Crossfit Norwest, Raw strength and conditioning and Barefoot Evolution Discussion Forum

[kez]

Thanks Tom, I think your missing the point of what nature will allow; to save confusion I will call it natural movements instead. they minic movements we do naturally; i.e. deadlift, picking the washing basket up of the ground, hang clean, taking an the washing basket from waist level and placing it on an overhead shelf. while chalk does not appear conviently in nature it simply used to dry the hands, the same as wiping them on your pants, its what I call a 1 percenter, the lift can be made without it and it does more the athletes state of mind. but I digress what we a trying to do is replicate natural movements, and natural movements do not allow for machanical advantage such as a weight belt. If using a belt allows you to train to increase your squat without one, id be an idiot to say not to use it, I think don stevenson came up the best way to use the belt. So all im saying is that you cant count your 1RM with a belt as a true 1RM.

Seperately while nature does not always represent a barbell, its not what we lift but the way we move it that we trying to replicate. barbells give us something nature can't, repeatable data. So we can monitor our progress, adjust trainning when necessary and know when to introduce a belt to allow for continued progression. I also encourage odd object lifts such as water jerry carries, tyre flips and sand bag runs to keep us in touch with nature (it also shows us how unfit we are). For this reason I love strongman comps.

To be a black belt first you must master the basics grasshopper
Good luck with it, I think you need to bring me your trainning dairy.

By the way, YES my f*cking washing basket does weigh 215kg!!!!

[Tom]

Haha awesome post Kez, especially the bit about the washing basket. I'll hopefully be in the gym this arvo if you're gunna be there, prepare to laugh at me.

[Dan]

Without blowing Kez's trumpet to much, how good are some of his contributions to this forum!

[kez]

stop avoiding trainning, dan, you should be banned from commenting until you workout!

[Dan]

I take that back.....

[Don Stevenson]

While a study of one subject is not a valid scientific experiment (and fundamentally before everything else I'm a scientist) here are my observations of the belt vs beltless perspective based only on my experience over the last 2 years of my training.

I stopped testing my 1RM beltless in 2007 and at the time i think the best squat I hit beltless was 150 with a belted max around 165kg

At the start of 2008 I gave myself a hernia deadlifting 200kg when i probably should have known better and ended up taking almost 6 months of training because i couldn't get it fixed until i had a quiet period at work in april 08.

After recovering from the surgery I had to start squatting again almost from scratch, in my first session i did 2x5 with 40kg and couldn't walk the next day. By the end of 2008 I was up to 177kg squat (belted) and I used a belt on anything above about 140 and would even use a belt when doing longer work sets at anything 70% or above. During this period i was using a relatively thin belt.

In 2009 I got serious about competing in strongman and realising that a lack of basic strength was a big problem for me set out to build up my squat, DL, MP and BP. I bought the thickest, stiffest, widest belt i could find (inzer 13mm lever belt) and started squatting and pulling. By June my squat was up to 200kg (belted)

I've done several different squat programs this year including wendlers 5/3/1 and a smolov cycle most recently. In each case I warmed up without the belt but put it on for all work sets including during the smolov program the higher rep sets of 9 and 7 reps at 70 and 75% and I can guarantee that I never did anything heavier than 150 without a belt!

End result - this year my belted back squat has gone from 177 to 208kg a 31kg improvement and my deadlift has gone from 215kg to 253kg (38kg) until last wednesday I had no idea what my unbelted squat was and didn't really care but this thread made me curious to see what the carry over from improving my belted squat was .

results of 1RM test beltless and belted below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z4oxycJS_g

[kez]

god dam it don, I can't get youtube at work

[kez]

awesome don