Lifting Belts - Are They Necessary?

In most gyms today it is quite common to see weight trainers of all skill levels sporting lifting belts. Some will even go so far as to wear them for the duration of their entire workout, including upper body exercises that have no apparent need at all for such apparatus. This product, although having been around for a very long time and offering some (minimal benefit), should be left in the gym bag for the most part in all workouts.

Lifting belts are designed to compress the abs and lower back in order to provide additional support and stability for movements primarily involving bending or straightening of the lower back. Squats and deadlifts are the two exercises in which a belt is most commonly used since they both require tremendous core strength to support the enormous amount of weight lifted. The problem is that when a piece of equipment is used to play the role of a muscle group during a lift that muscle group is not forced to work as hard. The result - underdevelopment of important muscles. Everybody is born with a natural lifting belt far better (and cheaper) than a commercial one - their abs and lower back. The power movements that cause many lifters to get the urge to use a belt have a purpose to develop both a strong core capable of supporting a lot of weight. To use such equipment is truly cheating one out of the full benefits of even performing the exercises.

Although lifting belts do impair essential muscle growth they do have one good practical use. A single rep maximum lift in either the squat or deadlift would surely benefit from wearing a belt. This is an exception because single reps are typically used in either competition preparation or strength measurement rather than muscle building. But other than that it's best to let the core muscles play their own role. An added benefit of this is a much more intense ab workout than any number of crunches or leg raises - and everyone strives for a washboard stomach.