If you're going to use a weightlifting belt,
you have to plan when you're going to use it.
Don't allow your athletes to choose when they're
going to use it. Hi, Yoshan. It's my pleasure
to have you on Evidence Strong Show. If you could
briefly introduce yourself. Thank you. It's a
pleasure to be here. My name is Yoshan Hunter.
I just finished my master's at Troy University
and I am a strength and conditioning coach. Well,
aspiring. I'm unemployed at the moment. Awesome.
Hopefully that will go well. Today we're talking
about your master's thesis, so congratulations.
And the topic is back squats, belted and unbelted.
Yes. Why this topic? Well, while I was interning
with the football team here, or at my university,
I noticed that they did a lot, obviously a lot
of back squats, but they did a lot of back squat
and measurement velocity. And I was like, man,
I wonder what I could do with this. So after
bouncing ideas off of my advisor, Dr. Grant Mauser,
we came up with the idea like, hey. Let's compare
using a belt to when you're doing a barbell back
squat and see what the effects are and how it
contributes or how it affects your squatting
and the velocity of it. So the main focus was
velocity and you wanted to compare belted and
unbelted. Yeah. Awesome. Very interesting topic.
Well, how did you go about setting up the study?
So the study, it was a four visit study. We had
to get their 1RM with the belt and without the
belt. And then after we collected that data,
visits three and four, we tested them at their
different... percentage of their one rep max
belted on and unbelted so the percentages were
50 65 and 80 and then it was a three they took
three reps at each percentage of each of us for
business three and four respectively and then
we averaged them out and to compile the data
and everything before i started the study i actually
was debating whether i do want to go get my phd
or not but when i was collecting the data i was
like man i definitely could see myself doing
this more consistently so after i've been coaching
for a while i think hopefully around the age
30 i would be like you know let's go back and
get that PhD and I'll actually start contributing
to the field instead of just consuming. Sounds
good. Oh, that's a good plan. Hope it works.
Thank you. All right. So tell me a little bit
more about participants. Who did you invite to
the study? So I had 20 participants and I just
recruited people around the university or on
campus that as I consistently work out, I somewhat
bodybuild. So I'm casually at the gym, but I'll
see people and be like, hey, would you be interested
in my study? Talk to them, explain to them. And
they'll be like, yeah. And yeah, the only requirements
that to not make studies that you have. to have
been back squatting for at least the last six
months prior to when i needed you so it needs
to be experienced you had to have experience
using a weightlifting belt because i didn't want
to spend time having to teach you how to use
a weightlifting boat so i need to experience
people when it came to squatting and you can
have any pre -existing conditions or injuries
that would prevent you from attempting a one
rm because you know some of the guys that went
under the bar they put up 400 plus pounds so
i couldn't have you risking hurting yourself
and then you know you're gonna sue sue me in
the university because we couldn't have that
so those are the only things the healthy participants,
the age cutoff was from 18 to 35. So the oldest
participant was only 31. So, you know, I had
a decent range, but on average, everyone was
around that 20 to 25 area. So relatively near
prime. But yeah, pretty much I unfortunately
only had about, if I remember correctly, four
women to participate. But it's not very easy
to get women in studies like this where involving
resistance training. Right. So you had 16 males,
four females, four sessions and squatting. great
grace on study okay what did you measure so uh
measured there obviously the weights how much
they were lifting and the velocity with tendo
you know which i've errors i forgot the correct
term was a fitzgerdine sports velocity analyzer
if I remember correctly. But yeah, it measures
specifically the velocity and the amount of weight
that was being lifted. Those are the key components
that was measured throughout the study. Is Tendo
a linear transducer? Does it have... Yeah, Tendo
linear transducer, yes. The one where you attach
it straight to the bar and it measures your real
time. Awesome. Was it anything unexpected or
anything exciting that happened during the testing?
