Squats, why use a belt?

Comparing basic squats with belt squats through the activity of the trunk and lower-extremity musculature.

Basic squats are commonly used to increase lower-extremity strength and improve athletic performance.

Even so, many people cannot perform the basic squat due to weak core muscles, previous lower-back injuries, an inability to properly use or load the upper extremities, or poor technique.

A possible alternative for the lower extremities is the belt squat, which, unlike the traditional squat, places the load on the pelvis.

This eliminates the need to support the load with the upper extremities, upper back, and trunk.

What about squats?

Although squatting is common, it also carries a higher risk of injury than most exercises… it causes discomfort or injury…

• One solution is the half squat, in which some people even use loads of up to 4–6 times their body weight (up to 10 times body weight has been reported).
• It has also been suggested to use machines for belt squats , adding resistance without excessive loading of the spine.

Well, until this year, no study had attempted to quantify the differences in lumbar stress between a basic squat and a belt squat.

Why use the belt?

Since the load is applied at or just above the pelvis, it is reasonable to expect that a belt squat may reduce muscle activity in the lower back and other trunk stabilizers, although the extent of these differences was unknown.

Previous research found no differences in the knee flexors and extensors, hip abductors and adductors, or plantar flexors and dorsiflexors between the squats in question (traditional versus belt).

Interestingly, a study by Evans et al. (2017) differed from another by Gulick et al. (2015) regarding gluteus maximus activity between squats.

• The conflicting results may be due to several factors, including the use of a belt-squat machine in a different stance and the subjects’ experience with the belt squat.

Therefore, further investigation of muscle-activation patterns between a belt squat and a traditional back squat was warranted.

What did they analyze here?

The purpose of this study, published in March of this year in the Journal of Human Kinetics, was to examine trunk and lower-extremity muscle activation during both squats.

This study hypothesized that:

• Lower-extremity activation would not differ between belt squats and basic squats, and
• Trunk-muscle activation would be significantly lower during belt squats.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether belt squats reduced stress on the lower-back musculature,

and whether trunk and lower-extremity muscle activation differed between belt squats and basic squats.

 

What were the results?

The back squat resulted in significantly greater integrated muscle activity of the gluteus maximus (GMax), lumbar erectors (LEs), rectus abdominis (RA), external obliques (EO), and gluteus medius (GMed). It also produced greater peak muscle activity in the GMax, LEs, RA, EO, GMed, and biceps femoris (BF).

The key finding was that performing belt squats reduced activation of the lumbar erectors (45.4% impulse and 52.0% peak) compared with basic squats.

The results confirmed that using a belt squat did not alter lower-extremity activation, except for decreases in the gluteus maximus (35.2% impulse and 32.1% peak), gluteus medius (54.1% impulse and 55.2% peak), and biceps femoris (12.2% peak).

The results of this study support using the belt squat to train the quadriceps and hamstrings similarly to the basic squat, but with much less stress on the back and trunk musculature.

How do both squats benefit us?

However, due to the design of the belt squat machine, hip-extensor activation (specifically the gluteus maximus) decreases and may not be strengthened as effectively as with a basic squat.

Using a belt squat machine may be beneficial for those who want to avoid placing stress on the trunk musculature.

Hip-belt squats emphasize the legs with less load on the spine, load the lower body despite torso or upper-extremity limitations, and have strong potential for achieving hypertrophy.

This type of squat is also useful for those with upper-extremity mobility issues who still want to strengthen their lower-extremity musculature.

 

Source

• Journal of Human Kinetics – 2020: Activity of Trunk and Lower Extremity Musculature: Comparison Between Parallel Back Squats and Belt Squats