What is the weight belt, and whether it is necessary

There are exercises with increased risk of injury to the back. These include jerk and jerk, squats, pull rod in the slope, deadlift and its variations, bench press standing barbell. All of them create a compressive load on the lumbar vertebrae, ie, squeezing them, and it's bad.

More or less familiar with trenazhorkoy understand that the above exercises are among the basic, that is practically mandatory to perform and do not have a full-fledged counterparts. What to do? Yes, actually, nothing. At least in the initial stages of training. The organism is able to protect itself, and particularly for the spine there is a system in which even the gut and the lungs are involved.

Belt from nature

In humans, there are so-called muscle-stabilizers. Their role is not only in keeping the body in a certain position. In addition to the muscles of the pelvic floor, multifidus muscle and diaphragm, there are transverse and oblique abdominal muscles, which are able to generate an increased pressure in the abdomen. Try to stretch your abdominal muscles hard. Feel everything inside seemed squeezed, and the upper part of the torso slightly raised?

Now do the same thing, but the most breath before it. The pressure inside was even stronger, and the top of the torso rose even higher. If you could look at your insides in this moment, you would see how muscle contraction squeezed your internal organs, pushing some of them down to the pelvic floor, and some - up to diaphragm. Top - similar to an elastic ball filled with air, light, and they are also pushed up the internal organs. Your entire body from the inside turning into a vertical strut, reducing the load on the spine.

That is how our body resists compression loads, and participating in the defense of the vertebrae of the torso muscles form the so-called natural waist.

The natural waist is able to cope with very large loads, if it develop. With enough diligence and lack of haste, you will get not only the health and development of the body, but also a relief sexy torso as a bonus. Do not rush to increase the scale, observe the proper technique, and everything will be fine.

Athletic belt

Weight belt helps the natural waist to do a better job. It allows you to create an additional intra-abdominal pressure and add stability hull that gives opportunity without negative consequences to take a greater compressive load on the spine and take a higher weight.

species

weightlifting belt

Wider at the waist narrower in the abdomen. Versatile choice not only for weight lifters, but for bodybuilders. There is a kind of very wide belts that seem to be more capital, but in practice it is not enough abut evenly. Please consider this when fitting.

Belt Powerlifting

Equally wide along the entire length, very dense, massive, heavy and expensive. The width is about 10 centimeters, due to the rules of competition pauerliftingu. It provides additional support for the belly, worn as close to the pelvis, is only suitable for competing lifters.

Material

The main materials for the belts currently are leather, synthetic leather and fabric. Genuine leather is always more expensive and harder, but it is very long. Leatherette differ, including the price. Bonus Pick from imitation leather belt comes a variety of fixtures and stiffness. Fabric belts often make the Velcro. This is a good option at low loads.

How to choose a belt

Only on their own and only with the fitting. Tighten the belt and fasten. Ideally, the belt should be fastened on the middle row of holes. Too long or short times can interfere with exercise.

For a beginner the best material can be a skin substitute. Dump a ton of money just for the natural leather is not always wise, and a cloth belt does not guarantee the required level of fixation.

With regard to the thickness and joints, athletes often prefer multi-layered belts with zigzag stitches. Statistically, these options are best fitting, keep their shape for a long time and serve.

Terms of training with belt

There are two simple conditions, but to comply with them is very important.

• Between each belt should be removed.
• It is necessary to alternate the workout with a belt or without it.

Facts about the belt

• Weight belt can further increase the intra-abdominal pressure by almost half.
• When using the belt does not change the exercise equipment.
• Squat with a belt slightly increases the activity of the quadriceps and hamstring during the exercise.
• A one-day study showed no decrease in the activity of working the oblique and transverse muscles during squat with a belt. In the long term effect is difficult to estimate, not least because of problems reading of the internal muscles, as well as the virtual absence of serious research. For these reasons, the issue of efficiency of use of the belt still remains open.

Please note, weight belt itself does not protect your back, but it creates the best conditions for the body's natural defenses. That is, it is not an additional protection, and the amplifier existing protection. For this reason, use is contraindicated belt begins. As mentioned above, your natural waist is able to cope with a high load, so the first thing you need to bring in the form of what is already yours. Slowly, without haste your body adapts to the stress. Along the way you will learn in detail your body, you learn to listen, understand, and more control over them. This kind of foundation, without which go somewhere further, not only pointless, but also extremely dangerous to health.

Although there is no detailed large-scale studies on the effects on athletic belt torso muscles it is logical to assume that the constant presence of a "helper", taking over part of the work, lowers the tone of the natural belt. The body becomes accustomed to the fact that it constantly outside the support, and does not employ stabilizers own fully.

psychological aspect

Sometimes in the gym can be observed at first sight strange picture: a person puts on weight belt, but doing strength exercises, not creating a compressive load on the spine. For example, a press of a bar lying on his chest. Why would he the belt?

If a person - lifter, ie doing the bench press with a deflection body, in this case, the belt really helps protect the lower back.

When horizontal exercises without lifterskih tweaks belt works on a psychological level. All the matter in the sensations and associative memory. As mentioned above, weight belt helps to stabilize the body. At the level of sensation it is primarily seen as a strong compression of the abdomen. It was as if something tight wraps, compresses, fetters and protects the body like armor. In the brain, this condition begins directly associated with the reliability, security, and more force. On a psychological level, the belt turns into a shoulder a true friend with whom you feel more confident, and that feeling starts to be included in any exercise.

Similarly, work and athletic gloves, if a long time to use them. Let your leg workout and you're nothing at all to do with hands, but without equipment creates discomfort, lack of training.

Does this mean you have to spend the whole exercise in the zone? Not. Even those who use the zone for other purposes, do so only when approached with submaximal weights and "on time". Whether it is necessary to check the psychological effects of the use of belts in non-core exercise if you have never done this before? Probably neither. Accustomed to feeling more confident with a belt, you risk to acquire constant uncertainty during exercise without it. Far more lucrative to develop and strengthen their own mind, to draw emotional strength from within and rely only on themselves.