Weight lifting belt tightness

DopeItUp

Hello friends,

I know there are lots of fellow lifters in here. I am curious, how tight are you doing up your belts? I traditionally wear my belt right across my belly button and tighten it to the point where there is a small amount of tension when I'm standing normally. When I flex my abs I get some pressure. However, I noticed when I bend over to DL, it gets looser and it's giving me almost nothing when I push out my abs. So I tried tightening it another notch tonight. It's tight enough that when I'm standing normally it's kinda hard to breathe into my belly, but when I'm bent over I'm getting decent "help" when preparing for my lift.

I researched the hell out of there and there are a million different opinions. Some people seem to tighten their belt so tight that they have other people help them cinch it up. Some recommend being able to fit your hand inside the belt. How tight do you wear your belt? I know it's hard to quantify "how tight" something is, but just looking to get some thoughts. Is there really such a thing as too tight I guess?

Sincerely,
Dope

Sarauk2sf

I wear mine so it is pretty tight - not 'ermegherd I cannot breathe' tight, but tight enough to not be comfortable to wear in general.

You need to have it tight enough to be able to push your abs against but not so tight you cannot take a deep breath.

Usually, you have it tighter for deads and squats and a bit looser for bench and press, however, I just keep it the same as its a PITA to keep changing as I have a lever belt.

I think the ones who need help doing up their belt might be the powerlifters with dah bellahs.

DopeItUp

Forgot I posted this. Thanks.