WEBVTT

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If you're going to use a weightlifting belt,

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you have to plan when you're going to use it.

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Don't allow your athletes to choose when they're

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going to use it. Hi, Yoshan. It's my pleasure

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to have you on Evidence Strong Show. If you could

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briefly introduce yourself. Thank you. It's a

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pleasure to be here. My name is Yoshan Hunter.

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I just finished my master's at Troy University

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and I am a strength and conditioning coach. Well,

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aspiring. I'm unemployed at the moment. Awesome.

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Hopefully that will go well. Today we're talking

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about your master's thesis, so congratulations.

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And the topic is back squats, belted and unbelted.

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Yes. Why this topic? Well, while I was interning

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with the football team here, or at my university,

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I noticed that they did a lot, obviously a lot

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of back squats, but they did a lot of back squat

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and measurement velocity. And I was like, man,

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I wonder what I could do with this. So after

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bouncing ideas off of my advisor, Dr. Grant Mauser,

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we came up with the idea like, hey. Let's compare

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using a belt to when you're doing a barbell back

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squat and see what the effects are and how it

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contributes or how it affects your squatting

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and the velocity of it. So the main focus was

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velocity and you wanted to compare belted and

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unbelted. Yeah. Awesome. Very interesting topic.

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Well, how did you go about setting up the study?

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So the study, it was a four visit study. We had

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to get their 1RM with the belt and without the

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belt. And then after we collected that data,

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visits three and four, we tested them at their

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different... percentage of their one rep max

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belted on and unbelted so the percentages were

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50 65 and 80 and then it was a three they took

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three reps at each percentage of each of us for

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business three and four respectively and then

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we averaged them out and to compile the data

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and everything before i started the study i actually

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was debating whether i do want to go get my phd

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or not but when i was collecting the data i was

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like man i definitely could see myself doing

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this more consistently so after i've been coaching

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for a while i think hopefully around the age

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30 i would be like you know let's go back and

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get that PhD and I'll actually start contributing

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to the field instead of just consuming. Sounds

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good. Oh, that's a good plan. Hope it works.

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Thank you. All right. So tell me a little bit

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more about participants. Who did you invite to

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the study? So I had 20 participants and I just

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recruited people around the university or on

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campus that as I consistently work out, I somewhat

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bodybuild. So I'm casually at the gym, but I'll

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see people and be like, hey, would you be interested

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in my study? Talk to them, explain to them. And

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they'll be like, yeah. And yeah, the only requirements

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that to not make studies that you have. to have

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been back squatting for at least the last six

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months prior to when i needed you so it needs

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to be experienced you had to have experience

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using a weightlifting belt because i didn't want

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to spend time having to teach you how to use

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a weightlifting boat so i need to experience

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people when it came to squatting and you can

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have any pre -existing conditions or injuries

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that would prevent you from attempting a one

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rm because you know some of the guys that went

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under the bar they put up 400 plus pounds so

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i couldn't have you risking hurting yourself

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and then you know you're gonna sue sue me in

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the university because we couldn't have that

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so those are the only things the healthy participants,

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the age cutoff was from 18 to 35. So the oldest

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participant was only 31. So, you know, I had

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a decent range, but on average, everyone was

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around that 20 to 25 area. So relatively near

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prime. But yeah, pretty much I unfortunately

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only had about, if I remember correctly, four

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women to participate. But it's not very easy

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to get women in studies like this where involving

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resistance training. Right. So you had 16 males,

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four females, four sessions and squatting. great

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grace on study okay what did you measure so uh

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measured there obviously the weights how much

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they were lifting and the velocity with tendo

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you know which i've errors i forgot the correct

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term was a fitzgerdine sports velocity analyzer

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if I remember correctly. But yeah, it measures

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specifically the velocity and the amount of weight

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that was being lifted. Those are the key components

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that was measured throughout the study. Is Tendo

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a linear transducer? Does it have... Yeah, Tendo

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linear transducer, yes. The one where you attach

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it straight to the bar and it measures your real

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time. Awesome. Was it anything unexpected or

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anything exciting that happened during the testing?

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Did you have any adventures? Not necessarily

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during the testing. Everything went accordingly,

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you know, as I already know, as the weight gets...

