A good powerlifting belt is a great investment, they provide provide lower back support throughout big compound movements such as the squat and deadlift. The difference between a proper powerlifting belt and say a fabric bargain basement belt is night and day. (trust me, I too have made the mistake of buying a cheap, fabric belt once) and a top end, quality belt should last you forever if you look after it.
Zulu glove is UK based company that been making some quality lifting gear for a while now.
While their products aren’t as well renowned as inzer or SBD they do churn out some great, competition standard gear. I’ve been a fan of them for a while now and the detonator is my second Zulu belt. (The first one was stolen out of my gym locker, and it’s still sore subject)
The detonator is Zulu’s first attempt at a lever style belt. They opted to design their own patented lever from the ground instead of using a inzer style lever. (like some other companies)
Build quality and lever:
The belt is made from 10mm thick seude. I went with the L size which fits really well and true to size, Zulu have also left a lot of notches so theres plenty of room for adjustments. The stand out feature of Zulu’s buckle is its instant adjustability, it has two sets of holes for the prongs to lock into, this give you the option to wear your belt slightly tighter or slightly looser without the need to undo any screws or move the actual buckle. This video might explain it better:
It’s not a feature i would imagine that will interest everybody but there are some who like to vary the tightness of their belt, for example : tighter for squats and looser for deadlift. So a fixed lever just doesn’t suit their needs and I guess this was Zulu’s answer to the problem. It’s a really simple solution that works incredibly well.
Everything about this belt screams overkill, from the oversized 18mm stainless steal pull handle to the the triple stitching they’ve used as a “just in case” I get the impression you’d have to work very hard in order to break it. They’ve used traditional welding and 18mm thick solid stainless steal rods to create the buckle. The overall appearance isn’t pretty, it’s unapologetic, brash and hardwearing.
Using the belt:
This one is my belt, it’s about two years old it gets quite a bit of use every week and while is obvious its seen some action, it’s held up pretty well. I doubt I’ll ever need to buy another one. Performance wise the support this thing offers is next level. It really does make a huge difference to everything from squats to overhead press and everything in between and when Im not wearing it the difference it makes is very noticeable, theres only a certain amount of bracing your core can do on its own without anything to push against.
I will say that this belt was an absolute nightmare to “break in”. It took weeks of training to get this thing to be anywhere near comfortable, so if you do plan on picking one up expect to have some nasty bruises for about a month or so. But when it does wear in its really worth the effort, the fit is really comfortable even when set very tight.
Inzer has built a great name for themselves but if you live in Europe and you want to pick one up, the postage costs are an absolute killer. That makes Zulu a good, affordable alternative when it comes to equipment. It might look like a medieval torture device but this is really good, well built piece of equipment in my opinion and £67.99 is a pretty decent price.
I leave a link to the site here for those interested:
http://www.zuluglove.com/new–powerlifting-belt–detonator-lever–jet–l-53-p.asp