Weight Vests Investigation
We get a lot of great questions regarding weight vests. Part 2 Q & A is below. Check out Part 1 HERE.
Q4: How heavy should my weight vest be?
A: A good place to start is about 10% of your body weight. Especially if you are getting one with a fixed load weight vest vs an adjustable weight vest. Less than 10% tends to be too light very soon, and much over 10% tends to be too heavy in the beginning.
This is our favorite adjustable weight vest. It’s expensive, but it’s the only comfortable adjustable one we’ve found, and we’ve been through a lot in the past few decades.
This is our favorite fixed load weight vest. It’s much cheaper and as comfortable as a weight vest can be (there’s no way you’re not going to notice 15-20 pounds in a vest).
Q5: How long should I wear my vest?
A: Ideally, all day long, only removing it to shower or sleep. In reality, 4-6,000 vest steps per day seems to be a good compromise between efficacy and reality. (You can do more.)
A good place to start is with 20-30 min for the first few days to gauge your soreness. There’s nothing dangerous about being sore, but severe soreness can be a big turn off to ever wearing the vest again.
I like number of steps in the vest vs number of hours (usually guidelines are for 8+ hours) because 8, 10 or 12 hours a day is pretty much a not-gonna-happen-situation. 4-6,000 steps in a vest per day is challenging, but feasible, especially since you can multi-task (phone, errands, house work, etc.) for those steps.
Q6: What’s your favorite vest pun?
A: I’m glad you asked. When you wear a weight vest you are making a personal investment that pays dividends in terms of sweat equity.
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