Anyway, I’m wearing a belt now. I looked at this video and seeing where my gut pooched I used that to decide where to put the belt, right where my lower gut starts to turn in again, which in my case puts my belt about centered across my navel.
This being because my unbelted deadlift relied on me doming my abs. I figured that the dome I create should sit atop the inner surface of the belt, the belt now giving the dome something to rest on.
I suppose that one could do the same thing for the squat, video an unbelted attempt from the side and use that to determine how you use your gut muscles and thus where to put the belt.
I wear a belt when the waist is a bit to loose on my pants. I wear a thick double prong on last sets where the weight is above 80 percent, it feels great pushing against the abs really helps for that reason.
I always wear my belt just low enough below my ribs so I don’t feel like I’m crushing them. I’ve found that any lower back rounding I get seems to be as a result of upper/middle back rounding so the more support I can get there the better.
I used to wear a belt for nearly all of my deadlifts and squats. Got the point where I could squat 405 Olympic style and deadlift 505, but just unracking 315 beltless or pulling 405 felt incredibly difficult. I quit wearing a belt and now my beltless lifts are within 20lbs of my all time PRs with a belt.
Now I’m strongly against using any gear outside of absolute top sets or for competition prep. Obviously you’ll want to use knee wraps + a belt for any contest, with the exception of a few deadlifters who basically get nothing from a belt.
As far as positioning goes, I prefer it higher on squats, on my waist and a bit tighter. For deadlift, I like it a notch looser and pulled down in front. As for when I use it; always at a meet, depends on how I’m feeling during training. I train mostly without a belt but some days I feel like I need/want it more and throw it on.
Do you guys suggest wearing you’re belt at 80% of max? I’ve always put it on either at 2x BW or when I start to get fatigued. Is this a personal preference or should I hold off putting the belt on more?
