Hey, I'm looking for a weight vest 50kg + In the UK. Anyone know any good suppliers? I'm getting a lot of branded stuff on searches like addidas 10-18kg etc. Something like this http://www.weightvest.com/Pages/150lbpage.html But in the UK and hopefully a lot cheaper? Any help appreciated thanks.
Wear a couple of vests at the same time? I've done this before with 30Kg vests and finding out what it would be like to weigh 120Kg was a fun experience!
I weigh around 105kg right now, so getting to 120 wouldn't be very difficult, any places you recommend for the vests?
What are you looking to use it for? I got mine on ebay ad it was pretty reasonably priced compared to a lot of branded vests.
Running, calisthenics, basically all the training I do with just my body with the added weight. I want to be able to do what I currently do with a higher weight. It's an experiment of sorts. Burpees, body weight squats, press ups and so on.
Have you done any weighted running before? Adding 150lbs and going for a run is going to be terrifying for your knees, especially if you're already weighing in at around 230lbs. Something else to bear in mind with weighted running, is that it's often better to separate strength and cardio work. In this particular exercise it can be extremely stressful on the knees because of lag. The looser the weight is the less in sync with your own weight the external load is. This becomes a problem at the bottom of each step where your leg is the most bent, as it begins to push your body up the load is still traveling down creating an additional stress. It's one of the reasons that military drills usually start very light and build up to running with a pack and when they do it's strapped on tight. The calisthenics should be fine though, no real issues there.
Yes, I've used ankle weights, I've also used a 10kg vest. It's mainly for calisthenics. I wasn't planning on running with a full 50kg straight away I was hoping for like the one that I linked, adjustable weights.
Osu, I have a 30Kg vest... I would really advice against running or doing any sort of bouncing while wearing it. You can do stair work, or plyometrics, but bouncing is going to hurt joints and tendons that accumulate elastic energy for the bounce. (think Achilles) I would like to suggest wearing two vests... it will be less clumsy for most times when you'll be wearing only one. I have found that 30Kg is plenty of weight. When I do stair work and I want more, I double that with taking two Kbs out for a farmer's carry Osu!
Any explosive or plyo type movement with a 50kg vest on is foolish quite frankly. A fantastic way to put tendons and ligaments at risk (just the mention of it reeks of blown ACL/MCL/miniscus) - not to mention your lumbar region. It'd be like boxing by putting on a 25lb glove... you could do it... but all you'd do is wreck your shoulders and your technique. Pointless. That being said... down at the gym we have several weighted vests... one very similar to what you've linked. They can be good... but realize that your tendons and ligaments all take much longer to condition and strengthen than do your muscles. So ease into it. Really, really ease into it. Because the tendons and the ligaments are not muscle fiber they have much much less blood flow going to them... so that means that not only is strengthening and conditioning on a much different time line - so is recovery time. An example.. I will often do weighted chins from a full dead hang - these days for easy of use I'll just chuck on a belt and add hanging plates. But it's taken a long slow path to do these without injury to the shoulder. The full dead hang position on a chin can be very rough on a shoulder joint. So add any weight to that and you're looking at a shoulder wreck job in short order. Attention to form is everything. If you can't absolutely 100% control the descent into the bottom position on a chin up then there is no way in hell one should be adding weight to the chin. It's a shoulder injury in the making. Not to rain on your parade... just want to give you the heads up on how different tendons and ligaments are compared to muscle tissue. Easier to wreck by far and more expensive and more painful to rehab. Just food for thought. By all means... weight vest training is valid... but just go in bite size pieces - it's not a race so set a timeline and stick to it and your joints and ligaments/tendons will thank you! A vest with adjustable weights is key so you're on the right track as far as that's concerned. Slip
This is a MA forum so I assume that your training has to do with your MA training. Could you explain exactly what particular MA skill that you want to develop by using the weight vest?
As much as I agree that tendons and ligaments need a much longer time to adapt, it is perfectly okay to do loaded plyo work. What is not good is bouncing work where the elasticity of the tendons is used to induce the reactive movement as I explained in my earlier post. Loaded plyo must be done with full amortizing of the movement before exploding in the other direction. For instance, box jumps start on the box, jump on the ground, amortize the reception with thighs horizontal and the whole body tense; keep the position for 3 seconds; explode upwards followed by same reception. High jumpers do alternate explosive box jumps with over 200Kg loaded barbell on the shoulders... Osu!
Just going for a 3 miles walk with a 30Kg weighted vest is great conditioning! I do kata with a weighted vest, as well as stair work, etc... There are plenty of advantages for using a weighted vest for MAs - you should try it. It is very hard to be too strong, or too conditioned for MAs. Osu!
Agreed plyo's can be done weighted. But I don't really see anyone doing them with what I'd consider an acceptable risk to reward ratio if they're not part of a well planned and periodized program that's been put together by someone who knows and understands how to properly design a plyo program. Can anyone do weighted plyos? Sure no laws against it. However the risk to reward ratio goes off the charts in my estimation - especially when looking at doing them with a 50kg weight vest on. Even more so if the person doesn't have a solid foundation in plyometric training and a proper recovery schedule. I like weight vest training... and I like plyos... but for most people I don't like them together. I'd much rather see someone go on a build up program of plyometrics about one day a week... possibly two if they're already at a pretty good athletic standard for period of months prior to jumping right into weight plyos. However your mileage may vary. :hat:
I've worked with a 30kg vest in the past. I always do it gradually, I wasn't planning on putting on the full 50kg. (I lost the 30kg vest a couple of years ago). Left it with a friend at Uni, I never had a chance to get it back. I'm not planning on running with 50kg, but I tend to do burpees, bodyweight squats, push ups in the morning when I wake up, just wanted to add some weight to it to broaden my range a little.
I find any sort of training that helps strength, cardio, flexibility to help towards MA. I assume you stretch, do pressups, some form of cardio to supplement your MA training?
Agreed, this is one of the things I used to do. Just some stair climbing up and down at Uni halls, going for long walks, I used around 15-20kg, for long hilly walks. Just walking with that extra weight does more to the system. I found running with a 10-15kg vest not very detrimental to my knees. But I have always been big. I was around 130kg about 3 years ago. I now range from 100-105, so if I could run with 130kg I don't see how much different that would be with running with a vest. I'm very happy with my weight situation now, but if I was to cut to around 90-95, while mainlining my current level of strength (or improving hopefully), I don't see how 30-40kg or so should be too much of a problem.
Osu, Precisely that! Plus proper proficiency and supervision/feedback on how the exercises are performed: form and deterioration of form as fatigue accumulates. Osu!
