Why You Wearing Your Belt So High?
You might be wondering to yourself why is Konstantinov, arguably one of the best deadlifters in the world, wearing his belt so high in this deadlift video.
Well, to the untrained eye, his belt is WAY TOO high and he is going to get injured.
BUT,
Upon further inspection, you can see that through the years, Konstantinov has:
– perfected his deadlift form
– isolated and created strength and rigidity in the segments (lower lumbar L2-S1) of his spine that REQUIRE stability
– built up strength, thickness and muscle hypertrophy in the musculature surrounding* the spine in the area that resists anterior SHEAR forces under load.
* Most notably the longissimus thoracis.
When the spine is neutral the pennation of the longissimus aligns at approximately 45 degress to resist shear force, ie. protect your back and provide the stiffness to deadlift or squat without injury.
So, Konstantinov is using the belt correctly for his body type (antrhopometry). He is bracing his abdominals outward via a powerful isometric contraction and utilizing intra-abdominal pressure to push out against the belt, which is aligned across the musculature taking the load, ie. the thoracic portion of the longissimus (one of the spinal erectors).
References:
Mcgill – Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance
Eric Cressey & Mike Robertson
How to Build Muscle | Muscle Building Workouts | How to Lose Fat | Six Pack Abs
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Tags: abdominal, back, belt, core, deadlift, injury, intra, no, power, pressure, strength, strength training muscle building workouts, strong
March 15th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Outstanding display of strength and control! Perfect form, and killer GRIP…no wraps. Nuff said.
March 16th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Gotta love a big deadlift!!
Interesting technique to start with a high rack pull, then increase the ROM for the next reps.
Hard to argue with his results.
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
March 16th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Mike,
He’s utilizing elastic properties of the soft-tissue and musculature by starting with the eccentric portion of the lift. You can harness this energy and create more tension and a reactive concentric reversal with this technique, rather than pulling from zero potential off the floor.