Natalie Woolfolk
When I first got involved with the sport of Olympic Style Weightlifting, I was easily enamored by the Russians and their dominance of the bigger weight classes during the 90’s.
With that being said, I too decided to buy a ‘Russian’ belt just like the ones I saw on all those videos of them dominating with big ole clean & jerks as I watched on my 36” state of the art TV that weighed 400lbs. The nice shiny buckle and red leather belt came in the mail soon after my phone order and I proceeded to try to improve my lifts, just like those Ruskies by cinching on the best belt made for Olympic lifting!
In due time, my lifts did start to improve and the clean & jerk became my favorite lift and thus, I thought it was due to my new Russian belt. As time went on, I decided to move out to the West coast and lift with some weightlifting clubs that didn’t use the belt at all. Their reasoning was that it affected detrimentally your abdominal core and thus, the only way to make the core strong was to lift without this so called crutch, as they called it. Off came the belt and while my lifts were decent, I will wonder what might have happened if I decided to experiment with that red belt.
Fast forward now to CWLC the last few years and we once again employ belts if the athlete desires to use one. You see, I have been on both sides of the fence and have seen some dramatic differences from the athletes with the belt that tells me if the athlete needs to wear one to improve their lifts, they should wear one. In fact, we have gone one further and have experimented with this belt concept as some of our athletes have used the belt on their snatch lift too. You see, this is not the thoughts and musings of one heretic coach, as Olympians, World Champions and National/World Record Holders such as Natalie Woolfolk, Cheryl Haworth and Marcin Dolega have employed them during the snatch and with fantastic results.
Marcin Dolega
Many of you have probably never tried a belt for either lift, but before you discount this thought as that is not for me and my program, try one on and see what happens. If your core is a bit weak, so be it, but if the belt helps you while you strive to improve your core, then “why not?” is what we would say at Columbus Weightlifting.
At the end of the day, you are trying to improve your total and there is no better way in my opinion to experiment with a legal remedy that has worked for decades. If it is good for the Russians and the rest of the world, maybe you should try it also
Only from Columbus Weightlifting,
Mark
Columbus Weightlifting
