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Barbell Strained core muscles from wearing belt too tight?

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Toomuch4

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Is this a common problem? I don't think I've ever read or heard about this. I think I've been having issues with some of the muscles under my ribs. Maybe even one a little more to the side today. Was doing back squats and felt the pain on some of the hard reps. It felt like it was muscle strain from flexing against the belt.
 
I can't lift as much weight. It's a pretty significant difference.

Is lifting less weight but with better health a bad thing?

FWIW, I compete in Olympic weightlifting. I only wear a belt on 90% lifts, and the bulk of my training is in the 60-80% range.
 
I'm dealing with something similar...and its been 4 weeks since the first pain appeared..now i'm starting to feel better..
 
Is lifting less weight but with better health a bad thing?

FWIW, I compete in Olympic weightlifting. I only wear a belt on 90% lifts, and the bulk of my training is in the 60-80% range.

Yes, you are right. The pain is getting worse and is starting to happen on both sides now. I'll have to try loosening the belt. Lifting less weight is never fun though.
 
Yes, you are right. The pain is getting worse and is starting to happen on both sides now. I'll have to try loosening the belt. Lifting less weight is never fun though.

How tight do you wear the belt? Sounds like a little looser might be a good idea.

Also, you describe "flexing against the belt"... I would say that your torso muscles shouldn't do anything different when you wear the belt or when you don't. They should just get tight; braced. The belt just gives you a little feedback which may help you do it a little more effectively.

Do you do warm-up sets without the belt? I think that's also a good practice... For powerlifting type strength lifting, I only wear the belt for heaviest work sets and maybe the last warm-up set.
 
Are you doing a low bar hip hinge squat (like a powerlifter) or a high bar knee dominant squat (like an Olympic lifter)? How wide is your stance? Are your knees caving in at the bottom? Are you using the valsalva maneuver to push out on the belt?

Do you have a thin/slender build? The belt can cause tremendous pressure and if you dont have much muscle/fat it can be painful, especially if worn tightly.

What is the belt size/thickness? Leather? Is it broken in?

Are you wearing the belt too high or too tight? Start a bit looser.

At the bottom of the squat, are you losing tension in your mid back, causing your chest to fall, putting pressure on the belt?

Regards,

Eric
 
How tight do you wear the belt? Sounds like a little looser might be a good idea.

Also, you describe "flexing against the belt"... I would say that your torso muscles shouldn't do anything different when you wear the belt or when you don't. They should just get tight; braced. The belt just gives you a little feedback which may help you do it a little more effectively.

Do you do warm-up sets without the belt? I think that's also a good practice... For powerlifting type strength lifting, I only wear the belt for heaviest work sets and maybe the last warm-up set.

I do all of my warm up sets beltless usually. Like you said, the technique shouldn't be different so I don't feel the need to use the belt for the warm ups.

At this point, I think I wear it too tight. I do have to fight a bit to get it tight enough before I lock it in place with the prongs.

Are you doing a low bar hip hinge squat (like a powerlifter) or a high bar knee dominant squat (like an Olympic lifter)? How wide is your stance? Are your knees caving in at the bottom? Are you using the valsalva maneuver to push out on the belt?

Do you have a thin/slender build? The belt can cause tremendous pressure and if you dont have much muscle/fat it can be painful, especially if worn tightly.

What is the belt size/thickness? Leather? Is it broken in?

Are you wearing the belt too high or too tight? Start a bit looser.

At the bottom of the squat, are you losing tension in your mid back, causing your chest to fall, putting pressure on the belt?

Regards,

Eric

I do both high-bar and low-bar squats. I would say that the high-bar squats are worse, but on the later reps when I'm less upright on the way up. I have more of a slender build relative to the weightlifting world. 6 ft tall, long limbs, and not as long a torso. I've been training my abs a lot more lately, with higher volume and shorter rests. I was wondering if the increased size and strength could have something to do with why the pain is getting worse.

I'm using a four inch wide, double prong, leather belt. It usually gets broken in more as the workout progresses, but it will get stiffer again if I do a bunch of beltless stuff. I've been using it for a couple of months now so I imagine it is broken in.

It's funny that you mention the chest falling. I was thinking yesterday that I did need to keep a tighter chest position. It wasn't because I wasn't tight though. It was because I was getting really tight by flexing against the belt, and forgetting about the chest.
 
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