on wearing weight belt for upper body workouts?

[bhatiaa1]

Do you wear a weight belt while just working on the upper body?

I saw a weight lifter wearing one during is upper body days.... he told me that it keeps his abs tight and trimmed.

Do you think that exactly works?

[RaSP]

I saw a guy doing this today while doing **standing curls**. The only reason he needed it was the only parts of his body that *weren't* moving were his biceps. I swear he was getting more of a lower back/shoulder workout than anything. It hurt just watching him.

The best way to keep your abs tight is to, well, ... contract them. <G>

*R*

[RJP]

Many studies have shown the opposite actually. That is, an over reliance on belts will weaken the midsection since the belt is performing that stabilizing function the abs and lower back would normally have to perform. I lost my belt years ago and just never bought another and found I never needed it after all. That said, for very heavy deadlifts or squats (3 reps or less) a belt might be useful.

[NoChemicals]

imo, i'd prefer not to use a weight belt for any type of excercise unless you are lifting really really i mean realllyyy heavy.
Doing compoud excercises such as squats, bench presses, deadlifts without wearing a weight belt helps strengthening your lower back and abs, hence improves overall stability. Personally, I feel wearing a weight belt defeats the purpose of building stability muscles. I have only been lifting for 2 years but I only recently discovered that the reason I have not been improving on my lifts was my weak lower back and abs.

I'm not totally against wearing a weight belt. If you have suffered an injury on your lower back then by all means wear a weight belt for injury prevention.

Other than that, I'll leave it to the experts on other benefits and flaws of the weight belt. Just my two cents. All the best.

[garrett]

I use a belt for heavy military presses, heavy squats and heavy deads.

I definitely don't advocate the use of a belt on any other exercise.

I surmise the use of a belt when it is unneeded would lead to weakened core muscles.

If your friend has a preternaturally wide waist and wants to keep its size to an absolute minimum, the use of a belt would *possibly* be justified...but he would certainly have to weigh the cost of a weakened core and the potential injuries that it poses against his aesthetic appearance.

I would err on the side of a wider waist and greater core support, while bringing out my medial delts, outer quads, and lats to appear thinner at the waist and achieve that "X" shape.