 Question is from Earthtonina. I've been lifting with no belts or straps. As I increase my weight, should I start to use these devices or continue without? Yeah, no, you don't need to. Now, here's the thing. You can use them if you want to, and if you use them properly. But should you? No. I mean, the only people that I think should use a belt are people who are training to compete with a belt. So if you're a power lifter or a strongman competitor and your competition allows you to use a belt, it's important to train with a belt to learn how to use one. It's basically part of the uniform if you look at it that way. Yes. These are the rules. Other people are going to be using them. You want to know how to use these tools to your advantage so you need to incorporate them in your training. Right. So a belt, basically what a belt does is it goes around the waist. They're very wide and stiff and thick, at least the good ones. And what they do is they increase core stability. And the way they work as you, as you're wearing one, it's really tight, your abs and your core pushes out against it. It creates more stability. That stability then allows you to lift more weight because your spine is more stable. So squatting and deadlifting with a belt, if you use it properly, you should be able to use more weight. But make no mistake, you're relying on the belt because without the belt, you wouldn't be able to lift that way. Now straps are the things that go around your wrist. And there's a strap that hangs down from your hand that you wrap around the bar that gives you a stronger grip, or at least it grips the bar essentially for you. And for many people, their grip is the weak link. That's what prevents them from pulling max weight or whatever. There may be some benefit for high volume trainers, bodybuilders. And of course, if you're a strong man, oftentimes they allow you to use straps. But for most people, there's no value. I mean, you'll see me use a belt when I deadlift really heavy. And to be quite honest, it's because I've done it for so long with a belt that heavy, that I really don't feel like going through the whole process of lifting, you know, with deadlifting without a belt. Now I do go through cycles of not using a belt. But most of the time, if I go above four or 500 pounds, and the truth is part of that is the psychological piece. I mean, I want to pull 500 or something pounds off the ground. I know that with a belt, I get an extra 20 to 30 pounds. And it still counts on Instagram. Yeah, it's right. It counts on Instagram. If you're a client, I've never recommended a belt, a strap, a sleeve, any of these tools, squat shoes, none of those things do I recommend, especially if somebody has been lifting without any of them. Now that doesn't mean that I they're all those tools are in my bag. And I use them all the time. But it's also, I look at it as something that I like playing around with. I never want to become dependent on any of those things. And those things you can become dependent on. If you are somebody who always wear a weight belt, and you get used to that feeling of having a belt for you to push your corgans, which is different than when you don't have a belt. That's important to understand that like, when you lift normally, and you brace your core, you brace inward. And you hold like a vacuum around your spine, and you teach your body to do that to support yourself. If you use a belt, you're using the belt as feedback. And then your core is pushing out against the belt to create stability. And what happens when your core pushes out when you don't have a belt? Exactly. You lose stability. So you don't want to be you don't want to use these things so much. And then also with the straps, I mean, there's there's times in bodybuilding. I absolutely use I use my straps a lot more in bodybuilding than I did today. And that would be because I didn't want my forearms and my grip strength to fatigue when I was focusing on a certain muscle group. I'm trying to develop one area. I don't want any other areas to get more developed at all. I'm focusing somewhere. So I wouldn't want them to be fatigued on a day. I get that from a bipolar perspective, especially if you're trying to get a good lat pump. And like a lot of times the first thing to fatigue, what is it? It's your grip, you know, and like your forearms are just like beach balls at that point to where you didn't even get that, you know, the most out of what you're trying to accomplish. But, you know, for me, and I probably sound like the purest in the group, but it's just how I've always trained. I've always trained like if I, if I can't pick it up with just, you know, what I have, like I don't like I didn't earn it. Like, and I've just carried that into my squats. I've carried that into deadlifts. Although I do like I do the whole adjustable grip thing, you know, alternate my grips and try different things to like, you know, gain more stability that way, which, you know, there's different techniques, you know, to kind of get around some of these things. But I just don't want to be dependent on any of these aids, you know, to kind of take me to the next level, whereas, you know, some people, that's really important to them. So I don't, I don't like look down on people for not doing that. That's just like my own mentality. The one that you know that is that is pretty cool is the is the straps. And what I mean by that is your capability to hold on to the weight that your body can lift is actually pretty damn good. I mean, we did evolve from primates and our hands have tremendous capacity for strength. I lifted for years with wrist straps for years. And then when I went off the wrist straps, and it took me a couple years for my grip to get up to the point where it could handle what I could lift to the point now where there's nothing I can't if I can lift it, I can grip it, especially if I use a hook grip or use an alternate grip, you know, those types of techniques. So your hands have tremendous capability for strength. And I really think it's important that we don't, you know, that we allow our hands to get really, really strong because your hands will connect you to the entire world, everything from using a pen to anytime you grab something. But yeah, with belts, I've only used belts twice with clients. There's only two clients I've ever used belt with. And that was Doug was one of them. And that's just because it was fun, you know, Doug was got strong. Well, that's my point. It's an ego lift. I'm very aware of that. Like, I mean, I know even when I've done posts on Instagram where I'm squatting or I'm deadlifting and you see the belt on me, like that belt came on for that lift because I knew I was pushing my max load. I knew that I'm probably going to lift a weight that is getting close to probably PR range. I'm going to wear a belt for safety reasons and I'm going to push that. Is it super beneficial for me gaining, gaining strength or building muscle in the overall journey? Not at all. No, it's it's it's so I know if you're not, if you're somebody who's been lifting and you, you're not using any of these tools, like, Oh, you're staying pure, stay in the purest. Like, yeah, because once you learn how to use these and get used to them, yeah, going back takes time. That's half the that's half the struggle that I deal with is that I, like you, I used a belt and straps and all these tools my entire career and I can feel it's still a difference. I've gotten so good at using those tools that I'm weaker. I'm weaker without them. I'm a weaker on my squat and weaker on my deadlift. I can most certainly strapped up belt it up. I can definitely deadlift more weight and squat more weight than if I was without them.