reckonerBelt squat
A squat with the load hanging from a belt around your hips instead of a bar on your back. Your legs still do the squat, and your spine is not holding the weight. In one study it worked the front of the thighs much like a back squat, with a little less glute1.
Hips under the belt, chest up.
- Pattern
- Squat
- Trains
- Quads, glutes, adductors
- Kit
- Machine belt squat
- Loading
- A weight you choose
- Reckoner prescribes
- 4 sets of 5 to 8 reps at RPE 8
- Progression step
- 5 kg once the top of the range is clean
- Skill
- Some technique
- Recovery cost
- Moderate
- Not prescribed if you have declared
- Knee, hip
Muscles worked
How to do it
Clip in and stand tall
Fasten the belt around your hips, clip it to the machine, and step onto the platform with your feet about shoulder width. The load hangs from your hips, so the belt has to sit snug and low.
Hold the handles lightly
Rest your hands on the handles for balance only. They are not there to pull yourself up, and every pound you pull through them is a pound your legs did not lift.
Squat down with your chest up
Sit down between your knees, knees tracking over your toes, as deep as you can keep your chest up and your heels down. An upright chest keeps the load under your hips, where the belt wants it.
Push the floor away
Stand up by driving through your whole foot until your hips and knees are straight. Pause, then go again.
What goes wrong
Pulling on the handles
Hauling on the handles makes a heavy set move, so it feels strong. It takes load off your legs, so the set looks better than it was. Hands light, legs do the work.
Folding forward
Leaning forward feels like a natural way to balance the load. The hips shoot back and the squat turns into a hinge. Keep your chest up and sit straight down.
Stopping high
With no bar on your back, quick shallow reps feel easy and productive. Go as deep as your hips and knees allow.
How Reckoner progresses this lift
Six weeks of this lift, from 40 kg, run through the real engine. Nothing below was typed in: the prescription, the decision and the sentence beside it all come from the same code that writes your week.
| Week | Prescribed | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 x 5 at 40 kg | More reps 5 → 6 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does. |
| 2 | 4 x 6 at 40 kg | More reps 6 → 7 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does. |
| 3 | 4 x 7 at 40 kg | More reps 7 → 8 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does. |
| 4 | 4 x 8 at 40 kg | Load up 40 kg → 45 kgYou hit the top of the range with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7), so the weight on the machine goes up 5 kg to 45 kg. The weight went up, so the reps come down to five. You are now working 5 to 8. |
| 5 | 4 x 5 at 45 kg | Deload 40% of sets offFive weeks of building, then one week lighter. About 40% of the sets come off. The load holds and your reps stay where you earned them, so you keep the strength and lose the fatigue. |
| 6 | 2 x 5 at 45 kg | More reps 5 → 6 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does. The lighter week is over, so this is back to four sets. |
Real engine output, not an illustration. Every row was produced by running the engine itself when this page was generated.
The full rule, and why the reps move before the load does, is in how Reckoner decides to add weight.
Questions people ask
Is the belt squat as good as a back squat?
For the front of the thighs it looks close: quad activity was similar to a back squat, with somewhat less glute1. The back squat also trains holding a bar on your back. Reckoner keeps them as separate lifts.
Can I belt squat with a lower back restriction?
Reckoner does not record lower back against it, because the load hangs from your hips rather than resting on your spine. Knee and hip are recorded against it. Declare what applies to you in setup.
Will Reckoner put this in my plan?
It can, when your gym has one. It is not on any gym preset, so tick it in your equipment checklist.
Similar movements
Reckoner eases the load first when this lift stalls, and offers one of these only if it stalls again after that. A lift already as light as your kit goes has no load left to ease, so the offer comes straight away. Each of them has a page.
Sources
- Evans and colleagues, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2019. Comparison of Muscle Activation Between Back Squats and Belt Squats thirty-one men and women lifting five rep max loads, with significantly lower gluteus maximus activity in the belt squat than the back squat and no significant difference reported in the vasti or rectus femoris