I own a belt, but I haven’t used it or any other supportive equipment in ages. I swore it all off after beginning to watch Clarence Kennedy, and deciding that it may not be all it’s cracked up to be. The BBM templates assign belted work, and my plan is to just go with it, but would it really make a big difference to just go beltless? How much of using a belt and other supportive equipment is just a placebo with a little extra proprioceptive benefit?
You’re likely to lift less weight without a belt once you’ve gotten good at using it.
Most serious lifters use a belt- nearly ALL (including Clarence) at some point in their career.
We would recommend you use a belt if you’re interested in lifting the most weight possible in a given context. If you don’t want to, that’s cool too.
It really does help. There’s room to say doing some training without a belt is good for learning about how to brace… but to learn how to brace with a belt you have to brace with a belt, right?
Yea you’ll move more weight and it’s fun to use a belt sometimes and to not use a belt at other times. Really. It’s fun!
A belt and some shoes are the two things you can and should probably buy to help you have a better time in the weight room. I’d add wrist wraps to that list, but this hobby is pretty gosh darn cheap all thins considered.