***The 2021 Gym Rats Thread*** ᕦ( ͠°◞ °)ᕥ

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The SBD belt is miles better quality than the Strength Shop ones these days, unless they’re doing premium belts. Need the riot lever as well since their regular levers have a habit of breaking.

It’s more expensive and takes a herculean effort to break it in initially due to being 13mm and tough leather but it’s easily the best belt on the market and will last a lifetime. Being able to adjust the tightness on the fly is super helpful.

I have an old SS lever belt with an upgraded Riot lever I leave at work for when I train at Pure there and it’s like a toy compared to the SBD.
 
Somnambulist said:
The SBD belt is miles better quality than the Strength Shop ones these days, unless they’re doing premium belts. Need the riot lever as well since their regular levers have a habit of breaking.

It’s more expensive and takes a herculean effort to break it in initially due to being 13mm and tough leather but it’s easily the best belt on the market and will last a lifetime. Being able to adjust the tightness on the fly is super helpful.

I have an old SS lever belt with an upgraded Riot lever I leave at work for when I train at Pure there and it’s like a toy compared to the SBD.
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I’d hope it’s better quality for nearly double the price. What’s better about it in terms of quality? Genuinely curious. My 10mm
strength shop belt is still going strong 4 or so years later and I regularly lift 200kg+ with it.

Yes, being able to adjust the tightness when needed would be handy as that is the biggest draw back of a typical lever. Fortunately it doesn’t matter as much now I train at home.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
I’d hope it’s better quality for nearly double the price. What’s better about it in terms of quality? Genuinely curious. My 10mm
strength shop belt is still going strong 4 or so years later and I regularly lift 200kg+ with it.

Yes, being able to adjust the tightness when needed would be handy as that is the biggest draw back of a typical lever. Fortunately it doesn’t matter as much now I train at home.
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I’ll take a video of my SBD and do one later of the SS one as I’m on overtime tonight. It’s obvious when you see them next to each other.

I’ve had the latter a lot longer than the former and it’s perfectly adequate though… other than when the buckle it came with fell apart mid set and I had to order the Riot one that has the lifetime warranty (and I’m on my second one of those too as the pin on the lever fell out the first).

In practical terms it’s mainly the convenience but it is better quality materials/construction regardless.
 
@Somnambulist and @CaptainRAVE cheers guys. I think the SS one has the riot lever as standard now. IM put off about things Ive read also about their customer service. Its also fake leather whereas the SBD one is real leather.

Because of the weight loss thing im tempted to pick up a standard belt or even a material belt as a starter....that said the SBD one should be able to sell on teh Auction site if I change size too much....
 
I just took some pics. Hopefully it gets across how solid/indestructible it feels with the multi-ply construction. I would say it’s a srs belt for srs lifters but I’m seeing more and more people at MuscleWorks using it who aren’t strict powerlifters (not that I am either!).

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Will do the SS one later.
 
Somnambulist said:
There’s still plenty of play with any one belt size, it’s just it’s a better fit if you’re not right at the loosest hole or two when you start using it.
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Cheers dude. As IM still starting off I am toying with the idea of going for the Eleiko leather buckle belt for now?

Or am I better buying SBD first as last (old adage you buy cheap you buy twice etc)?
 
welshdragon said:
Cheers dude. As IM still starting off I am toying with the idea of going for the Eleiko leather buckle belt for now?

Or am I better buying SBD first as last (old adage you buy cheap you buy twice etc)?
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The Eleiko is an oly lifting belt and tapers at the front so you don’t wack it doing cleans. I think the powerlifting style belts with no taper are better for most people in that regard as you’re only doing squats/deadlifts/OHP etc with them and they’re quicker to do up and get off and give you more coverage at the front to press your abs against.

I’d say either SBD or a decent lever powerlifting belt (Mobility Tools make nice leather ones here in the UK) and which one you pick depends on whether the faster adjustability and higher quality of the former is worth the extra money to you. The latter will do the job and will probably last just as long as the former and even with mine I’ve only ever had to get the screwdriver out a couple of times to go down or up a notch. Once you’ve used the quick-release you get put off faffing about with prong belts.

Also the extra 3mm thickness of the SBD isn’t that important for regular people IMO, it just means it takes longer to break-in as it’s stiffer when new and makes it heavier, so a 10mm belt is fine!
 
Thank you for the knowledge. The Modifit ones look good and are made a few miles up the road from me so I am now leaning to them.

Are Modifit generally decent before I plunge in? They seem a betetr proposition to strength shop being both local and full leather
 
Why the draw to real leather? Not sure what difference that would make.

