* The 2011 Gym Rats Thread *

Psycho Sonny · 12 Jun 2011 at 00:12

Do you need a weight lifting belt? Gym folklore says wearing a weight belt increases lower back safety. It also says weight belts increase abdominal pressure, which allows you to lift more weight. Let’s see if this is true.

Stuart McGill. Author of Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance & Low Back Disorders. Stuart McGill is the authority on lower back health. He has several articles on his site for those who haven’t his books yet.

One article deals with the use of weight belts. It’s adapted from the chapter on back belts in Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance. Click here to download this free pdf. View the file with Acrobat Reader.

Do You Need Weight Belts? If you don’t feel like reading the whole pdf, here are some of the key points of Stuart McGill’s research.

If you never injured your back, wearing a belt adds no safety.
If you injure yourself while wearing a belt, the injury is more severe.
To get the most out of weight belts, you must lift with bad technique.
If you want to lift a few more pounds, wear a weight belt.

Why I Never Recommend Weight Belts. Guy subscribes to a gym. Does Biceps Curls like the other guys. Gets stronger. Hyper-extends his back on each rep to get even stronger. Gets lower back pain.

He wears a belt upon recommendation of the gym people. No more pain. Back to curls, but still hyper-extending his back. Pain comes back, but worse. Doctor diagnoses him with a hernia. Weight lifting gets bad reputation again.

It was Biceps Curls, but it could have been Squats or Deadlifts. If you don’t lift correctly, you’ll injure yourself. That’s why I don’t recommend belts: they give a false sense of security. And according to McGill, injuries get more severe.

Morba · 12 Jun 2011 at 00:21

Lol, awesome. So 1rm are stupid?
To get the most out of a belt you must lift with bad technique?

"Guy goes to a gym and injures back doing curls, gym people recommend using a belt"

Jesus wtf? To even talk about crap like that is stupid.

Yes, it means stabilisers are used a little less. Is this really a bad thing? Not if you have a decent routine.

I guess you NEVER use a machine or anything either?

Psycho Sonny · 12 Jun 2011 at 00:38

Morba said:
Lol, awesome. So 1rm are stupid?
To get the most out of a belt you must lift with bad technique?

"Guy goes to a gym and injures back doing curls, gym people recommend using a belt"

Jesus wtf? To even talk about crap like that is stupid.

Yes, it means stabilisers are used a little less. Is this really a bad thing? Not if you have a decent routine.

I guess you NEVER use a machine or anything either?

i hardly ever use a machine.

in my gym i have a power rack with lat attachment and a full set of dumbells. i hardly ever use the lat attachment, in fact i cannot even remember the last time i used it. i am going to start using it more, but thats due to new routine, i now change everything im doing.

also that second post was lifted straight from stronglifts by mehdi

i dont see why i should do a 1 rep max? what does it achieve? please do inform us how by doing 1 rep, it helps?

Psycho Sonny · 12 Jun 2011 at 00:40

http://stronglifts.com/gain-strength-weight-lifting-belts/

http://stronglifts.com/gym-equipment-accessories-perfect-push-ups-under-armor/

http://stronglifts.com/how-you-can-avoid-lower-back-pain-on-the-overhead-press/

Morba · 12 Jun 2011 at 00:44

Psycho Sonny said:
i dont see why i should do a 1 rep max? what does it achieve? please do inform us how by doing 1 rep, it helps?

I never said you should. read my post again.

Morba · 12 Jun 2011 at 00:48

Psycho Sonny said:
http://stronglifts.com/gain-strength-weight-lifting-belts/

Have you actually read that link?

Psycho Sonny · 12 Jun 2011 at 00:48

Morba said:
I never said you should. read my post again.

so can you tell me why 1 rep maxes arent stupid?

all i can see is the high risk of injury by pushing your body to its limit.

i would much rather do 8 reps at say 100kg than a 1 rep max of 110kg. that 1 rep isnt going to make any difference to my strength or muscle mass. but it is going to push me to a limit where i am at high risk of injury.

the only use for them is competitions or showing off. personally i think showing off is stupid, because somewhere out there someone is warming up with my 1 rep max. therefore competitions are the only feasible place i see 1 rep maxes having a place.

people who do 1 rep maxes regularly are idiots tbh, unless they are in a competition.

thats my opinion on the matter of 1 rep maxes.

Psycho Sonny · 12 Jun 2011 at 00:50

Morba said:
Have you actually read that link?

yeah he basically says, you should only use a belt when pushing yourself to your limit.

thats what i get from it anyway.

