Quote Originally Posted by Hornfinger

If you can use a belt use a belt. It's there for safety. It'll also help get your technique right. if you have bad style and your not using a belt you could seriously damage your vertabre. Seriously your spine could comke out of your back. Using a belt will NOT stop your back muscles working.

The belt will make sure you are lifting the weight with the muscle and not the spine.
No... it's there to help people squat more than they otherwise could. It's there to support (and take the load off of) the stabilizing muscles in the abdomen and lower back. If you have bad style or bad form, you'll end up hurting yourself anyway. At least if you're not using a belt, it'll happen when you're getting started and using 200 pounds instead of a few years later when you're using 500 pounds. The entire purpose of using the belt is to support the muscles in your back. But ask yourself... is that a good thing? Or on the other hand, wouldn't it be better to learn proper form, and train the muscles in your abdomen and back to handle the weight on their own? Are you in the gym to give your belt a workout or your muscles a workout?

I've used a belt a few times, and the last time I spent any regular time in the gym, I was squatting around 420 in my sets. That was at 17 weight about 185. Belts are NOT necessary. A belt trains you to have a weakness and that's just not good. Belt = CrutchÂ