Thickness and type of latch I definitely get and both of those are a big decision.

If I was buying now I’d go for the SBD belt, but still not sure if I’d go for 13 over 10mm. The 10mm was painful enough to break in and it propelled me to 250kg+ lifts pretty easily.
 
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welshdragon said:
Thank you for the knowledge. The Modifit ones look good and are made a few miles up the road from me so I am now leaning to them.

Are Modifit generally decent before I plunge in? They seem a betetr proposition to strength shop being both local and full leather
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I have a few bits from them like their dip belt and they seemed well made enough! If it weren’t for the likely restrictions you could probably ask if you could go and check them out first hand tbh.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Why the draw to real leather? Not sure what difference that would make.

Thickness and type of latch I definitely get and both of those are a big decision.

If I was buying now I’d go for the SBD belt, but still not sure if I’d go for 13 over 10mm. The 10mm was painful enough to break in and it propelled me to 250kg+ lifts pretty easily.
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The 13mm is stupidly stiff when you get it - mine spend hours living under a towel and weights in different positions to make the whole thing supple enough to wrap around me without any gaps. Rolling it up was like a forearm workout.

I can’t remember what material the SS belt is but it’s softer and easier to take chunks out of. Not a huge issue if you take care of the thing and don’t toss it about obviously.
 
Somnambulist said:
The 13mm is stupidly stiff when you get it - mine spend hours living under a towel and weights in different positions to make the whole thing supple enough to wrap around me without any gaps. Rolling it up was like a forearm workout.

I can’t remember what material the SS belt is but it’s softer and easier to take chunks out of. Not a huge issue if you take care of the thing and don’t toss it about obviously.
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I’m sure, the 10mm SS was bad enough. Must have bruised me for about a year. I’m not sure at what point it became comfortable. These days it just feels like a part of me. I’m not looking forward to the day when I need to break a new one in. I try to look after it.

In other news, my bench has hit a wall, so I’ve scaled that back slightly with a view to build back up. Deadlifts I’m trying to just maintain in favour of other back workouts, but I’m conscious I may need to somehow fit a deadlift building program back into my routine - it’s tricky, because I don’t want it to get in the way of other back movements that have resulted in a decent mass gain. Squats, whilst historically being my weakest element, are still keeping me moving forward with no end in sight, helped by the very steady progression that I take with them (2.5kg increase a month). Easily exceeding 200kg now - to the point where I double check the weight I’ve put on the bar after a movement because I still can’t believe it :p

Back to work in a few weeks and although it exhausts me, the extra adrenaline usually gets me back on track. No idea whether my arms and neck are going to fit into my shirts :p - I’ve been enjoying a dedicated arms day :D

My back has been fine since I ditched the dodgy bed that I was sleeping on, so I’m glad it didn’t seem to be due to my gym routine.

Edit: I wonder whether I should move my back movements to Wednesday which is currently a rest day, expand my deadlift session on Friday and focus only on deadlifts for that session like I used to do.
 
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CaptainRAVE said:
Why the draw to real leather? Not sure what difference that would make.

Thickness and type of latch I definitely get and both of those are a big decision.

If I was buying now I’d go for the SBD belt, but still not sure if I’d go for 13 over 10mm. The 10mm was painful enough to break in and it propelled me to 250kg+ lifts pretty easily.
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Purely for me the contrast between the modifit one and the strengthshop one on price, they are very similar price range, one is leather the other is fake leather. Might make no difference but in my old brain real leather is better? Modifit clinched it by being a local welsh company too, and Ive heard mixed things about the ss customer service
 
That’s pretty much how mine looks. You can see that the material is a bit less rigid and more forgiving around the edges.

Maybe at some point I’ll try the SBD, especially if I ramp my deadlift back up.
 
Splitting my Friday back session so far seems to work. Rows and weighted pull-ups on Wednesday and deadlift program plus shrugs on Friday. Saturday will therefore be my only rest day. Hopefully that’ll get my deadlifts back on track rather than having a shorter deadlift session to help fit everything in.
 
I'm adding deadlifts back again properly now, only did 9 sessions in 3 months.

Tuesday push.
Wednesday, squats and deadlifts only.
Thursday back/delts.
Saturday upper.
Sunday legs.
 
What are you chaps resting heart rates out of interest? I’ve never really looked on my Apple Watch but mine is averaging 40-50, obviously goes up if I start walking about. Even dropped into the 30’s the other night at work as I was dozing off on my chair and it sent me a notification warning. TFW when not sure if elite athlete athlete or gonna slow to 0 and die. :eek:
 
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