Weightlifting belts – why you should absolutely give them a go!

When deciding to use a weightlifting belt or not, I find there are usually three main reasons people say no: 1. That somehow, they aren’t strong enough, or lifting enough weight, to justify using a belt, 2. They believe that not using a belt will train their abs more, 3. It’s cheating. 

To keep things simple, I am going to use science-based findings to discuss these three points and, in the process, hopefully convince you why experimenting with a weightlifting belt may very well be the best investment you can make on your strength training journey. 

you ARE definitely strong enough.

I think the thing I hear most from people when I ask them if they would like to use a weightlifting belt is that they don’t feel they are strong enough or that the weights they are lifting are too light to provide any need to use one. Firstly, strength is relative to the individual so who cares if your bar isn’t as heavy as the person next to you. A belt will help you regardless of the load on the bar – let me discuss. 

In terms of science, with all other things being equal, the intensity (how hard) and the volume (how much) of exercise are the two most important factors for increasing muscle strength and size and wearing a weightlifting belt will allow you to increase both factors! Wearing a belt has been shown (here) to dramatically increase the speed at which we can perform reps using light, moderate or heavy weights. Why does this matter you ask? Well, there is a very tight relationship between the speed of the movement and the percentage of 1RM it is – meaning we can move light weights faster, and our heaviest weights move much slower. So basically, it is our best measure of the relative difficulty of the reps being done. If the reps are moving faster, it’s easier, and if they’re slower, it’s harder. 

To test the effects of using a belt on performance, these studies (here and here), had people perform reps of a squat or deadlift at the same weight, with and without a belt and found that when wearing the belt, time to complete the rep decreased by about 9% and the standing up phase of the squat was about 15% faster. Basically – they found lifting the same weight with the belt was easier and without it, much harder. Using a belt has been estimated to add about 5-15% in terms of kilograms on the bar and can add 1-3 reps at any given weight. So, who cares how heavy the bar is, using a belt will mean you can add more to that bar, or perform more reps at whatever weight you’re using – both of which are massive wins! Imaging you’re performing some squats with 30kg on the bar and you’re finding it difficult to perform more than 6 reps. Now you throw a belt on and all of a sudden you can do 8-10 reps at this weight… this is something that will have a huge impact on your training and progress.

If you’re wondering how the heck a weightlifting belt can have this sort of impact, well it largely comes down to an increase in intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) and I believe a placebo effect of people feeling ‘safer and more supported’ aswell. Studies looking at the effect of IAP suggest about a 15% increase in IAP for deadlifts and up to a 30-40% for squats. This ultimately increases stability and rigidity of the trunk making it easier it push through the floor with your feet when standing up from a deadlift or squat type movement, or really any overhead pushing too. As for the placebo of ‘feeling’ safer and more supported, that’s hard to measure but we do know that it doesn’t seem to improve safety or reduce injury risk. I’m all for a harmless, positive placebo so if people feel better wearing a belt and I know it can improve your performance then go for it! In other words, there is no downside to trying but it may take some getting used to.

but what about my core!?

Funnily enough, using a weightlifting belt has actually been shown, in several studies to increase core musculature activity when compared to not wearing a belt. Now this may come as a shock, but it also makes sense if you think about it. Muscles tend to work harder when placed under more load. Knowing now that using a weightlifting belt can increase the amount of weight lifted then we can expect all the muscle used to perform the movement to work more – right?

These findings are small but still significant and there have been other scientific works to show a decrease in activity of these muscles (here), or no difference at all (here) when using a belt. So, I will round this off by saying, at best we can see an increase in the amount your core works, at worst, little to no difference at all. So no, using a belt won’t make your core weaker.  

cheat mode, activated?

Many believe that not using a weightlifting belt is somehow a better measure of “raw strength” as you’re not using any aids to help complete the exercise. This is largely just a matter of opinion so it’s hard to present any scientific evidence to support one view or the other. What I will say is there is an undoubtedly large performance enhancing effect for wearing a belt so we therefore can’t compare someone who is using a belt to someone who is not. We also need to consider that if you yourself lift one weight with a belt and then compare this to another lift you previously had done without one, it would be hard to know for sure to what degree your strength has improve or if this is just the effectiveness of the weightlifting belt. When asked if wearing a belt is cheating, I generally respond by answering a question with another question (how annoying) – we can run without shoes, but wearing shoes certainly will help us run faster and further and that I don’t think that is necessarily cheating – do you?

Trying my best to summarise all this, wearing a weightlifting belt will dramatically increase the weight you can lift and how many reps you can do at a given weight mainly through increasing intra-abdominal pressure. Wearing a belt will not make your core weaker (in fact there is good reason to suggest it can possibly make your abs stronger) and is definitely NOT cheating. Whether weightlifting belts improve safety and reduce injury risk, it’s unclear but likely no – however it certainly won’t increase injury risk. You may not love wearing a belt and it can take some getting used to, but my advice will always be to strap on a belt and let’s go max out!