Dangerous Lifting Belts Again

[Guest guest]

While I was browsing through Dr Mercola's newsletter I came upon this article

on the alleged risks of lifting with a belt, which many members will note

drew a great deal of criticism for its lack of consistent and definitive

scientific and practical evidence when much of its content was published

elsewhere. Our archives contain many letters on this topic and are worth

consulting if you believe that this article is completely correct. Other

comments are welcome.

<http://www.mercola.com/2002/jan/5/weight_belt.htm>

Does Wearing a Weight Belt Really Protect Your Back?

By Chek

The trend to wear a weight belt has extended beyond the gym. Trash

collectors, truck drivers, and construction workers often spend their entire

workday wrapped in a weight belt. Some companies have gone so far as to make

it a mandatory safety policy that all their employees wear a back harness.

Visit any Home Depot, Office Club, or take a look at the waist of your local

package delivery person. What do these employees all have in common? They're

all wearing weight belts! Next thing you know, it will not only be against

the law to drive without a seatbelt, it will be against the law to operate a

vehicle without a weight belt!

What's going on here? Do weight belts really protect our back? Will they make

us stronger? Can the estimated 35-40 percent of people reporting back pain

each year, or the 70 percent of the population who will suffer from at least

one episode of back pain in their lives find relief, and possibly even avoid

surgery, by making a weight belt a habit?

[some research studies have indeed shown that one can produce greater tension in

the

abdominal muscles by wearing a belt. Many people with spinal disability can

lead

more bearable lives because they wear corsets or belts for long periods when

they

are upright. No intervention, be it belt use, strength training or anything

else, has yet

been shown to always prevent the occurrence of back pain or dysfunction. It is

misleading to single out the belt in this regard. Mel Siff]

Before I answer these questions, try to dig up recent pictures of the world's

best Olympic weightlifters in competition, but not the American

weightlifters who are losing the struggle to achieve international respect.

Look at photos of European weight lifters who are continuously breaking

records and winning world and Olympic titles. Isn't it interesting that

Europeans never use belts when they perform the snatch lift? They're rarely

seen using one for the clean and jerk!

[Many weightlifters and powerlifters still wear belts, depending on individual

preferences. I can supply photos of numerous world champions who use lifting

belts and many magazines also confirm this fact. Mel Siff]

When Did Belt Use Get Started?

A look through Webster's book, The Iron Game, demonstrates that there

is a long history of belt use in connection with heavy weight training.

Inch, publisher of Scientific Weight Training (1905), is shown

pressing two adult females overhead with one hand, " while wearing a weight

lifting belt. " This guy was no slouch either. He could clean and jerk over

200 pounds. Not impressed? Perhaps I should mention that he performed all

this lift using only one hand.

One has to wonder, what is it that leads a lifter to use a belt? Is it

direction from coaches, did these particular lifters have back pain in their

lifting history, did they only wear the belts when performing competition or

" max " lifts, or was a belt simply looked upon as an insurance policy?

With a long history of corset use in the medical field, particularly for back

injury, perhaps the lifters have been influenced by the medical approach to

treating back pain. Corsets have been used since the early 1900's for the

treatment of Scoliosis and back pain and quite possibly much longer.

Therefore it is logical that a lifter, wanting to make the right decision,

would choose to use a belt based on the medical establishment's use of

belts, especially considering the history and treatment of back pain dates

all the way back to 1500 BC!

Did Developmental Man Wear Weight Belts?

Regardless of your opinion about the origin of man, if you believe in God,

you have to wonder why he didn't provide weight belts as standard-issue

equipment. On second thought, maybe he did, and we just don't know how to

use them correctly. Perhaps we abuse our bodies, which creates a dysfunction

in our " natural weight belt " and causes us to be reliant on an artificial

one.

[Why didn't God provide us with shoes or design umbilical cords that

automatically

sever themselves at birth? Why did God also create a posterior longitudinal

ligament that is narrower in the lumbar region than higher up, which is exactly

the reverse of how a stable spine should be constructed? It seems as if God

omitted

doing quite a few things when He designed us! Mel Siff ]

Belts, Are They as Good as People Say They Are?

Certainly, if you could come up with a product that supposedly reduced pain

at the same time that it improved performance, or at least appeared to, you

could make A LOT OF MONEY!

[An interesting comment coming from someone who is doing his best to market

as many " Swiss Balls " as possible! Mel Siff]

Just take a look around you next time you are at the lumberyard, warehouse,

or office supply store. Chances are you will see employees wearing belts. As

I eluded (sic) to in the introduction, many furniture moving companies, chain

store organizations and package delivery companies have made it mandatory for

employees to wear belts.

Have the decisions made by companies, corporations, workers and gym members

been based on sound research? Perhaps. But maybe it has been the scare

tactics and strong marketing techniques of belt companies that have helped

people make their decision.

There is certainly no shortage of claims being made by belt manufacturers.

For example, here are two claims I pulled directly from the " Valeo " belt

company's web site:

The support helps workers perform their duties while helping to protect their

back from stress and strain damage. Reduces the likelihood of pain or

injury for a variety of activities.

If you can market a product based on fear and emotion (both of which are

highly correlated with the back pain experience), chances are you will sell

that product and lots of it! Famous speaker, Zig Ziglar, states that F-E-A-R

is really False Evidence Appearing Real. This, in my opinion, is the case

with weight belts in general.

