A weight vest is a training tool designed to increase your fitness results. A weight vest may be loaded with weight ranging from 5 to 100 lb. Use of a weight vest is not limited to hard-core gym junkies; almost anyone can benefit from wearing a weight vest as part of a total training regimen.
Calorie Burn
Wearing a weighted vest increases the number of calories you burn during any activity. The impact on your overall calorie burn depends on the weight of the vest and your efficiency at the given exercise. Note that only highly trained athletes should wear a weighted vest during high-impact activity, such as running, because of possible injury to joints.
Athletic Performance
Training with a weighted vest may help improve your overall athletic performance. In a study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology in 1987, a group of athletes each wore a weighted vest equivalent to about 10 percent of their body weight from morning until nighttime. When compared to a group that only wore the vest every other day, constant vest-wearers displayed better oxygen intake capabilities to support longer and harder workouts. They were able to achieve a higher intensity of exercise before muscle failure. The daily vest wearers also logged longer running times before exhaustion and increased speed on stair running.
Even Weight Distribution
Unlike weights that you strap to your ankles or wrists, weighted vests evenly load weight across the center of your body. Adding resistance to the center of the body helps improve overall strength and balance.
Osteoporosis
Weighted vests offer value to elderly women at risk of developing osteoporosis. In 2000, Oregon State University conducted a study examining whether exercise with a weighted vest would improve post-menopausal women's bone density. After five years of three weekly workouts performed while wearing a weighted vest of one to 10 pounds, elderly women lost less than one percent of their bone mass. Researchers deemed this a significant improvement compared to an almost four percent loss in those who did not participate in the weighted vest program.
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