Weighted vests have long been popular with athletes and celebrities akin to David Beckham and former Hollyoaks star Gemma Atkinson. But interest of their use can have been piqued recently after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg shared a sweaty selfie of himself wearing one on Instagram.
Weighted vests normally weigh 5-20kg. They’re typically worn to extend exercise intensity. Some vests are a hard and fast weight and others contain pockets where different weight plates may be added before putting it on.
Historically, weighted vests have been used to coach soldiers to hold heavy loads. These might include protective equipment that soldiers wear, akin to bullet-proof vestswhich weigh around 10kg. In some countries, firefighters are also required to train with weighted vests to arrange them for the demands of their job.
More recently, people have been using weighted vests during workout challenges, as a part of CrossFit and even while running, within the hope of boosting their fitness. And research backs their advantages.
For instance, one study found that runners who wore a weighted vest used more oxygen – a marker of fitness – than those that didn’t.
Participants got a weighted vest (9kg for men and 6kg for girls) and instructed to jog at half the intensity they were able to. Alongside using more oxygen, the weighted vest group had the next heart rate and burned more calories. The men who wore weighted vests while running also burned more carbohydrates.
These results mean that individuals who run with a weighted vest may get fitter quicker, and can probably burn more body fat in the long run. However, you could have to be fit to undertake these sorts of difficult workouts and see all these results.
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Weighted vests may also help to spice up intensity during resistance training workouts. One study compared the effect of wearing a weighted vest on participants who undertook a six-week military-style training programme. Participants accomplished various varieties of training, including running and calisthenics (a style of resistance training that uses body weight exercises to construct strength).
The researchers found that the participants who wore the weighted vests showed a virtually 4% improvement of their performance on an uphill treadmill walk compared with the control group who didn’t wear a vest. They also had an almost 4% improvement in the quantity of oxygen their body used during exercise. However, the improvements in calisthenics measures (performing push ups and sit-ups) were similar in each the group who wore vests and the group who didn’t. It’s not clear why there was little difference between the 2 groups.
Weighted vests are also helpful during less intense workouts. One study found that when men wore a 9kg weighted vest while walking uphill for ten minutes, their heart rate increased by ten additional beats per minute – an indication their body was working harder. They also burned 6% more calories while wearing the weighted vest compared with once they weren’t wearing one.
So doing something so simple as wearing a weighted vest in your each day dog walk could have a giant profit to your physical health – including your cardiovascular health and metabolism.
While we still don’t have much evidence showing whether weighted vests themselves improve our ability to realize muscle, we do know that wearing them can have big advantages for cardiovascular health. We also don’t have much research on older participants – and what studies we do have have used lighter weights (1-5kg), which can haven’t any effect. It will likely be vital for more research to be done which looks at how weighted vests may profit many alternative groups of individuals.
Potential risks
It’s vital to notice that weighted vests might also include certain risks. Some research in military personnel found that carrying heavy items on their back or torso carried an increased risk of musculoskeletal injuryparticularly within the legs and the back. This could possibly be because carrying weight increases the amount of force that exists between the body and the bottom – making it harder on the joints when moving. However, much of this research is on carrying loads over 25kg, often greater than what’s used for weighted vests.
Research also shows that military personnel who incessantly carry a heavy load experience changes of their walking and running gait. Typically, this manifests as a shorter stride. These changes probably occur to compensate for carrying more weight – and will in turn increase the danger of injury.
But my research using weighted vests in CrossFit showed no changes in gait. This suggests that using a weighted vest occasionally during training may not necessarily increase your risk of leg, knee or ankle injury.
Most research suggests the heavier the load, the greater the danger of injury. This is because heavy loads make our backs and torsos stifferwhich might increase the danger of muscle and tendon strains.
As such, most individuals in good health who don’t have any existing injuries can probably safely use a weighted vest during their workouts. But to avoid the danger of injury, ensure you begin with a lightweight weight at first (around 2-3kg) and steadily increase the load over several weeks as your body becomes accustomed to it. This will maximise the advantages that weighted vests afford while limiting the danger of injury from pushing too hard too soon.
