Melanie Roach qualified Saturday as the top US female on a team of 4 women going to Beijing to compete in the Summer Olympics. Rounding out the rest of the US womens’ team are Carissa Gump, Natalie Woolfolk and third time Olympian, Cheryl Haworth.

The US Olympic Weightlifting Trials were held Saturday in Atlanta.

On the men’s side, there are three qualifiers including Mike Burgener’s son Casey, who at the trials on Saturday snatched 180 kilos (396#) and clean and jerked 224 kilos (492.8#) for a 404 kilo (880.8#) total. The top rated US lifter is Kendrick Farris, followed by Chad Vaughn.

More on Casey, from the AP story.

Farris and Vaughn dominated the men’s competition, with the main battle for the final spot. Burgener took it with a clean and jerk of 493 pounds on his next-to-last attempt. He fell over backward on the stage in jubilation.

“It was just a surge of energy,” Burgener said. “I can’t put it into words. It was like every surge of emotion you can feel all coming down at once.”

Congratulations, Casey, Melanie and the rest of the US team.

Mehdi over at stronglifts.com outlined the pros and cons of using weightlifting belts, which were and are primarily used by Olympic lfiters and power lifters. Personally, I don’t use one, but did recently doing a 605# rack pull which I had never done before. I think they are a great aid for those extra heavy lifts, but I don’t believe you should rely on them. Strengthen your core to make it “bullet-proof” and you may never need one. The purpose of the belt is to tighten up the core to create intra-abdominal pressure, which serves to keep the spine strong and protected. This can be done by working the entire core, not just the abs to create this same pressure. My coach Danny Henry and kettle guru, Pavel both advocate tightening the entire body for light and heavy lifts. Stay tight! Mel Siff in “Supertraining” suggests that the benefits of the belt may be mostly psychological but that wearing one does give you the sense of where your back arch needs to be. 

When wearing a weightlifting belt, make it tight and move the buckle off the the side so it doesn’t interfere with an Olympic lift if your belt wasn’t designed with this in mind. When lifting, push against the belt with your abs.

For me, I would use a belt as an occasional tool as I go for heavier lifts, but not regularly. I have almost the same view of lifting straps as well. They both assist, not replace.

Sound off in Comments if you have a take on the use weightlifting belts.