Should I Join the Weighted Vest Craze?
All over social media you’ll find people advocating that before a walk or a workout, weshould don a weighted vest to help build muscle faster. As this fad is fairly new, research insupport or showing potential concerns is limited, but that isn’t atypical in the fitness realm.Most studies on fitness trends tend to be small.But the handful of current studies don’t prove much at all. And weighted vests don’t comecheap. The concept behind them is that the added weight will help build muscle faster,but there currently is not evidence of that. And there is a risk of compression on the lowerback and forcing more weight on all the other joints.
So how do you know if it’s right for you?
If a Fad Motivates You: If something new piques you interest and gets you motivated to exercise a little more for a little while, use the tool. Just be mindful of the added weight and start light. It is only recommended that people start by adding 10% of their body weight to the vest.
If You Want to Build Muscle: Really, a weighted vest isn’t necessary. It would be better to invest in a variety of dumbbells or kettlebells—so you have a few different tools at your disposal for building strength. There is nothing like the basics for maintaining our muscle mass. But even your own body weight can be enough. We should all be strength training but there is no need for weighted vests to make gains.
You have a Backpacking Trip Coming Up: If you needed to prepare for an activity that was going to require you to lug extra weight, the vest could serve a purpose. Recreating how the weight will be situated would be ideal, so to prepare for a hike with a pack, you’d wear that actual pack when you walked or to do some stairs—using items you’ve already invested in.
You Have Joint or Lower Back Issues: This probably isn’t the right tool for you. Just like the fad of strapping ankle weights or wrist weights onto limbs for walking a few decades ago, this runs the risk of putting unnecessary strain in places it doesn’t intend. That doesn’t mean it will but within clear gains, why bother?
Ultimately, I like to encourage people to move. If this will do that for you, add it to the mix mindfully. If you start with light additional weights, the risk of harm should be minimal. If it doesn’t make exercise more appealing, it is not required to improve strength.
The attention the vest raises toward building muscle is good. We can all use the reminder to stay strong. But when it comes down to it, while weights, bands, and other instruments can make that easier, all we really need to build strength is our body and the will to get moving. I’m sure we have a strength class on our on-demand channel that just uses body weight. Most of them use light weights. This is a great place to start if you want to build strength and you can even use soup cans for weights if you don’t have an actual set.