of my old videos and it looks like I kept the buckle more to one side rather than in the middle which was what I was doing today.
Another question, the Kroc program calls for a deload but I’m far from fatigued.Like today felt like a deload week since its such a low amount of volume. I’m thinking about taking the deloads later in the program when the weights get heavier. Thoughts?
Upon further inspection I couldn’t agree more. Whenever the weight feels light I feel the irrational impulse to ramp things up. These next 4-5 months will be about staying in lane more than anything else.
When I did it I didn’t do the first deload. It was quite easy and I did 531 on the other lifts, so just kept going for another 3 weeks.
BUT I would highly suggest follow the program.
Damn you’re pulling fast my friend. Awesome.
They’re going solid so far. Form still needs some work. My wrists end up taking up some of the load when I lose focus. One of the cues @mortdk taught me was “leading with the elbows”. That seems to fix those issues.