Talk:Weightlifting belt

Any use of a weight belt should be used in addition to development of support muscles, not instead of that development. The principal purpose of a weight belt is to provide additional (ancillary) support. The more a person strays from perfect form, the more important ancillary support becomes. If the person relies on perfect form to avoid accidents, and continues to strengthen the primary muscles, there will come a day when the form is not perfect, and support muscles which have been ignored will not be equal to the task. In answer, the support muscles need specific attention. IMHO, use of a weight belt to replace training of the support muscles will not reduce risk of injury. Again IMHO, if there is any question as to the need to wear a weight belt to prevent injury, this implies that there has been insufficient attention to the support muscles, and additional exercises targeting those support muscles are in order.