Reply With QuoteYou should own your own belt. Although, you should probably have no problem with that weight beltless. I would just do your regularly scheduled lifts.
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Training without a belt
I'm a novice, in the midst of linear progression (42 y.o. male, 5'10", 190 lbs). Current lifts are:
Squat: 195lbs
Press: 100
Deadlift: 255
Bench: 135
I apologize for the very basic question: I have to train away from my home gym for about week over Thanksgiving. Once I hit 175 on the squat and 200 on the deadlift, I have used a belt for last warm-up set and work sets of those movements. The belt I use belongs to the gym where I normally train (I do not yet have my own).
Without a belt, should I just continue at my next scheduled weights? Or should I de-load slightly to account for not having a belt? Or warm up and see how it feels?
Many thanks for your input.
Member
You should own your own belt. Although, you should probably have no problem with that weight beltless. I would just do your regularly scheduled lifts.
Lex
You can train without the belt so do it. The belt is a useful tool that is to be used, but it shouldn't be your crutch.
Member
That depends on how much you get out of a belt. I would reduce the weight to be on the safe side if your previous sessions left any doubt about your ability to handle the next session with a belt. If previous belted sets were around your limit of what you could do then, then unbelted sets at the same weight might be above your current limit.
Know starting strength is supposed to be about dat dere optimized progress, but one week with reduced weights does not make you a pussy.
Member
[QUOTE=Cody;1430211]You should own your own belt.
This.
Member
I love my Best Belt. If you can get past the belt hickies-and you should-get one and embrace the belt. It makes a world of difference. And don't buy the bull about it weakening your core. I believe the opposite is true. The belt gives your core something to push against. Imagine: if you pushed against a wall vs pushing against no wall, which builds strength? A wall. Now buy a belt. A good one. A thick one.
Member
Is powerlifting the goal here for yourself? If not feel free to build strength concurrently with the rest of your system. I love how people say I've never seen such and such lift in a meet, so it's just assistance. But if your getting strong for life, fuck a belt. Unless you're a physco it won't be with with anytime other than the gym, so who cares.
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We don't use the belt to practice lifting more with a belt. We use it because it's a tool that allows to get stronger more efficiently than we can without one.Originally Posted by Ericreichelt81
In other words, all other things being equal, a lifter who trains with a belt will develop a stronger beltless squat than an identical lifter who trains exclusively without one.
Member
Okay Skillin, that seems... a bit hard to swallow. Like, I think it is perfectly fine to point out your beltless squat shouldn't suffer, and the belt lets you better load the muscles you care about (good for both strength AND hypertrophy, wee!) But flat out claiming the belt somehow is so good that it makes the beltless better than training the beltless more?
Where is Savs when you need him to wage the belt war?
Member
This is the theory. And it's a great theory.
But it didn't match up to my real world experience. I got more out of regular ab wheel training than I did the belt. And when I used a belt regularly I found myself significantly weakened on the rare occasions I trained beltless.
Do I have a counter theory? No. Just my n=1 real world experience. Which, in the absence of a study, may be even better than a beautiful theory.
Savs felt the same about the belt. And had a theory on why training beltless was better. But I'm not sure his writing survived the purge.
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