I wear mine for deads and squats, heavy overhead presses and barbell rows. For instance for the deadlift, I usually do a few light warm up sets and put on my belt at 350 lb all the way to my work sets. For press, I wear it only if doing heavy triples or doubles. It’s an individual thing that’s best figured out with time under the bar. 70% of your work weight could be used as a rule of thumb but again it depends on the person. Some wear it only on their worksets. I like to put it on for at least my last warm up set to get a bit used to the feeling so there are no surprises lifting a heavy load.
I find that the belt reminds me to brace even harder once I start feeling myself push against it.
It’s important whenever you need extra stability of your midsection to perform a lift, i.e. any heavy lift that puts extra strain on your spine such as the squat, deads, bend over rows, press, good mornings (although I don’t do them). I don’t wear it for bench press although it’s not uncommon to see heavy benchers use a belt.
I don’t like the X amount of weight thing. Female lifters get a benefit at lower weights than most males. I think if you are serious about lifting heavy, getting one sooner than later is a good idea.
I brace harder in the abs with a belt. Something about having it around me and pushing into it. Wearing a belt to tight is a common belt beginner mistake. I am not using the belt for support, until I brace into it.
I use them for all these exercises except bench. I never felt it helped bench much. I also don’t think wrist wraps have done much for me. Well, they did when I was gripping the bar differently, now I have the bar almost sitting on my wrist (I kinda grip it a bit sideways, so that the bar on the outside of the hand is over the wrist), so there isn’t much hand flexion possible.
My belt came off Amazon and was dirt cheap. It works for me, and having never tried the fancy $150 belts, I don’t even know if I’m missing out so that’s a plus lol
Can you get shipping from EliteFTS? Their belts are actually outsourced to Pioneer, which IMO, is among the best of the best. They are significantly less money than ordering from Pioneer too. I got the staggered hole (Pioneer cut) belt, and love it.
I have two belts from Best Belts. I got both of mine lightly used for pretty cheap off of the Starting Strength forums. Some of the highest quality belts you can find. They are pretty common to see up for sale because guys on the SS program usually outgrow them within months.
I find the opposite, they let me brace harder and keep me focused on it. I can’t wear a belt properly and NOT brace, whereas I can half-ass bracing without one.
It shouldn’t make or break your form, but it should allow you to lift a bit heavier, with all other things being equal.
I belt shouldn’t be used as a crutch, it should be used as a supplement. I know this because I used a belt as a crutch to mask shit form for a long time. I have recently done a lot more training beltless and it is making all of my belted lifts increase.
I highly recommend a belt for those days you have to hit RPE 9’s singles, double, and triples. I highly recommend against a belt for individuals that “can’t lift without it”. Fix your form, don’t bandage or mask it.
and i also bough this spinny thing to tie to a bar, put some ropes and do triceps with a plate… i needed this as my arms have been broken and i cant do ANY triceps exercise with a barbell or dumbbell - the only one i can do for triceps is this cable thing or light bench dips…
dumbbells are there mostly for people i train - i only use them for bent over laterals, as i dont have enough weight for serious assistance movements.
Really, thats a pretty damn good set up for a home gym. I just recently got my total plate weights to 450 lb as they cost a freaking future.
You have further peaked my curiosity with you elbow injuries. I was blown up while deployed with the Army and have to have my elbow reconstructed on my right arm. (There was a fractured wrist and fingers, but those just pop a lot with pain.) Wonder if you have the same problem with going heavy on any tricep exercise: 3 to 5 cracks from the joint on the extension and 3 to 5 cracks on the contraction. The pops do not hurt at first, but the more I do the more irritating it is. Doctor says they are calcium deposits, and just bare with it unless I want to have them lasered out. (There is a chance for them to regrow which is why I have not done it)
Edit: I assume the problem was with your elbow as you said you have problems with triceps. Sorry for the assumption if I am inccorect.
Yes, i am a military hand to hand combat instructor, and also a fighter. I have had my both elbows broken via armbars and i also fuck them up a lot while punching hard or training people on pads(they punch, i hold pads, my elbows hurt)…
I dont have any cracks or pops, i just have 99% of angles in which they plain hurt. Once in a year the pain sticks for a month so i cant use my arm at all, but most times they just hurt.
I can bench press, but i cant do narrow grip. I can pushup, but also - wide. Anything narrow kills em - no skull crushers, no diamond pushups or stuff. I can only bench, overhead press, and tricep pushdown. And even then, sometimes the pain flares up and fucks me for a week or so…
I also cant pull much - so i stick to more reps on any pull movements… I can do bicep exercises, but i cant really compound pull anything, so also Jiu Jitsu is off the table for me for a long time, because i can roll for 3 mins and then my arms are fucked for a month. Still, i do it, because it is my job.
