Leather Weightlifting Belt

What leather gives you – and what it costs

A support belt gives you a surface to press against from the inside. The less that surface gives, the more pressure you build in your belly. That is where leather plays its strongest card: 7 mm of smooth leather with a suede lining is stiff, and it stays stiff under load. You brace against a wall, not against a rubber band.

Two things come with that. First, the belt does not go on and off in two seconds – every single time, you hunt for the right hole. Second, fresh leather is stubborn. After a few weeks of training it has taken your shape and sits as if it had been cut for you.

What it will not do is brace for you. The leather only starts working once you push against it from the inside – without active tension in your trunk it just sits around your hips.

And if you have only been lifting seriously for a few months, leave it on the shelf a while longer. Learn to brace without a belt first, and it gives you more afterwards.

What this belt is built for – and what it is not

This belt is built for dedicated strength sessions with heavy sets – squats, deadlifts, presses, snatch and clean & jerk. You put it on before the set, pull it tight, and it comes off again while you take a few minutes' rest.

Every part of it feeds into that. The stiff leather delivers the counter-pressure you need at heavy weights. The contoured cut leaves you room at the front when you sink deep into your hips – on deadlifts and cleans you notice it straight away. And the fixed setting on the buckle keeps the fit identical across the whole set.

It suits the WOD and circuit training less well – anywhere you jump between exercises within one session. That is not down to the exercises: for Olympic lifting this belt is built. It is down to the pace. Hunt for the right hole every two minutes instead of training, and you lose exactly the time a WOD is about. That is when you are better served by the Multisport Lifting Belt – velcro plus slider, open with one pull.

The way into leather, not the hardest step

Among our leather belts, this is the most approachable one. 7 mm holds the pressure without making you want the belt off again after the second set – you feel it clearly, but you are not laced in. Across your back it runs 10 cm wide and tapers towards the buckle.

The step above is the Leder Powerlifting Belt: 9.5 mm thick, cut straight all the way round, roughly 1200 g. Uncompromising – and correspondingly uncomfortable at the start. If you train hard but not towards the one maximal attempt, you are better off here.

Roller buckle, suede lining, six colours

It closes with a single-prong roller buckle: one row of holes, nine settings, plus a keeper loop for the loose end. One prong finds its hole faster than two, and the hold is no different for it. Black suede sits against your skin on the inside, smooth leather on the outside. At around 450 g it weighs less than half of the Leder Powerlifting Belt – you notice that at the latest when it stays around your hips for a whole session.

Six colours to choose from: Black, Grey, Red, Olive, Yellow and Pink. No other belt we carry comes in that range. If you have always fancied something other than black, this is where you find it.

One word on federation dimensions. At 10 cm wide and 7 mm thick, the belt sits within the IPF specifications (maximum 10 cm wide, 13 mm thick) and under the IWF limit of 12 cm. For IPF meets, however, the federation's list of approved manufacturers counts as well – and no cross equip belt is on it. If you are starting at a meet, check your federation's list beforehand.

Which size fits you?

Measure your waist circumference at navel height, with your stomach drawn in. Important: do not measure at your waistband, that sits lower than the spot where the belt will later sit. Take that number into the table:

Between two sizes, take the smaller one.

There is a reason the ranges overlap so heavily: that is exactly the room the nine holes cover. One size spans roughly 20 cm of waist circumference, so you usually land in the middle of the row of holes, with room either way if something changes over the years. Not sure? Drop us a line before you order – we have all five sizes here and will tell you honestly which one we would hand you.