[Note that this same comment also applies to anyone implying that the use of

lifting belts necessarily leads to weaker, less stable backs which are more

susceptible to injury. There is a time and a place for the use of belts,

especially if one wishes to enhance one's ability to produce greater torso

stability and lifting force when lifting maximal loads. It is only the

long-term

tight use of belts for hours on end which may lead to unwanted reliance on

a belt. It is misleading to imply tha ALL belt use is potentially dangerous.

Mel Siff]

Apparently, the evidence supporting the use of back belts did not even appear

real to Lahad (JAMA 1994;272:1286-91) who identified 190 articles from 1966

to 1993 that focused on various interventions for the prevention of low back

pain. He concluded that sufficient evidence was unavailable to recommend the

use of mechanical back supports for the prevention of back pain.

[At the same time, other studies have also shown similar lack of success with

almost every other intervention meant to prevent back pain. This is what makes

back pain and its management so paradoxical and frustrating. There is a huge

individual response to all interventions for reducing back pain, even with

respect

to powerful narcotic analgesics. It would be far more balanced to state that no

single intervention has yet been devised which universally and predictably

reduces back pain. Mel Siff]

In another study conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety

and Health, prophylactic use of back belts for healthy workers was not

recommended because of a lack of scientific evidence promoting their benefit

(Spine Vol. 23, No. 19, pp 2104-2109, 1998).

There are also many other studies indicating belt use provides no significant

improvement in performance or reduction in the user's chance of injury (see

original article).

Getting to the Bottom of the Elusive Obvious

To make this review of belt use complete, it must be stated that there are

numerous studies indicating the use of back belts, weight belts and lumbar

corsets improves performance, endurance, and reduce chances of injury.

I have sited these studies in the reference list (see original article). Even

though there are studies demonstrating a supposed increase in performance

while using weight belts, there are many, if not more, studies indicating

weight belts are damaging and even worse, create dysfunction in their users.

As most of you reading this article are aware, many gyms have racks of weight

belts, as a service to their members. I have already mentioned their

widespread use in the industrial workplace.

So then, if as stated above, a government agency devoted to occupational

health and safety doesn't support belt use due to lack of scientific

evidence, then what are the belts providing that lead people to believe they

help reduce pain, prevent injury or improve performance? (see original

article for expanded details as to why this is true)

Conclusion

In this article I discussed several legitimate considerations regarding

chronic use of corsets, back belts, and weight lifting belts. Available

research clearly demonstrates that belts are unable to stabilize the spine

at a segmental level, therefore only stabilizing the torso.

[The only way to completely stabilise the vertebrae at a segmental level is

by means of spinal fusion. No matter how strong one is globally and

segmentally,

the vertebral column can never resist some degree of deformation or displacement

under heavy loading. Even then, total stability or rigidity at any level can

cause any

structure to be more liable to damage, as some of us have discussed in previous

articles. Moreover, it would be very unusual and unlikely for a healthy person

to have only torso stability but absolutely no segmental stability. Anyway, it

would be interesting to know exactly how " stability " is defined with respect to

its biomechanics. How much freedom are adjacent spinal segments permitted

before they are regarded as being " unstable " , noting that all stability is a

dynamic process, not a specific, highly determinate state? Mel Siff]

Gross stabilization, as provided by belts, may allow you to lift more weight

than you could without the belt, indicating a stabilizer dysfunction within

your body. The increased weight being lifted as afforded to the lifter by

the belt will likely serve to traumatize the spine due to increased levels of

compression, torsion and sheer, increasing the potential for a serious

injury.

[No research has ever shown that the incidence of back pain and injury is

any higher among lifters who wear belts vs those who do not. Mel Siff]

Caution should be exercised by those using belts to increase

" proprioception, " as a belt is clearly a form of " exteroceptive stimuli " .

When the belt is removed, it is likely to have accomplished little in

improving proprioception, leaving the lifter with an increased risk of

injury secondary to belt usage.

[some weightlifters use a belt only for the clean and jerk, but this does

not predispose them to injury during the snatch. This remark is not

supported by any scientific or competition proof at all. Mel Siff]

My clinical treatment of workers and athletes with spine injuries has shown

that chronic use of weight lifting belts and back belts is highly correlated

with sensory-motor amnesia of the deep abdominal. Finally, weaning yourself

off a belt must be done carefully and in concert with evaluation and

treatment of any stabilizer deficit found in the torso.

[Deep abdominal? What is that? How has he measured " sensorimotor amnesia " ?

Does he use invasive fine wire microelectrodes inserted into the relevant

muscles

or is this simply his opinion? Superficial EMGs of the abdominal or back

muscles

of persons who lift with belts are not significantly different when they remove

their

belts and ecute the same lifts a day or two later. Mel Siff]

Chek Institute March 2001

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:

forwarded me this article in response to my posting on back pain

worsening when one stops using their back. It is a very technical article

full of wonderful detailed information and great documentation.

I recently reviewed 's video " Flatten Your Abs Forever " and was pleased

to learn that he is one of the only weight training professionals I know of

who really understands the core of health and nutrition.

He is quite a contrast to Bill ......

[As we have noticed in other Mercola letters, he often does not really

thoroughly check both sides of various issues. All too often, he mixes fact

with fiction and manages to convince many people of the apparent correctness

of all that he writes. One wonders how many other weight training

professionals he has consulted and discussed training science with - he

certainly has not discussed weight training professionalism with the world's

largest professional group in this field, namely the NSCA. Mel Siff]

----------------

Dr Mel C Siff

Denver, USA

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/