So you had actual breaks with the bone or torn everything (possibly both like me)? No lie, super impressive to see you physique after such injuries. I have a lot of days were if I sleep wrong on my arm the day is fucked off, or the cold will do it sometimes. But damn you make me feel like a bitch with that amount of pain and issues.
Yea, one break was too fast, it just happened but other hand was just me and my ego. The armbar was locked tight but i was holding it with my other arm i was much stronger so i decided to hold and was like “nope”. The dude put all his weight in it, and since it was summer, i was very sweatty and my hold slipped so he came down full speed and force with nothing slowing it down. There was a sound like old, wet towel ripping.
In.my elbows everything has been broken and thorn, yes. I also have had lots of re-occuring tears and sprains.
Idk.man, i believe your injury is more real as you actually did something worth it. I was just sitting in a.safe enviroment putting myself in danger.
Anyways, i also have a bad shoulder, torn hammy and torn that groin muscle(dont know in english - adductor or abductor, idk). I am all full of hurt and yes, i understand what you say about sleeping wrong. Sometimes i wake up in pain because i slept wrong on my arm and shoulder. I actually switched from manual to automatic car just because sometimes after training i need 30min for.my hands to stop shaking in pain and i just couldnt switch gears
Injuries are injuries man. Nothing to brag about from my end. As they say complacency kills, and I almost found that out to the fullest extent. Funny thing about it, was the adrenaline was pumping so hard that it took 20 minutes and my arm looking like it was becoming the incredible hulk before I full realized what happened lol.
The funny thing about living with these types of injuries is that you will think you have recovered and out of no where wake up after sleeping on it wrong and have trex arm all day lol. Regardless, you are the definition of warrior battling through all those things. Very motivating.
Nah, me and my fighter colleagues always said - people like us are idiots.
I understand that you did your job and its a risky job. We just sit here while YOU protect us, and we hurt ourselves, lol.
But i understand what you say.
Ah yea. I always say that with each year i lose an exercise - i can no longer do It also never gets really better - it just gets LESS worse, and then it might blow up to a new level of bad. It only gets better if you dont do anything.
Its funny how people sometimes ask me - why i do some exercise like this or that and i always have to answer that “its not the right way to do it, its just the only way i can do it” and i also dont do “best exercises” - i only do the ones i can do.
For a long time, i could only do a stupid tricep kickback(i dont even think it does something) but it was the only movement my arm could do so i just did 30 reps of that shit
Tricep kickbacks: looks good in the mirror though .
But yah, I have been told I do not curl correctly with my right arm. In my head I am like “I can not even feel most of my right arm half the time and the other half of the time it hurts!” And I know for sure my skull crushers are unbalanced, but as you said something feels better than nothing. The fight is never over with pain, but it shows some fucking outstanding character to eat that fucking pain, chew it up, spit it out, and show it both middle fingers every morning.
To your other comment, anyone who served is a part of the brotherhood (family for women but brotherhood sounds better) in my book. Keep up your hard ass work cause I will for sure continue to creep on this. You have more heart than 99% and that alone garners respect.
Okay, so in my country gyms reopened and i was shocked once i did a bit of elyptical for how my cardio has gone to shit.
I used to do 2 hours on max level and my highers HR was 130, lowest was 108 and average was 118-120…
Now my average is 145 after 30min… So i will be doing lots of steady state cardio, as i believe that is the reason why i feel so tired all the time - since i have put on 40lbs in less than a year and i eat mostly shit food to get in the calories, since the gyms closed i havent done any long steady state cardio and i believe my overall health is shit because of this.
Good thing is that cardio is the first one to go but also the one that is the easiest to get back…
Sadly, 30mins of elyptical burns around 1000kcals and i could barelly eat what i need without cardio.
I am ready to recomp like this - i have a plan of eating as much as i can and just doing cardio as needed and just let go my 260lbs for now, maybe recomp without dieting to 240lbs and see how i look.
I will also be dropping stanazolol now, as i kinda feel a bit toxic/poisoned from time to time. Maybe its cuz of all the shit food i eat, but maybe its cuz i have been on stanazolol for too long.
Since quiting tren and mast didnt change shit in me, i have a hope that i will start anavar early and drop stan, and maybe not notice difference also.
I will keep you all updated, but since today my blast is
There is still stuff to drop, but in comparison of what i was taking earlier, this is already pretty clean look.
I will be doing bloods on e2 soon, and if my e2 is still on normal side, i might drop EQ completely and try 400mg test with no AI and see how i feel.
It genuinely makes me happy to see you thinking about long term health and dropping some of the gear you’re running AND still able to maintain everything you gained.
This is kinda the direction I am going. Starting out, I was thinking 2 blasts a year, now probably down to one. Eventually, I’ll probably just do TRT with an oral for 4-6 weeks. Would you think running HGH at perhaps 2iu a day for 6 months would be worse or better health wise than that 4-6 week oral cycle? How about performance wise?
I plan on basicall
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