30 Days Of Weight Vest Use: Lessons Learned

Robin, from “The Science of Self-Care”, has insights:

How to have an easier time of it

Per peer-reviewed science (linked under the video on YouTube), there are some benefits:

• Cardiovascular fitness: increases workout intensity, improving heart and lung health.
• Muscle strength & endurance: strengthens core, legs, glutes, and calves.
• Bone density: helps prevent osteoporosis through weight-bearing exercise.
• Caloric expenditure: burns more calories, aiding in weight loss.
• Balance & posture: improves balance, though posture effects were mixed.

She chose a 30 lb weighted vest, which felt much heavier than expected. Initially, this was uncomfortable but became comforting over time (much like a weighted blanket). She also found that walks became noticeably more intense, leading to increased sweating and hunger.

Over the course of the month, she found:

• Week 1: adjusting to the extra weight; walks felt significantly harder.
• Weeks 2-3: strength improvements; carrying groceries felt easier, walking without the vest felt effortless.
• Week 3: started craving the weighted vest, but also began experiencing shoulder discomfort.
• Week 4: reduced walk duration to 20 minutes due to shoulder strain.

She concluded that the vest design was flawed—all weight rested on shoulders instead of distributing across the body, which led to shoulder discomfort and posture issues. To mitigate these things, she switched to wearing the vest around the waist like a skirt. She now plans to try a weighted belt for better weight distribution, though also simply a different kind of vest would work better (the kind that looks like combat body armor distributes the weight a lot more easily)

In short, her verdict:

• Weighted walking: 10/10, highly beneficial and easy to incorporate into daily routines.
• Vest used: 2/10, poor weight distribution, causing discomfort and shoulder strain.

For more on all of this, plus links to the relevant scientific papers, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

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Weight Vests Against Osteoporosis: Do They Really Build Bone?

Take care!