Belt squat: the setup, what the hip belt changes, and where it fits

A belt squat is a squat with the weight hung from a belt around your hips instead of a bar on your back. One study describes the machine version as equipment "designed to allow the performance of squats while loading weight on the lifter's hips using a belt."¹ Because the load sits at the pelvis, your arms, upper back and trunk don't hold it up.²

This page covers the setup, what was measured when the belt squat was put beside the back squat, what that means for your glutes and your trunk, how to pick a weight, the faults, and the sets. The barbell squat itself is on squat form, and the other machine squats are the hack squat and the Smith machine squat.

How to do a belt squat

1. Put the belt on low, around your hips, and clip it to the machine's chain or strap.
2. Line your ankles up with the belt's attachment point. In one study the machine's own instructions said to do this, and to set the height so the machine's lever arm (the study calls it the tongue) was level with the floor when you stood upright.² Follow the placard on the machine you use.
3. Pick your stance, about the one you'd squat with, and keep it the same every set. The same study let each person choose a stance and taped around the feet so it stayed the same for both lifts.²
4. Rest your hands lightly on the handles. In that study the hands hovered above the bar or rested lightly on it, and the authors note that gripping the handle and helping with the arms may change the muscle activity.²
5. Squat down and stand back up under control. The study used two seconds down and two seconds up, set by a metronome.² Stand all the way up at the top of each rep.

Belt squat vs back squat: what was measured

Two studies put the same people through both lifts and measured muscle activity with sensors on the skin (EMG):

• 10 people who trained both lifts (9 men, 1 woman, average age about 29) did 3 sets of 5 of each at a load equal to their body weight. Against the back squat, the belt squat showed about 45% less lower-back muscle activity over the rep and 52% less at its peak. It showed less activity in the abdominals and the obliques too. At the front of the thigh, the three quadriceps muscles measured didn't differ between the two lifts.²
• 31 people (16 men and 15 women) were tested at their five-rep maximum on each lift. The quadriceps and the gluteus maximus were measured; the significant difference reported was in the gluteus maximus, which was lower in the belt squat on both sides.¹

Both were test-day measurements, not training studies, and muscle activity on the day is not muscle growth over months. No training trial of the belt squat was found for this page, so it makes no claim about what weeks of belt squats build.

Does the belt squat work the glutes?

Less than the back squat did, in both studies. In the 10-person study the gluteus maximus showed about 35% less activity over the rep and 32% less at its peak, and the gluteus medius, at the side of the hip, about 54% less.² The authors' explanation is that the load sits closer to the hip joint, so the muscles that straighten the hip have less to do. They also note that an earlier study, on a belt squat where the weight slides along a fixed rod, found no glute difference, while both studies that found less used machines where the load swings on a pivot. They also think their people may not have reached full hip extension at the top, and they did not measure the movement itself.²

The 10-person study's authors agree with the 31-person study's: if belt squats replace back squats, add exercises for the glutes.² On this site that's the hip thrust, and the glute workout has the rest.

The back of the thigh was close: in the one hamstring muscle measured, the biceps femoris, activity over the rep didn't differ and the peak was about 12% lower in the belt squat, which the authors read as overall effort being no different.²

How much weight to use

Your back squat number won't carry over one for one. The 31-person study built equations to estimate a belt squat load from back squat load, training status and body measurements.¹ The equations themselves aren't in the abstract, so this page doesn't reproduce them.

A practical start, not a finding: begin with a light load you could lift many more times, add weight in small steps over a few sessions until a set of 8 to 12 leaves two or three reps in the tank, and write down the machine and the weight. How to judge reps left.

The isometric belt squat

The belt squat is also used as a strength test: you push up against a belt that doesn't move while force plates measure how hard. In 120 male and female athletes, average age about 20, the peak force on that test showed weak-to-moderate links with jump height (r = 0.36 to 0.55), and the knee angle of 90 degrees separated the age groups better than 120 degrees.³ That is a test, not a training method, and this page doesn't suggest one.

The common faults, and a fix for each

• Pulling yourself down with the handles. Hands rest lightly; the legs do the work.
• Half reps at the top. Stand all the way up each rep. The 10-person study's authors suspected their people stopped short of full hip extension.²
• A stance that drifts. Set your feet in the same place every set so the weights you write down compare.
• Dropping into the bottom. Control the way down, then drive up.
• Squatting through pain. If you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, stop and ask a doctor or a physical therapist.

Sets, reps and where it goes

• What the study used: 3 sets of 5 at a load equal to body weight, with three minutes between sets, after a warm-up of four sets of 5 building from body weight to 75% of it.² That was a test session, not a training plan.
• As a practical start: 3 sets of 8 to 12, two or three reps short of failure, as the main squat of a leg day or after a barbell squat. This is practical advice, not a finding.
• Pair it with glute work. Both studies measured less glute activity, so put a hip thrust or a hinge on the same day. The leg day workout has a full session.

Common questions

Is the belt squat as good as the back squat?

For the front of the thigh, the 10-person study measured similar activity, and its authors read the 31-person study the same way; for the glutes, both measured less, and for the trunk, the one that measured it found less.²¹ No trial compared what the two build over weeks. If the goal is a better barbell squat, the barbell squat has to stay in your week.

Belt squat vs Smith machine squat?

Both are machine squats, with the load in different places: at the hips on the belt squat, on the upper back on the Smith machine. No study comparing the two was found. A small study of the Smith machine squat found lower muscle activity than the free-weight squat;⁴ the details are on the Smith machine squat.

Can I do a belt squat without the machine?

People do it with a dip belt and a weight hanging between two sturdy boxes. No study cited here tested that version, so this page doesn't describe it as the same exercise. Without a belt, the goblet squat also keeps the bar off your back.

If you'd rather not plan it alone

The belt squat is quick to learn; deciding whether it replaces your squat or sits beside it, and what covers the glutes it does less for, is the part a page can't do. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in Trainerize, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise: at your next leg session, do three sets of ten on the belt squat, then a hip thrust, and write down both weights.