Hey Guys,

Does anyone use weighted vests for training? I'll use it every once a while, but only for limited uses, like for calisthenics (like push ups, sit ups, squats, dips, sprawls, lunges etc) or to add a little resistance to forms (such as Bagua training). I know some people run with them, but I don't know if that's too good for your joints.

Also, does anyone know of a good quality weight vest. Mine is pretty decent, with weight pockets distributed evenly throughout my torso, but it doesn't have any lumbar support, so all the weight pretty much sits on my shoulders. Because of this, I wonder if it's not good for me because all the weight pretty much transfers to my spine. To compensate for this, I've added lumbar straps, but it's somewhat of an imperfect solution.

Q

never used one, sounds interesting though.

I have a 20lb one and use it when I do drills and forms. I try not to jump or run with it on a hard surface, a good pair of shoes is also a good idea when training with it, to protect your joints. Some people might train with it and never have any issues and others might have them. It's all about knowing your body I guess.

William

Yeah, I definitely agree with you... the high impact stuff isn't good in combo with the weight vest.

Right now I have a 30 pound one with horizontal pouches. So what I did was I filed them up with little packets of lead shotgun pellets. It's higher volume than your typical lead bars or those lead ingots, but it's a lot more form fitting when you do stuff like sit ups. The weights on mine start at my chest and go down to my abdomen. Same on the back.

You know, I did see Wanderlei Silva use his to help him work on his explosiveness. I think he was doing like little mini sprints with one, and that seems like a good idea because the weight vest adds a little drag to his inertia.

Also, I don't have training in wrestling, but I've seen some wrestlers do exercises that help strengthen their ability to shoot, and it seems like a weight vest would be good for them.

But yeah, I was thinking about picking up something like this because the weight sits on your midsection vs your shoulders.

http://www.onlinesports.com/pages/I,GIA-TA1227.html?srcid=frgl&utm_source=froogl e&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=GIA-TA1227&cm_mmc=Froogle-_-Products-_-PPC-_-GIA-TA122 7

Currently I'm working with something like this, but not exactly:

http://www.weightvest.com/Pages/50lblong.html

Q