“S***, heavy deadlifts and muscle-up’s in this WoD! Belt or no belt? My back is going to be fried without a belt but I don’t want to have to keep taking it off when I do muscle-up’s.”
I know this kind of dilemma has gone through your head with any WoD where you’re doing heavy deadlifts or putting a lot of weight over your head rapidly, but there’s some kind of gymnastic movement in there that you don’t want to have a cumbersome belt on for. I have, plenty of times. While most weightlifting belts are designed to give you lower back support, most aren’t designed for the crossfit athlete in mind. Thick leather belts are great when you want to hit PR’s on slower lifting, but just get in the way or weigh you down when you’re trying to do a round of handstand push-ups. That’s where the Setwear Fitness belt differentiates itself from the rest of the pack. Now you can keep the support you need for those heavy lifts all while being able to loosen the belt for your gymnastic movements in one quick pull.
Design:
This seemingly no “frills” looking belt actually comes packed with some great features. 3d Lumbar support means that there’s no guesswork when you’re putting the belt on. Just find the groove of your lumbar and tighten up. Tightening and locking into place is a cinch as you loop the velcro strap through a heavy duty roller buckle. As a male crossfitter, my shirt never stays on during a workout. I’ve used this belt plenty of times shirtless, and the fabric it’s made of breathes very well. I wouldn’t say you’d forget it’s there, but never does it become an annoyance. My belt has been through dozens of WoD’s now and the nylon still looks brand new. The real kicker here is the “Boa speed dial”. All you have to do is crank it to make micro adjustments to the belt while it’s on and pull it out to reset it back to where you originally had it. No more having to take your belt off to readjust the tightness. Comes in two sizes, I’m a men’s size 30″ waist and the small/medium (24″-36″, Large-XL = 34″-42″) fits me perfectly.
Performance:
Any form of protection is great in my book. You always want to keep yourself as safe as possible! Even better when you can stay safe while not having to compromise your movements. This belt fares great whether you’re deep in a metcon to just oly lifting alike. I probably wouldn’t give up my thicker leather Rogue belt meant strictly for powerlifting, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use my Setwear belt for the same lifting either. As mentioned above, you can use this belt without any issues with or without a shirt on (obviously a big deal to me). The Boa dial design is damn near revolutionary though. I wish I thought of that. I don’t know if anyone tried Regionals work-out 5 (21-15-9 315# Deadlifts &30″ box jumps), but if I didn’t have this belt, I probably wouldn’t have used a belt at all…and I’d probably still have a sore back. Lucky for my back, I did. Being able to find the right tightness for the deadlifts and being able to reset to a looser setting for the box jumps was done effortlessly without sacrificing too much time (shirtless, if you missed that).
Value:
$49.95 on Setwear’s website (http://www.setwearfitness.com). You can also buy one B&M style at Crossfit RepScheme for the same price. That’s a little price to pay for the last weightlifting belt you’ll ever need.
I honestly don’t have anything negative to say about the Setwear Fitness belt. It’s everything you want in a belt and nothing you don’t. Maybe more colors? (I’ve actually heard something about this through the grapevine.) Do your back a favor, protect it with the Setwear Fitness belt.
If you’re looking to purchase a SetWear belt, please use this banner to link yourself to the website! I do these reviews for free, so let my hard work be rewarded! Thanks!
