I worked out with a weight vest for a week — and it's a game changer
I worked out with a weight vest for a week — and information technology's a game changer
Equally a guy who essentially types and watches TV for a living, my workouts are pretty essential to my health. So when I had the chance to review some weight vests as part of our growing fitness coverage, I jumped at the risk to permit my 24-hour interval job join the battle against center-aged spread.
1 trend that's been creeping into my YouTube suggestions and reading lists is the use of a weight vest to heighten different workouts. Whether information technology'due south a simple home workout routine or a CrossFit WOD, I've been seeing jacked men and women grinding out reps while wearing what looks like trunk armor.
So I really had 2 questions going into this experiment. First, I wanted to know what a weight belong could actually practice for me and how it would change my workouts. Sure, adding weight should make most exercises harder, merely would I unlock Dragon Ball Z-style improvements when I cast off my weighted wearable?
Second, I besides wanted to know whether the whole vest idea had any merit beyond making you expect really intense while doing a regular conditioning. There are then many other exercise fads, like confront masks to limit oxygen intake and funky tourniquets to restrict blood menstruum, that it feels like some of the nigh dubious claims get traction just because they make someone look a picayune more farthermost. Are weight vests just a way to cosplay while working out, or do they impart real benefits?
One week in, and I call back I've found some answers.
What is a weight vest?
A weight belong is a simple concept: An article of clothing that weighs a lot, adding actress weight to a wide range of movements. It'southward a elementary manner to add resistance to a workout, and increment the intensity of otherwise elementary activities.
There are a few different options out there for weight vests, ranging from simple weight-filled harnesses that are worn around the shoulders to crazy contraptions that let you strap Olympic weight plates to your torso. Only the almost common vest designs are actually a repurposed bit of armed services equipment, chosen a plate carrier.
In normal apply, these are used to strap ballistic plates onto soldiers and cops, merely in the gym, these vests are used to put extra weight onto your torso. Various designs have unlike straps and elastics and Velcro closures for securing that weight, but the basic idea is simple: Strap one weight to your breast, and another to your back, and hold everything in place snugly enough that you lot tin comfortably workout with it on.
For this first calendar week of training, I tested the 5.xi Tactical TacTec Plate Carrier, which is a prime number case of the repurposed military gear design. It'southward literally sold as protective gear and used by SWAT teams and the like to provide protection and carry equipment.
It's likewise one of the most popular and well-regarded weight vests out there. It's been the official weight vest of the CrossFit games for several years running, and is sold through retailers like Rogue Fettle and Dick'southward Sporting Appurtenances.
But five.11 also sent me the sleeker five.11 TacTec Trainer, a fitness oriented product that ditches some of the tactical features and streamlines the vest for a less cumbersome conditioning. I'll exist trying it out next, likely to have similar results. Keep an eye out for our upcoming reviews.
Testing the vest: 1 vest, 4 workouts
There are all sorts of workout plans out there for people who want to endeavour out a weight vest. From follow-along YouTube videos to intense CrossFit WODs, in that location's a ton of options for working out with a belong.
I wanted to try the vest in a number of workout styles and movement patterns, to get a good feel for how the belong fits and handles all sorts of activeness. For my testing, I settled on 4 workouts, each designed to take advantage of the benefits of belong training while avoiding some of the increased risks. (I love my job, but I'k non about to risk a broken foot for information technology.)
I broke this down into four main workouts:
- Basic calisthenics focused around fundamental movements, like push button-ups, pull-ups and squats, with variations of each.
- Core movements: mainly seated floor moves, like crunches and Russian twists, and hanging moves, like leg raises and windshield wipers.
- A few rounds of a heavy pocketbook boxing session for cardio
- A thirty-minute walk, taking a brisk walk from my house to a nearby park and back, with a route that takes me upward and downwardly a large hill.
These four workouts besides accept the benefit of closely matching my regular weekly routine, giving me a good sense of how the weight-belong version of these exercises matches upward with the unweighted diverseness.
Spoiler warning: The weight vest kicked my butt.
I tried working out with a weight vest for a calendar week: Here'due south what happened
Working out with 20 pounds of sand strapped to your body will definitely change the nature of your workouts. From making simple exercises harder (in a good way) to making unproblematic movements more difficult (in a bad mode), here'south what my calendar week of weight vest training looked like.
Conditioning #1 - Calisthenics
I'll regularly do a pick of basic calisthenics in my abode function, which doubles as my workout space. (Working from abode means that my role and exercise equipment share that aforementioned room.) Whether it's consolidated into a single workout or I'thousand sprinkling some sets into my daily schedule, it's helpful to have a pullup bar readily accessible.
Squats didn't go too hard, because I'll regularly work in weighted squats using dumbbells (be sure to check out our picks for the best adjustable dumbbells). Pushups, on the other hand, got noticeably more hard, and I had to cut my usual 100 pushups downwardly to l, and I had to stick to the nuts, no fancy archer pushups or i-armed pushups. Sets were whittled downward to v sets of x, instead of my usual three or 4 sets of 25 or 30. And my grade suddenly became vitally important, equally the added weight drew my attention to my shoulders and slightly-too-flared elbows.
