CONS OF WRAPS AND BELTS

Just some food for thought- To me unless you are in a competition or injured - Ive learned that weight belts , wraps, things like grips build a false sense of accomplisment and power. You need to build all the tiny muscles, train for function. DONT wear grips for pullup or chins- build forearm and grip power. If deadlifts scare you- build your erectors- Its been proven in studies that when using these devices your muscles atropy and shrink- meaning you begin to depend on them- Now why would you want that. Many physical therapy practices work on the premise that you need to build all the support muslces think of the pendulum exercises for your rotator cuff= all those tiny muscles. Google Louie Simmons and back injury or his back machine- He is living proof that a man with sveral blown disks couldnt prevent him from becoming a champion powerlifter- without surgery. Exercise the right way can remedy many injuries.
The bad: negates the adaptive benefits of lifting heavy by absorbing the stress of the load. Basically, your knees won’t get stronger because the wraps are taking the brunt of the trauma.
You should only be wearing knee wraps if:
• You have been diagnosed with knee problems and literally need the wraps to be able to squat.
• You are using a weight above 85% of your 1 rep max.
• If you use wraps with weights above 85% of 1 rm, you also periodically train without wraps with weights lower than 85% of 1 rm.
• You are wearing the wraps loosely just to keep the knees warm.

Wearing a belt = weaker back muscles = a predisposition to lower back injury.
Worse yet, electromyographic research has found that wearing a belt causes decreased stimulation of the ab***inal muscles. In this way, wearing a lifting belt is a vicious cycle of strength imbalances, causing your lower back and ab***inal muscles to become the weakest links. Not good.
The indirect benefit of wearing a belt for the knees, is that you will be more likely to stand up straighter, keeping most of the stress in a straight line over the ankles, which ultimately results in far less stress on the quads and the knees.

These are just some morsels. Recently I see post about wearing wraps or companies making all these devices - baloney- MAN UP:knob:

I like using wraps and belt when doing a powerlifting cycle, but only for the heaviest of sets. I can handle a lot of weight with wraps and belt and thats what I want to grow my legs.

geez, i remember the days of wearing a thick powerlifting belt for every single workout...haha...kinda ridiculous now....back when I was going to go as heavy as i could possibly go on every exercise..lol...

I need to use wraps on heavy set for deads because my wrists open up on me around rep 3 or 4. I never wear a belt though.

I wear a belt when I squat and deadlift.
There are individual exercises that can be be done to correct weak abs like sit ups. all those inbalances can be easily corrected.
The belt can prevent some serious injurys when going heavy. I'm a believer in the belt.

I go back and forth really on this subject...bottom line is heavy lifting can cause minor injuries here and there that a wrap or belt can help get around...I'm not for lifting with wraps and belts etc 100% of the time. Recently I started using a belt on Leg day but I hadn't for a good five years. I use wrist wraps on and off again on chest days. I've had a nagging bicep injury for 6 months so I use a strap for grip on that hand on back day...you get my point. I do agree with you that you don't want to use them all the time though...