Morba · 12 Jun 2011 at 00:52

Psycho Sonny said:
so can you tell me why 1 rep maxes arent stupid?

all i can see is the high risk of injury by pushing your body to its limit.

i would much rather do 8 reps at say 100kg than a 1 rep max of 110kg. that 1 rep isnt going to make any difference to my strength or muscle mass. but it is going to push me to a limit where i am at high risk of injury.

the only use for them is competitions or showing off. personally i think showing off is stupid, because somewhere out there someone is warming up with my 1 rep max. therefore competitions are the only feasible place i see 1 rep maxes having a place.

people who do 1 rep maxes regularly are idiots tbh, unless they are in a competition.

thats my opinion on the matter of 1 rep maxes.

Lol, you come out with some crap fella. Do you really not understand why people do very low rep sets?

Psycho Sonny · 12 Jun 2011 at 00:53

Morba said:
Lol, you come out with some crap fella. Do you really not understand why people do very low rep sets?

i can understand why you would do like 5 reps, or maybe even 3 reps, but 1 rep is pointless.

Morba · 12 Jun 2011 at 00:54

Psycho Sonny said:
yeah he basically says, you should only use a belt when pushing yourself to your limit.

thats what i get from it anyway.

No he doesn't. He says that noobs shouldnt use them, which is fair.
He also says that good form is crucial.
Another thing he mentions is.... ah I wont bother tbh. Read your own links before using them as an argument for why belts shouldn't be used lol. He even RECOMMENDS a belt for people!

N19h7m4r3 · 12 Jun 2011 at 01:29

Psycho Sonny said:
i can understand why you would do like 5 reps, or maybe even 3 reps, but 1 rep is pointless.

For pure strength gain.

At 68kg, I was 1rm'ing 190kg 100% raw.

I worked up in 1rms, not only gained great strength but also improved everything body wise. Size, health, less back problems all thanks to my training which consists mostly of 1rm movements.

It doesn't stop me from doing plenty of reps. Hell I go 15-20 sets daily easily, with 5 reps for each, and 10-15 reps on complementory exercises.

I got there thanks to 1rm maxes, which apparently are only for show-offs and people that go to competitions?!

That opinion just sounds silly, very silly. The same thing about belts, not to mention Morba probably isn't talking about your cheap ass 2-3mm thick belts you get in any sports shop or Argos. A proper powerlifting belt is amazing!

Thanks to that belt, I can squat heavy with severe Lordosis with an angled smith machine without any stabbing pains.
Not everyone has a power rack they can use and I'd gladly free squat if I could. The nearest Powerrack to me is 80 miles away, so I make do with what I have, just like many other people.

icecold · 12 Jun 2011 at 11:13

Well this took a turn for the slightly retarded after I went to bed.

OBVIOUSLY don't wear a belt for lower weights.

OBVIOUSLY develop good core strength.

HOWEVER, using a belt at higher percentages of your 1RM is perfectly fine, unless for some reason you *are* assuming it's some magical injury prevention device.

Also, avoiding singles because of injury prevention is silly. Avoid weights you can't do with good form for injury prevention, end of story.

Skillmister · 12 Jun 2011 at 22:46

Just seen this on the Misc, gonna come in handy i think. It's a bit funky for example it gave me a meal of 4oz pork 4oz chicken for dinner, but i could easily switch one of those with something it gave me for lunch.

http://swole.me/

Buffman · 12 Jun 2011 at 23:22

Why not change this to;

The 2011 handbags at dawn thread

Nice meal maker up there, though damn imoerial units

DarkShadow · 12 Jun 2011 at 23:31

N19h7m4r3 said:
snip

In all fairness, it doesn't take much to trawl through his posting trends to see some of the stuff he comes out with.

Stats aren't everything but sometimes you can appreciate someone's viewpoint when their stats shine. Not that I'm having a dig at PS.

Andr3w · 13 Jun 2011 at 00:13

Evening guys, how's it going?

Just got back from the gym, doing 5x5! (It's nearly 4am...sleeepy now.....(i'm working nights and got time off to go))

ANYWAY, I was just curious on the weight limits for powerlifting competitions.

Lets get this straight - i'm not planning on entering one

!!

I was just wondering what they were?

I.e I am 6ft1 and weigh around 74/75kg, so what would people in my weight be lifting?

Squat 180+?Bench 120+?Deaflift 250kg+?? what they would be able to lift!

I guess the amateurs lift a lot less than the pro's!

DarkShadow · 13 Jun 2011 at 00:28

They're way off, at 70KG I could make those lifts.. raw. The DL's out of my league but 210KG is still somewhat respectable.

My guesses are 210KG+ 140KG+ 260KG+ We're talking raw here, unequipped try more.

Look here: http://www.gbpf.org.uk/

Feeling kind of lazy

Freefaller · 13 Jun 2011 at 08:52

I'm having my BF done tonight - remember last time I had it done I was in the ~17% range. It'll be interesting to see how I fair now. I was over 100kg at the time though.

Steedie · 13 Jun 2011 at 08:55

If you're over 12%, I'll be shocked

*** The 2011 Gym Rats Thread ***

* The 2011 Gym Rats Thread *