Guide To Buying A Weighted Vest

Yes, everyone from an amateur to an experienced athlete can reap the benefits of a weighted vest.

1. If you are just starting working out, weighted vests are a great cost-friendly option to increase resistance on all bodyweight exercises, without having to invest in more equipment.
2. If you are a more experienced user, vests can help build endurance and make regular workouts more challenging.

You can use weighted vests for both weightlifting and cardiovascular workouts.

• If you are performing a weightlifting workout, you can use it to supplement your body weight and increase muscle tension on some lifts like squats, lunges, push-ups and pull-ups.
• If you are into cardio workouts, you can use it to elevate your heart rate quicker, build endurance and burn through more calories.

Almost everyone who works out, can benefit from a weighted vest.

• If you are a bodybuilder, it can supplement bodyweight exercises by providing more resistance.
• If you are a power athlete or Olympic lifter, it can aid in improving explosive movements like box jumps.
• From a cardio point of view, it helps in raising the heart rate faster, leading to more burnt calories in a relatively lesser amount of time

• Since weighted vests just add to your existing body weight, you can use any other piece of weight training equipment working on the same principle, as an alternative.
• You can use weighted dip belts to make chest/tricep dips, pull-ups more challenging, ankle weights to supplement lunges or any other cardiovascular exercise, weightlifting chains for squats, bench press, and deadlifts.

• You can wear a weighted vest for 15 to 45 minutes at a stretch.
• Since they put a lot of pressure on your chest and shoulders, wearing them for a longer period of time can lead to overstraining of the neck and shoulder muscles.
• They can also lead to breathing troubles, when used over extended periods.

• You should never try swimming in a weighted vest, as it can pose to be a health hazard and provides no discernable advantage.
• Numerous studies have stated that swimmers with better technique out swim competitors with more endurance.
• If building endurance is your end goal, hand paddles or drag chutes are a better alternative.

• You can perform all bodyweight and cardiovascular exercises using a weighted vest.
• Some good examples are push-ups, chin-ups, dips, box jumps, jogging, planks, etc.
• One important tip would be to gauge the weight of the vest during the exercise, as a heavier vest can lead to imbalance and injuries and a lighter vest just won’t be as challenging.

• No, CrossFit weighted vests are not essentially different from weightlifting vests.
• Both serve the same purpose of adding to your body weight and making workouts more challenging.

1. However, some considerations to keep in mind while using vests for CrossFit are, the material should be breathable and sweat-absorbent as a CrossFit workout can make you sweat profusely and the wrong material vest can make the workout uncomfortable.
2. Another consideration would be to use lighter weights, as CrossFit workouts require you to stay balanced, and adding too much weight to the vest can lead to injuries.