If you ever reach a point where you can’t do regular barbell back squats because of a back injury, you may find that belt squats are a good alternative. Belt squats provide an excellent way to give your legs a great workout without stressing your spinal column. Even if you don’t have a back injury and you just want to add some variety to your leg workouts, belt squats are a great leg exercise.
Different Variations of Belt Squats
There are several variations of belt squats both in terms of form and it in terms of equipment. Since Louie Simmons and Max Aita both coach elite lifters, and they are both advocates of including belt squats within leg workouts, I will start with some videos which are based on their instructions first.
Louie favors the wide stance squat, both for barbell squatting and for belt squats. Watch his instructions on how to do belt squats.
Louis Simmons coaching belt squats
Max Aita Coaching Belt Squats
You need a special machine to do Louie’s version of belt squats, but in the following video, Max Aita has one of his students doing belt squats without the use of a machine. Max prefers a little bit narrower stance, and instead of having his students sit back with their weight on their heals in order to emphasize the development of hips and glutes, Max coaches his student to allow their knees to track forward over their feet in order to develop the quads.
Here is another belt squat set up in which the chain from the belt goes through an opening of a couple of barbell plates:
A final option is to use belt squats in conjunction with a bar as shown on the video. Some lifters call these landmine belt squats.
If you need a belt for belt squats, you can find them online, however, you may find that some of the belts cut into your hips and thighs. The belt in the following video is designed to prevent this.
As with any exercise, I believe that the key to consistent progress is to push hard enough without pushing too hard. You can do this by repeating reps as long as you can maintain the same rep pace throughout the set. If your rep pace starts to slow down do to fatigue, stop the set. Repeat sets for a muscle group as long as the muscle group is at full strength and stop when you can no longer recover back to full strength from one set to the next. Follow these guidelines on a regular basis and you will be able to gradually add more and more weight to your lifts for a long time. Best of training to you.