Thread: Weight belts

Happy New Year Everyone Have any of you trained with the weight belts? Did you notice a difference in strength, technique ect? Are they worth buying? What other companies sell them?

Thanxs a bunch

I have been working with a weight belt. I bought one from Delilah of Seattle and bough a fitness one. I definitely feel and see a difference. I think it's worth it.

Oreet

Originally Posted by oreet

I have been working with a weight belt. I bought one from Delilah of Seattle and bough a fitness one. I definitely feel and see a difference. I think it's worth it.

Oreet

What differences have you noticed between Delilah's and the fitness ones?? Is one more comfortable than the other??
I've been thinking about getting one from Delilah for a while, but the cost has left me undecided.

Originally Posted by Athallia

What differences have you noticed between Delilah's and the fitness ones?? Is one more comfortable than the other??
I've been thinking about getting one from Delilah for a while, but the cost has left me undecided.

Delilah's is more comfortable because the material feels better against the skin, where as the fitness belt is a little bulky and made of vinyl. i believe Delilah has enhanced her belts as far as the style and the clasps. She has a double clasp so that the belt stays put.

Thanks Oreet, good to know.

I voted "somewhat" because if you use it - it's awesome! you can feel every tiny little articulation and it helps build your precision and control. also will strengthen and tone your core muscles in a hurry.

but - in spite of how great it works, I don't use it very much. I get it out if I need to get some snap for an upcoming show and I'm feeling out of shape, but other than that it sits in a drawer.

I'm glad I have it, though. I got mine from delilah as well. I got mine a couple years ago and it's very, very comfortable and fastens with a wide chunk of velcro. somebody else is making them now and I haven't seen one in person (although my daughter goes to preschool with the seamstresses son - random!)

I've been thinking about getting one of these. I love fitness gimmicks ;) and this one looks so good. I didn't know you could get them other than from Delilah...I'm going to check around

I made one yrs back out of some denim and kitty litter. It worked great and was quite inexpensive.

I'm curious about these weight belts. Is there a link where I can view it?

thanks in advance

check out Delihah site. Cost is why I'm looking around and to see if it's worth it. I'm undecided.

Originally Posted by jaziri

I made one yrs back out of some denim and kitty litter. It worked great and was quite inexpensive.

How did you do this, exactly? I'm curious...

I have made a few in the past - I really like using them. They really make you work harder when training on specific movements and my range of motion after training for a while with them is awesome. My issue is I keep losing the damn things - they are in a box somewhere is the vastness of what is supposed to be a garage.

You can use almost any fabric (spandex works really well - just double line it with the same fabric) - you can use kitty litter (unscented clumping works the best) - the best clasps I have found are at the fabric store (they come with cording and click into each other). There really isn't a pattern I use - I just measure my hips and using a similar style as a simple bd belt, create it (stitch well).

Originally Posted by teakpeek

check out Delihah site. Cost is why I'm looking around and to see if it's worth it. I'm undecided.

Thanks - I checked it out. While the concept is interesting, I'm not too sure if it would be a good investment for me at this time. I'm a fairly new dancer and I only dance as a hobby.

Hi guys this vid must be useful. It covers solely on usage of weight belts in bellydance
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLp6J6sXvJk]YouTube - (Beladi) Question on weight belts in bellydance[/ame]

and i think this blog post also breaksdown about dangers and advantages of weight belts

Beladi’s question on weight belts in bellydance « THE VOICE

Anyway too bad for me...deliLAH weight belt is WAY TOOO EXPENSIVE!!!!!!!
I also hear that scuba diving belts does the same work except they are ugly. Plus shipping of delilah's weights belts will be more bombs on my poor pocket! lol

Hi All,
I'm a belly dancer and a scuba diver and have used my scuba weight belt to practice belly dance some. Haven't used it consistently enough to claim any great changes, but it did make practice more challenging and made me really work to isolate and control the moves.

My belt is nylon with velcro pockets and a plastic buckle... nothing fancy, but it is easy to change out the bags of lead shot soft weights (also used for diving) if I want to use a different weight.

While mine is neon green (so I stand a chance of recovering it if I have to ditch it under water), I have thought of getting one in black just for dancing and then decorating it. Also, the nylon can chafe if it rubs on the skin a lot and I have a hard time keeping the belt from flopping around, so perhaps some soft material on the inside might help, as would replacing the buckle with heavy-duty velcro. Some weight belts are made of neoprene, which might be more comfortable. There are all kinds of different scuba weight belts, so if you are wanting a weight belt, it might worth it to look for some online or make a trip to the local dive shop and see what they have. It just might be cheaper and you could decorate them as you like. ..g.:

Happy Shimmies!

I like Delilah's belt. I think it does help you with isolation development in the hips.

Originally Posted by Michala

Hi All,
I'm a belly dancer and a scuba diver and have used my scuba weight belt to practice belly dance some. Haven't used it consistently enough to claim any great changes, but it did make practice more challenging and made me really work to isolate and control the moves.

My belt is nylon with velcro pockets and a plastic buckle... nothing fancy, but it is easy to change out the bags of lead shot soft weights (also used for diving) if I want to use a different weight.

While mine is neon green (so I stand a chance of recovering it if I have to ditch it under water), I have thought of getting one in black just for dancing and then decorating it. Also, the nylon can chafe if it rubs on the skin a lot and I have a hard time keeping the belt from flopping around, so perhaps some soft material on the inside might help, as would replacing the buckle with heavy-duty velcro. Some weight belts are made of neoprene, which might be more comfortable. There are all kinds of different scuba weight belts, so if you are wanting a weight belt, it might worth it to look for some online or make a trip to the local dive shop and see what they have. It just might be cheaper and you could decorate them as you like. ..g.:

Happy Shimmies!

thanks for the info! i went online and did see some inexpensive belts. though i would probably go to a dive shop to buy one so i know i'm getting the right thing. i meant to try a weight belt before and i forgot about it. i'm curious about it again now!

please read this thread

http://www.bhuz.com/forum/m/3527-wei...ee-health.html

jencUK I am glad you brought up the health concern, especially for the knee.. I ve been bellydancing quite some time before I hurt my knee in Latin Fit class (Samba "rotating" step to the front/side), and been hesitant to take it up ever since (fear to hurt the knee, pain when doing walking shimmies, so I am a bit "handicapped" ever since..), and I must say given I am very very concerned about my knee(s) ever since and have continued seeing my excellent physiotherapist for years I was highly sceptical about using those weight belts for producing unnatural strain on the joints in the hip, knee, feet..
Basically she (the physiotherapist) encouraged me to use weights on the ankles again for exercise - but only for sitting/lying/standing positions where I move a) slowly b) in a very controlled manner.
I know I d discourage any kind of dancing/more uncontrolled/spontaneous movement with weights.
For developing muscles "in the right places" (I am pretty much of a beginner technique-wise due to my long and frequent interruptions of dance education because of the knee problems - I still have a hard time to shimmy in a relaxed manner for a longer period of time, for instance) I have recently tried out shimmying slowly and in a controlled way in the ocean :)
I saw an immediate improvement when being out of the water - bascially water resistance is stronger than most weight one could think of, and at the same time lifts almost ALL of the body weight from our joints!
As a non-professional in dance as well as body kinetics I think this is a way better option!
Curious for replies :)