Did you have any adventures? Not necessarily
during the testing. Everything went accordingly,
you know, as I already know, as the weight gets...
heavier is an inverse relationship between weight
and velocity so the way it got heavier the speed
slowed down it wasn't until looking at the results
that's where i started to see like oh my god
like it wasn't necessarily like you squatted
faster there wasn't but the key thing there wasn't
a speed drop off even though the belts allow
you to lift more weight you still squatted the
weight at the same speed so therefore we can
infer that your power development because you
know more weight at a faster speed your power
is on higher so that's like the key thing that
i know is once we're looking at the data and
looking at the results which i thought was really
interesting because you don't really think about
this when you're using a belt because you use
a belt saying you're trying to be safe you know
but really the belt allows you to lift about
20 to 30 more pounds compared to not using it
which is something that i didn't realize how
drastic um just wearing the belt itself and the
participants weren't allowed to use like knee
sleeves or smelling salts or anything like that
so the only thing that they did was just the
belt and whether they wore shoes or anything
that was up to them but they're literally the
belt was the only the main thing that we controlled
i can't remember the exact numbers they'll say
80 % if when they did it without the belt, they're
removing the bar at 0 .5 meters per second. And
then when he introduced the belt. they were lifting
more weight because we took the same percentage
of 80 % of their belts at 1RM. They're still
moving it around 0 .5 meters per second. So there
wasn't a drop -off, even though they still wasn't
going any faster. So that's something good to
know, especially as a coach. If we're working
in the weight room and we are working on developing
your maximal power, I want to say, hey guys,
put that belt on when we're reaching our top
sets because we're trying to develop as much
power as possible while also keeping the bar
and moving the bar fast because that's a key
component when you're trying to develop your
power for your athletes. Does it also mean that
that you have to pay attention where your marks
is, whether you measured your marks belted versus
unbelted. Yes, that is something you definitely
have to pay attention to. It really depends with
certain coaches that I've worked with. Some coaches
don't go by percentage. They do estimates and
stuff. So it really depends on your philosophy
and how you go about it. But another thing you
have to realize too, not everyone, for example,
here when you come to university, not everyone,
when they come into the program, they've been
lifting weights prior. They probably went their
entire four years in high school, never really.
spending any time with a structured program.
So you couldn't really throw them and say, hey,
use a belt and everything. You have to coach
them up before they're really ready. So introducing
that second point, actually planning around your
programming to introduce the belt is something
I would say recommend. But as I say, it really
depends on the philosophy of your coaching style.
But that is something you have to keep in mind,
what their 1RM is. And they get stronger throughout
the season or throughout the offseason. So we
have to adjust as we go along. Right. My background
is in Olympic weightlifting where belts are used.
and encouraged, and they also improve 1RM in
clean and jerk, for example. So, and the programming
is often based on percentages. So the difference
between belted and unbelted max is crucial when
you program from percentages. I agree. Yeah.
So they're very, very crucial because as I said,
I remember one participant, his unbelted was
405. But then once we introduced the belt, he
went up to 445. So that's a huge jump right there,
just introducing the belt. usually squats in
knee sleeves and he'll like if he's going for
a PR he'll take smelly sauce and everything so
it's like imagine if I allowed him to do everything
how he usually does he probably could have went
even higher so I said it's definitely important
to like keep track of that okay so let's try
to bring it all together how in three points
three sentences how would you summarize the outcomes
of the study I would say if you're going to use
a weightlifting belt you have to plan what plan
when you're going to use it don't allow your
athletes to choose when they're going to use
it you can program yourself when You want it
to reach peak power, especially in terms of if
you want it to peak certain points throughout
the season. But to really summarize what we also
studied, keep in mind how you're using the weightlifting
belt because it does make a difference for your
lifts. That's definitely the takeaway to be.
Would there be a case where you would opt for
no belt? And what would it be, apart from the
athlete being not experienced with belts? I would
say opt for no belt if you're on a more of a
hypertrophy block, especially if you wanted a
belt. that core that core power as well you want
to have a strong core you don't want the belt
to become a crutch that's something you're depending
on every single time so if you're working on
like developing strength overall in the off season
i'll say that wouldn't be that would be necessary
a time we need to use the belt so it'd be fine
not to use it but i definitely when we're focused
more on performance and not just how our body
feels and looks that's where i say okay we cannot
use the belt at this point in time awesome thank
you all right two short questions to finish the
first one is what is your favorite exercise favorite
exercise coincidentally is a barbell back squat
that is when thousand percent nothing makes me
feel more accomplished than loading up some heavy
weight and squatting that's my favorite exercise
awesome and where people can find you if they
want to get in touch or see what you update my
instagram and tiktok handle is yo lifting yo
lifting and you can search my name as well yoshan
hunter that's my plugs and my linkedin as well
if anyone wants to connect my linkedin is at
yoshan hunter what's up yoshan thank you so much
for today it was a pleasure thank you so much
for having me