eli5: How does a weightlifting belt prevent injuries?
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The spine has a slight S shape to it. The part where you wear the belt, just above the hips (the lumbar spine), is the place where this S curve is highly exaggerated. Doing heavy lifts like squats and deadlifts places a ***shearing stress*** (imagine two forces pushing in opposite directions on a stiff object, like a pole) on the spine, and that force can be concentrated on the lumbar spine the more it flexes into the S shape. The belt helps the user’s spine to resist this type of flexion (in other words helps them maintain a neutral spine where the back stays more or less flat rather than more S shaped) in the lower spine. Not wearing a belt can easily lead to injuries like bulging discs or worse, caused by the aforementioned shearing stresses.
Advanced lifters don’t just put on the belt and lift, they use it ***actively*** in a technique called ***bracing***. This involves filing the lungs with air, as well as flexing the core muscles against the belt in attempt to make the torso as rigid (and therefore ‘strong’) as possible. This stabilises the vertebral column as much as possible during the stresses of heavy squats and deads.
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