Here on some updated pics I took on Monday morning(I will be posting new progress pictures and stats at the beginning of each week.)

If there are any specific poses or body parts you want to see for the next updates leave a comment.

First off this article is my personal opinion on the subject and should not be taken as medical advice. If you have  pre-existing medical conditions and have been told by your doctor to wear one at all times then do it! Also if you just feel more comfortable and safe wearing one then you should stick with it. I’m not going to talk about ditching the belt altogether, but rather using it only when necessary.

If you spend time regularly at the gym you will inevitably spot the lifters with a weight belt obsession. These are the guys that walk into the gym with one on and keep it on throughout the entire workout no matter what body parts or exercises they are working on. They could be doing only chest and triceps for the day, but the belt will never come off. Why? I’m assuming they feel like its protecting them from injury at all times and they assume if its good to use some of the time then its even better to use one all of the time. I believe this couldn’t be further from the truth and I’ll explain my reasoning.

Let me first explain that when used properly to provide extra support to the core(lower back and abdominals) and when performing the right types of lifts a weight belt is an absolute necessity! I can’t emphasize enough that I’m not stating you should discard using the belt for good. I personally use my belt only for heavy compound lifts, such as squats, dead-lifts, and power cleans. Furthermore I only use it when I’m lifting weights above 200lbs and need the provided extra support.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way let me explain to you why you should avoid relying on a belt all the time and what harm it could potential cause. I will also use a real world example to illustrate what I’m talking about. The purpose of the belt is to help stabilize the bodies core which consists of your lower back and your abdominals. Now this can also be achieved to some degree simply by strengthening the muscle of the core and learning how to properly tighten them when performing your lifts. This causes your core to act as its own protective weight belt and internally stabilize the body to help protect it form injury. When you proceed to wear a belt all the time your body does not develop this self protection technique as well, because it has come to rely on the belt to provide the stabilization. Over time your core muscles can actually become weaker due to relying on the belt entirely too much.

Now at this point I’m sure your saying So What?, if I’m in the gym and always have my belt on do I really need my body to develop the technique to help self stabilize my core? Well your probably right as long as you have your belt on you should be safe, but do you wear your belt 24/7 even when your outside the gym? If you do, then you probably have other issues and you don’t  need to worry about the advice in this article. If your like 99% of the rest of gym goers and don’t then you should probably pay attention to this example.

Lets say your at home and a friend comes over and says hey I need you to help me with something. You being a good friend say sure no problem and you proceed to your friends house. Once there you discover a bunch of boxes and realize you have been suckered in to helping your friend move. However your already there so you decide to go ahead and help out. You have spent a few hours packing and moving several boxes and your almost done when your friend says ok just one more thing we need to move this couch. Your tired and ready to be done , but with out giving it too much thought you gladly agree, after all at the gym you regularly dead-lift far more weight than a simple couch and there are two of you doing it, so no problem. You squat down to get a good grip and on the count of three you lift 1-2-3 and then as you begin to lift it happens, you let go of the couch, drop to your knees and cry out ahhh my back. Congratulations you have successfully injured your back attempting to move the couch. Why did this happen, bc your core muscles did not have the support they have grown accustomed to having that was provided by your belt  and without the ability to self stabilize you are far more prone to injury than you would have ever guessed.

Now the example here was simply meant to open your eyes to the dangers of relying on the belt too much, the injury could have resulted from doing pretty much any house hold chores you can think of not just lifting heavy objects. The key is you want your body to learn the valuable techniques of self stabilizing the core and have your body prepared with the ability to use it whenever the right situation comes along. Its not worth risking the possibility of a serious injury , when a simple adjustment to your training style may have made all the difference in the  outcome of the situation.