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heavier is an inverse relationship between weight

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and velocity so the way it got heavier the speed

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slowed down it wasn't until looking at the results

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that's where i started to see like oh my god

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like it wasn't necessarily like you squatted

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faster there wasn't but the key thing there wasn't

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a speed drop off even though the belts allow

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you to lift more weight you still squatted the

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weight at the same speed so therefore we can

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infer that your power development because you

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know more weight at a faster speed your power

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is on higher so that's like the key thing that

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i know is once we're looking at the data and

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looking at the results which i thought was really

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interesting because you don't really think about

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this when you're using a belt because you use

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a belt saying you're trying to be safe you know

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but really the belt allows you to lift about

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20 to 30 more pounds compared to not using it

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which is something that i didn't realize how

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drastic um just wearing the belt itself and the

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participants weren't allowed to use like knee

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sleeves or smelling salts or anything like that

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so the only thing that they did was just the

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belt and whether they wore shoes or anything

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that was up to them but they're literally the

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belt was the only the main thing that we controlled

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i can't remember the exact numbers they'll say

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80 % if when they did it without the belt, they're

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removing the bar at 0 .5 meters per second. And

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then when he introduced the belt. they were lifting

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more weight because we took the same percentage

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of 80 % of their belts at 1RM. They're still

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moving it around 0 .5 meters per second. So there

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wasn't a drop -off, even though they still wasn't

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going any faster. So that's something good to

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know, especially as a coach. If we're working

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in the weight room and we are working on developing

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your maximal power, I want to say, hey guys,

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put that belt on when we're reaching our top

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sets because we're trying to develop as much

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power as possible while also keeping the bar

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and moving the bar fast because that's a key

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component when you're trying to develop your

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power for your athletes. Does it also mean that

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that you have to pay attention where your marks

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is, whether you measured your marks belted versus

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unbelted. Yes, that is something you definitely

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have to pay attention to. It really depends with

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certain coaches that I've worked with. Some coaches

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don't go by percentage. They do estimates and

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stuff. So it really depends on your philosophy

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and how you go about it. But another thing you

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have to realize too, not everyone, for example,

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here when you come to university, not everyone,

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when they come into the program, they've been

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lifting weights prior. They probably went their

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entire four years in high school, never really.

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spending any time with a structured program.

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So you couldn't really throw them and say, hey,

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use a belt and everything. You have to coach

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them up before they're really ready. So introducing

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that second point, actually planning around your

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programming to introduce the belt is something

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I would say recommend. But as I say, it really

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depends on the philosophy of your coaching style.

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But that is something you have to keep in mind,

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what their 1RM is. And they get stronger throughout

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the season or throughout the offseason. So we

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have to adjust as we go along. Right. My background

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is in Olympic weightlifting where belts are used.

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and encouraged, and they also improve 1RM in

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clean and jerk, for example. So, and the programming

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is often based on percentages. So the difference

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between belted and unbelted max is crucial when

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you program from percentages. I agree. Yeah.

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So they're very, very crucial because as I said,

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I remember one participant, his unbelted was

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405. But then once we introduced the belt, he

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went up to 445. So that's a huge jump right there,

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just introducing the belt. usually squats in

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knee sleeves and he'll like if he's going for

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a PR he'll take smelly sauce and everything so

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it's like imagine if I allowed him to do everything

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how he usually does he probably could have went

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even higher so I said it's definitely important

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to like keep track of that okay so let's try

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to bring it all together how in three points

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three sentences how would you summarize the outcomes

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of the study I would say if you're going to use

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a weightlifting belt you have to plan what plan

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when you're going to use it don't allow your

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athletes to choose when they're going to use

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it you can program yourself when You want it

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to reach peak power, especially in terms of if

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you want it to peak certain points throughout

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the season. But to really summarize what we also

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studied, keep in mind how you're using the weightlifting

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belt because it does make a difference for your

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lifts. That's definitely the takeaway to be.

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Would there be a case where you would opt for

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no belt? And what would it be, apart from the

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athlete being not experienced with belts? I would

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say opt for no belt if you're on a more of a

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hypertrophy block, especially if you wanted a

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belt. that core that core power as well you want

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to have a strong core you don't want the belt

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to become a crutch that's something you're depending

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on every single time so if you're working on

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like developing strength overall in the off season

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i'll say that wouldn't be that would be necessary

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a time we need to use the belt so it'd be fine

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not to use it but i definitely when we're focused

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more on performance and not just how our body

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feels and looks that's where i say okay we cannot

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use the belt at this point in time awesome thank

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you all right two short questions to finish the

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first one is what is your favorite exercise favorite

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exercise coincidentally is a barbell back squat

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that is when thousand percent nothing makes me

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feel more accomplished than loading up some heavy

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weight and squatting that's my favorite exercise

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awesome and where people can find you if they

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want to get in touch or see what you update my

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instagram and tiktok handle is yo lifting yo

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lifting and you can search my name as well yoshan

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hunter that's my plugs and my linkedin as well

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if anyone wants to connect my linkedin is at

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yoshan hunter what's up yoshan thank you so much

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for today it was a pleasure thank you so much

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for having me