Are you trying to improve your overall fitness? Do you want to take your strength and endurance to the next level? Have you gained some extra weight, due to the various Coronavirus lockdowns, that you want to get rid of? Then you should consider training with a weighted vest. Whether you are running, walking, or doing body-weight exercises, you can boost your performance by utilizing the additional resistance of a weighted vest.
What Is a Weighted Vest?
Weighted vests are essentially wearable weights. You can find the latest generation of weighted vests over at kensuifitness.com, Old weighted vests are vests made out of strong and durable material, with pockets all over it that are filled with sand to make them heavy. More modern weighted vests allow you to safely attach and remove weights. This is handy because you can adjust the amount of weight according to different exercises or as your level of strength increases.
Who Can Use a Weighted Vest?
Anyone can wear a weighted vest. However, if you are under the age of sixteen, have a history of injuries, or have little experience with resistance training, you should consult a health professional before diving into training with a weighted vest. People use weighted vests for various reasons, some endurance athletes use them outdoors, some athletes use them in the gym to improve their relative bodyweight strength, and many people use them to exercise at home.
Why Should I Train with a Weighted Vest?
There are multiple benefits to training with a weighted vest, some physiological and some practical. For starters, training with a weighted vest can definitely help you to lose fat if this is your goal. The weighted vest adds extra resistance to your exercises, which means that your body needs to work harder, therefore you burn more calories and burn more fat. For those who want to improve their endurance, you can think about the following regarding the weighted vest: If your body can cover a certain distance with the additional weight, then it should cover the same distance faster without the weight, or go further in the same amount of time. This logic can also be applied to bodyweight strength workouts. If you can do a certain number of pull-ups, pushups, and squats with a weighted vest on, you can do a lot more without the additional weight.
When using a weighted vest and doing bodyweight exercises, your muscles feel the new stress of the additional weight and have to generate more force to move the weight. With recovery, over time your body is going to adapt and become more powerful. Wearing a weighted vest is not only going to help you to complete a higher number of reps, but it’s also going to help you to become stronger and more explosive.
There are also a few great practical benefits to using a weighted vest. If you have a weighted vest at home, there may be no need to go to the gym. Usually, people who do calisthenics struggle to strengthen their lower body. With a weighted vest, you can exercise at home and train your whole body for various goals.
What Sort of Training Should I Do?
If you are wanting to lose weight and get fit, you can walk and run with a relatively low amount of weight. If you want to get strong, but aren’t concerned about muscle growth, you can use a relatively heavy amount of weight and do some general strength exercises using the 5 by 5 method (5 sets of 5 reps). These exercises include squats, lunges, push-ups, dips, and pull-ups. Gaining muscle at home without a home gym is also now easier than ever. You should do the same general strength exercises above, but you need to seriously up your repetitions and sets.
It’s important to remember that if your goals are to change your body mass, and not performance-focused, then the weighted vest is not going to do all the work for you. Yes, it’s going to help you to burn more calories but if you are eating more calories than you burn, then you may still struggle to lose fat. For those who have the opposite goal, to gain weight, you need to ensure you are consuming enough calories to exercise and build additional muscle. With weight loss and weight gain goals, your diet is the biggest driver of your results.
No matter what type of training you do, where you train, or what your training goals are – you can benefit from a weighted vest. Training with a weighted vest can also save you money, consider your monthly gym fees versus the cost of a weighted vest. It’s likely that you will be saving money and training more frequently because of the travel time saved from not having to go to the gym.
