Im training for a PL meet in October. Ive mainly been been using HBBS as my second squat of the week. I haven’t been doing any paused low bar or low bar tempo squats. I just feel like I get a better training stimulus from HBBS with a narrower stance than my comp stance, for sets of 6 mainly. I like SSB a lot except for the back it makes my back incredibly sore and aggravates old back injuries. Am I doing myself a big disservice omitting paused squats and tempo squats? I feel like Im recovering fine week to week with what im doing, and getting stronger. Im doing HBBS with a belt but without sleeves or squat shoes, just wearing my flats. Should I leave out the belt as well to help with fatigue management? I also have a question about deficit deadlifts. My deficit deadlifts (beltless) are still really strong and close to my comp deadlift. Do you think its wise to swap in beltless paused deadlifts to keep the weight lower for fatigue management? Thank you.
Hey Kradatz1,
Thanks for the post. What program are you running?
I don’t think you need to do paused or tempo squats, no.
For the beltless vs belted work, I don’t think it really matters. Do whatever you prefer and keep it consistent throughout the block to see how it works out.
-Jordan
Im running the Juggernaut AI program. I was running your guys templates for a long time and made tons of strength and hypertrophy gainz. I wanted to test out this Juggernaut app since it looked cool and I could afford it. I just remember when I ran your templates you had a lot of stuff beltless which I thought was a good idea for fatigue management, it seemed to help doing my alt deadlift stuff beltless.
Yea, you can do beltless stuff to reduce absolute weight on the bar- though I’m not sure how much fatigue it actually reduces.
Best of luck!
So Jordan, are you recommending most people do their non-comp lifts belted now (or leave it to personal preference at least)? Or do you still recommend beltless for a different reason?
Truth be told, I don’t think it matters much one way or another. For newer lifters, I would do advocate for some beltless training just for the variation and slightly different skill development. For long time lifters, people working around an injury, and/or those getting ready for a meet, I think using a belt more often can be a good tool to use on whatever lifts they want.