I don’t have an addictive personality, but recently, I went cold turkey.
I’m not gonna lie, it was hard. I didn’t realize I had a problem. I thought I was just like everyone else.
It wasn’t until I gave it up until I came face-to-face with my issue: I was addicted to my lifting belt.
Mentally and physically, I needed my belt to lift heavy weights. I didn’t even consider going beltless once a certain weight was on the bar. I also didn’t consider the significant crutch I was creating by never lifting without my belt.
For the first time in my lifting career, I set out to perform an entire training cycle without using my belt for squats or deadlifts. It wasn’t easy (nothing good ever is), but I learned some valuable lessons (and hit some big PR’s) in the process.
DISCLAIMER: YOU SHOULD STILL USE A BELT
I’m not denouncing the use of belts entirely. That would be stupid since it’s part of the sport of powerlifting. There are no extra points awarded for lifting without a belt in competition. Anyone who competes in powerlifting who thinks they’re “better” because they don’t wear a belt should stick to chess club. I am, however, challenging everyone to give it a shot and give up the belt for a while.
LESSON #1: CREATING ACTIVE STABILITY
Lifting without a belt teaches us how to create stability under heavy loads. There are three different ways to stabilize a joint:
1. Active Stability: Multiple muscle groups contract together to stabilize the joint (Example: “spreading the floor” to create stability at the hip during a squat)
2. Passive Stability: A joint is brought to (or at least close to) end range to create stability (Example: Using an ultra-wide stance to get end-range stability at the hips during a sumo deadlift)
3. Air Pressure: Filling the lungs and belly with air to pressurize the thoracic cavity and stabilize the spine (i.e. the Valsalva maneuver)
Ideally, we want to create active stability when lifting. This is the optimal way to move under heavy loads, both from a performance and safety standpoint.
For example, using the muscles of the abs and hips to keep a good position during squats and deadlifts will help you get stronger and keep you in the game longer than simply arching your back or standing as wide as possible.
Lifting belts can lead you to rely on passive stability. Just crank that sucker as tight as possible and BAM, you’re toight like a toiger. But take the belt away and suddenly you’re left to your own devices. You can’t create that passive stability as easily, forcing you to learn how to create your tension actively.
Not sure how to create active stability? Grab a dumbbell for some goblet squats or wrap a band around your wrists during push-ups. These exercises force to reactively create stability. Bottle the feeling during these exercises and apply them to your barbell lifts.
A belt can actually help you learn how to do this too, as I showed you in last week’s Technique Tuesday. Give this a try and then use the same technique without your belt:
LESSON #2: MENTAL TOUGHNESS
The most important reason to train without a belt is to build mental toughness and the calm-yet-killer instinct necessary to excel in the sport of powerlifting. It takes some cojones to step under a heavy bar with no support other than your own flesh and bone. But once you’ve mastered your mind, your body is sure to follow.
Some coaches say to wear your belt for sets of 3 reps or less. Others say to put it on once you reach 80 percent of your 1-rep max. These are arbitrary recommendations. Why not push as far as you can without supportive gear? It’s unlikely you’ll forget how to use a belt. Yes, there’s a learning curve initially, but the time invested in training without a belt will make up for the quick re-learning process once you put the belt back on.
Prior to my most recent training cycle, I’d never squatted anything over 440 without a belt. That was about 85 percent of my best-ever squat. But every week for four weeks, I worked up to a heavy single without a belt, followed by a few back-off sets. Then, later during the week, I’d do lighter pause squats without a belt.
After a month, I squatted 495 without a belt fairly easily. That’s almost 95 percent of my current squat PR. Clearly I’d handicapped myself into thinking I needed to use my belt so often.
Lose the belt and lose your mental crutch. Plus, once you throw your belt back on, you’ll feel damn-near invincible.
LESSON #3: PRUDENT WEIGHT SELECTION
I’ve been touting the benefits of submaximal strength training for a long time. Despite the fact that heavy lifting is highly specific to powerlifting, it’s a complete myth that you have to lift heavy all the time to get stronger. Lifting without a belt forces you to use lighter weights, hence leading to more volume at submaximal weights.
One of the biggest “aha” moments that lifters have when they attend one of the Optimizing the Big 3 seminars is that when you compare the volume charts of several highly-popular powerlifting programs (5/3/1, Sheiko, Cube Method, etc.), most of these effective programs dedicate almost all of their training in the 60-70 percent range.
Even if you’re training in the 80-90 percent range of a beltless max, it’s still going to fall within the sweet spot around 70 percent because your max with a belt will be much higher. And the more quality work you do at these percentages without a belt, the more technically sound you’ll be at heavier weights when you throw the belt on.
TAKE-HOME POINTS
OK, now you know how important it is to train without a belt from time to time. Here’s what to do with this information:
- Don’t use a belt for any warm-up sets if possible.
- Every once in a while, try to perform an entire 4-week training cycle without putting a belt on at all.
- When going beltless, choose lighter weights and do more volume overall.
- Over time, attempt to turn previous rep-maxes with a belt into beltless PRs (i.e. strive to turn your old belted 3-rep max into your beltless 1-rep max).
- If you’re going to compete in powerlifting, use your belt. Everyone else is doing it, so don’t put yourself at an unnecessary disadvantage because you think you’re a tough guy.