But the real challenge came when I grabbed the pullup bar. I realized in short succession that the added weight non only increased the difficulty for my arms, shoulders and lats, but that information technology also had a directly impact on my grip. By the time I was six reps in, my forearms were burning, my whole upper body was gassed out, and I was acutely aware of some minor crackles and pops in one shoulder. They've always been there, only I worried about them a lot more nether the added weight.
Past the end of the workout, I was beat. I was more tired than nigh whatsoever workout I've done in months, and this despite cut my usual rep counts mostly in half.
Workout #2 - Cadre movements
My 2d workout reminded me that weight is only useful when information technology tin can exist properly loaded, with the right angles and motions to utilise that weight equally resistance.
That meant that while bones core exercises similar sit ups and planks were marginally more than difficult with the vest on, others, like hanging leg raises, were made harder. But not considering the ab portion of the movement was harder – that was unchanged, since the weight is on my body and non my legs – only information technology did make the hanging aspects of the move a lot more challenging, calculation 20 pounds to a dead hang.
If annihilation, the biggest difference that the vest fabricated for nearly ab workouts was that it added bulk that had to be accounted for whenever I went to lay on the ground. Anything else could be easily replicated by doing crunches while holding a dumbbell.
Workout #3 - Heavy Bag
The 3rd workout was a cardio session with the heavy handbag. Adding the weight belong to the mix did add a wrinkle to the process of gearing up – you definitely want to put on and adjust the vest before yous get your gloves on. Am I an idiot? Probably.
Only one time I had my vest on and my gloves, I found that the vest didn't make a huge difference in a strictly pocketbook-focused conditioning. The weight didn't burden my arms, though it did change how I put my newly-bulked up weight behind punches, and other movements, like dodges and footwork, were impacted past my twenty-pound burden.
I volition note that, when wearing the vest, I approached the heavy handbag differently. Instead of mixing in any kicks or knees, I opted to stick to a boxing-style workout. The heavy vest and changed weight distribution made me leery of movements that would throw my remainder off or put unwanted stress on my knees and ankles.
But it'south a skilful reminder that weight vests aren't great for apply during skill-based exercises. The extra weight may or may not increase the difficulty of a given action, but the extra weight will mess up your preparation, throwing off muscle retentiveness. Skills preparation with a weight vest on volition but train you to practice the skill with a weight vest on. Stick to exercises where the additional weight makes sense, and don't think that simply wearing information technology for every action is a shortcut to amend fitness.
Conditioning #iv - 30-infinitesimal walk
Because the added weight of the vest can increment the risk of articulation injuries and stress fractures, I opted not to wear the vest for a jog, or for my usual cardio choice of jumping rope.
Walking, on the other hand, provides a adept way to integrate the vest into activity and increase the intensity of it without those risks. So I strapped on the belong to go for a walk.
While walking with a weight vest on sounds unproblematic enough – and it is – there is a real benefit from the added weight. Walking is made more difficult, and a brisk pace with 20 pounds of extra weight will add together a new conditioning element, more than so if you lot plan a route that includes a lot of inclines.
So, I walked upward a big hill. And down the hill once more. My 30-minute walk was pretty much all loma.
Allow's be articulate, strapping on a weight vest won't make walking your side by side HIIT replacement. Information technology's better for rest days, frankly. But it is enough to make a brisk walk a legitimate conditioning, 1 that will have you breathing a little harder, working just a fiddling more, and strengthening leg and trunk muscles a bit more than walking alone would exercise.
One week subsequently: This is a game changer
One common theme throughout this week of weighted workouts was how every conditioning seemed to end: One time the terminal rep was done, and I knew I couldn't do some other, all I wanted was to tear that vest off of me. Fumbling with flaps and straps and Velcro, I would finally get the beast off my back and throw information technology roughly to the floor. It's a tough slice of equipment, I know it can take it. The bigger question was whether I could.
I won't lie, that first calisthenics workout left me sore for days. But once I had some distance from the more humbling aspects of my new workout, I realized that the weight vest was giving me exactly what I wanted, making basic practise a challenge once again, and giving me a way to heighten my workouts without a lot of complicated techniques, expensive gear or extra fourth dimension.
I'k going to keep using the weight vests in my routine – and not but considering I have more of these to test. I went into this looking to observe out if weight vests were a gimmick for aggro gym bros, a piece of gear made to look aggressive more than than anything else.
Instead I constitute a unmarried, simple item that makes my strength workouts harder, my cardio workouts more intense, and proved that my overall conditioning has plenty of room for comeback. If yous want a cracking way to level up your workouts in the abode or at the gym, this is a killer pick.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/i-worked-out-with-a-weight-vest-for-a-week-and-it-kicked-my-ass
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