A weight vest is a full piece of weightlifting equipment that you wear across your chest and back. It has been hypothesized and subsequently proven that wearing a weight vest while you exercise and train can make your training more effective as your body learns to do the work for one with extra weight. Try using a weight vest in any number of ways to amp up your weight training.
Step 1
Use a weighted vest if you go walking for your main form of exercise. While walking can be a good way to shed pounds, adding extra resistance to your body will make your walking that much more effective, and you probably won't notice too much of a difference. Your body will work harder against the weight and burn more calories for a better workout.
Step 2
Wear your weighted vest while playing sports. It will make all facets of the game-- running, jumping, reflexes and skills--a little bit more challenging so that when the vest is removed, you're able to sustain that level of exertion and play better overall.
Step 3
Work on your vertical jumping skills with a weighted vest on. A study done by Texas Tech found that those student athletes who wore a weighted vest while training experienced a 13 percent gain or three inches in their vertical jump when the vests were removed, as opposed to those without a weighted vest who only gained one inch on their vertical jump through training.
Step 4
Use your weighted vest to train while running. Runners can benefit from using a weighted vest as they try to improve their time. If you can work towards your usual best time while wearing a weighted vest, when you remove it, you'll find yourself like the subjects of the Texas Tech study. They found an average of a .33 seconds shaved from their usual times after training with a weight vest. Findings published in a 1988 Journal of Applied Physiology noted that those runners who trained with a weighted vest had 11 to 13 percent more endurance than runners who did not.
Step 5
Try wearing a weighted vest as you go about your daily activities. It is fairly comfortable and you can adjust the weights, and find that you burn extra calories while doing menial tasks like housework or gardening. Even if you aren't a trained athlete, you can make a weighted vest work for you as a sneaky way to exercise.
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