A Weight Lifting Belt Should Be in Every Work Out

A Weight Lifting Belt Should Be in Every Work Out Room

While weight lifting is a great way to get into better shape and sculpt your body, it can also be very dangerous, and a weight lifting belt should always be available wherever you work out. They are not necessary for every exercise, but essential to others and with good reason.

A weight lifting belt provides added support to your back and abdominal muscles when you are lifting weights, and can mean the difference between a strong lower back and a strained lower back under certain circumstances.

One of the most popular exercises for building muscle throughout the entire body is the dead lift. Basically, the lifter stands with his legs parted and a barbell in front of him on the floor. He then lifts it off of the ground and up to waist level, and then sit it back on the ground.

It is very important to use a weight lifting belt when doing this particular exercise, because you are putting a lot of stress on your lower back. The belt will provide support to your lower back and lower the risk of sustaining an injury.

One exercise for which I always use a weight lifting belt is squats. With free weights, squats involve placing a barbell across your shoulders and squatting down into an almost seated position, then standing back up straight. It can also put a tremendous strain on your back, shoulders and neck, so a belt is always helpful with this exercise.

There are also exercises for which you do not really need a weight lifting belt. Curls, for building your biceps, are one such exercise. You also don't really need a belt for doing French curls, which work your triceps, or bench presses, which is probably the most well known weight lifting exercise.

The best guide is just good old-fashioned common sense. Always start a weight lifting exercise with a lighter weight that isn't too hard to manipulate. If you feel any strain or pain in your back while using a light weight, you should stop immediately and put on a weight lifting belt.

You don't want to end up like a friend of mine, who was stubbornly proud of the fact that he never took any safety precautions while lifting weights. He was very athletic and got away with his bad habits for a long time, but when he got into his 30s, he learned a hard lesson about getting older.

One day he decided to increase the maximum weight on his squat by 30 pounds, even though you should never attempt to increase your max by more than 10 pounds at a time. He defiantly refused to wear a weight lifting belt, and he couldn't hold the bar atop his shoulders for even a few seconds, instead falling down as the barbell crashed to the floor behind him.

He tried to stand up, but yelled, grabbed his lower back and fell back down. He had to be helped into a chair, and when he finally got to the doctor, he found that he had severely strained his lower back and actually came dangerously close to a ruptured disc. He was given a week of bed rest and four more weeks of therapy. Needless to say, two months later when he finally tried squats again, he made sure to put on a weight lifting belt.

A Weight Lifting Belt Should Be in Every Work Out 2015-04-11T07:46:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Unknown