Who Else Wants the Best Weight Vest Workout?

We did the brain numbing work for you, by scrolling through Instagram for longer than you care to know, to round up the best weight vest workout for you. You can thank us later for saving you the mindless boredom and drudgery, but only if you find these workouts useful. Now you might be asking, "What makes this the best weight vest workout?" Well, to be perfectly honest, this may not be the best weight vest workout, but it will be the most unique and creative. And, what's the most unique and creative, might just be the best weight vest workout for you in the end. There's a ton of research out there about why weight vests are awesome already. Now we're going to take a look at some the other reasons weight vests can be rather effective. Here's why...

3 Key Components of the Best Weight Vest Workout for You

When you've hit a plateau with your weight vest training, and want to customize it and bring yourself to the next level, here are the 3 most important things to consider: varied stimuli, crossover training and fun.

Varied Stimuli

Many of you probably know already. The most vital aspect of strength training, in order to maintain hypertrophy and hitting a plateau is varying your training stimulus. What do we mean by this? In order for your muscles to keep growing, you have to keep changing your training, to keep your muscles off-balance and never expecting what training is to come. In this manner, your muscles work a lot like driving the same route to work every day. If you drive the same route to work every day, it gets bland, boring and monotonous fast. Your brain tends to slip into a mindless, "auto pilot" and just follows the motions to drown out the agonizing repetition that more and more feels like a lobotomy. Most of us have even fallen prey to our pre-programmed brains. We'll be driving somewhere, that's on the same path as our commute, but outside of our normal commuting schedule. What happens? Like a zombie, we sometimes goof and instead of exiting or going where we need to, we automatically follow our commuting route, embarrassing ourselves. The same thing happens to your muscles, if you don't change up your routine. Your muscles keep ending up in the same place, which is a dead end, if you don't change your routine. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) encourages varying your training stimuli. ACE recommends "...alternating the intensity and volume of each workout..." to switch-up the levels of damage and fatigue exacted on your muscles. ACE also suggests changing up your workout to "... use different bundles of muscle fibers..." Engaging different muscle fibers also nurtures muscle growth. We would be remiss if we didn't mention that numerous studies have shown "...that men and women respond to a resistance training stimulus very similarly." Although due to biological and physiological differences between the sexes, the results of hypertrophy will vary between men and women. What's likely to be just as important, if not more, is what you're training for.

Cross Training

People train with weight vests for all kinds of different reasons. But perhaps the most often overlooked benefit of weight vest training, is the cross training payoff. After scouring through hundreds of weight vest posts on Instagram, I learned a few things. There's a great majority of people out there who love plate carriers. Quite often, they don't look very sweaty and they all look suspiciously well put together. I think there are more than a few folks out there who just like to look good, as opposed to, train hard. Then of the remaining tiny minority, most people use weight vests for your typical types of training: body weight stuff, ring work, plyometrics, running, hiking, etc. Finally, a tiny sliver of people sifts out, and these people are really showing some ingenuity and innovation, when it comes to breaking open the true potential of the best weight vest workout. It's these people who bring the uniqueness and creativity to a new level, by applying weight vest training to a secondary sport or activity, that will improve their primary sport. Or maybe they simply practice their primary sport with their weight vest on. Weight vests are excellent training tools because they can be used in countless ways and too often we fail to expand the possibilities and push the limits. When you watch the videos below, you'll know exactly what I mean. The best way to think about it would be a baseball bat weight or "donut." You see players swinging bats with added weight on them in the batting circle, while they're on deck. The swing the weighed down bat while waiting, then dump the weights when they're up to bat. Of course, the bat feels much lighter and they're able to generate more bat speed when they swing. This is the same type of effect that a weight vest can provide to your training and sport of choice. Speaking of your sport of choice, if you can train simply by adding a weight vest to what you play, then your training will likely be fun.

Weight Vests Can be Fun

How many people honestly enjoy their training as much as their primary sport, if they have one that isn't the training itself? I think that number is pretty small. But, what if you can turn your training into your sport, and your sport into your training? Huh? Think about this Mark Twain quote: This is the dynamic at play (pun intended) when you simply add a weight vest to your primary sport. The line between work and play, or training and playing, blur and become indistinguishable. When your work seems more like play, you're going to have (a lot more) fun when you're "training." That's because you're doing what you love most, but just under more duress. And that's the beauty of a weight vest, is that it gives you this option and that kind of versatility that other training modalities can't.

The Best Weight Vest Workout Embraces Creativity

Without personally knowing you on an intimate level like a personal trainer, no one can tell you what the best weight vest workout is. However, much like how people become disengaged at work, the same happens with training. What prevents training boredom and disengagement? Creativity. Of course some sports are more conducive to weight vest training than others. Or are they? We'll let you decide. But we're pretty sure of one thing. If the best weight vest workout is based on creativity, you're going to find the finest examples below. So without further ado, check out these ultra-functional, creative, cross training workouts with weight vests.

(In)Vest in the Best

The first one we've got here is a no-brainer, yet you still don't see it often. Sporting a weight vest for Spartan race/obstacle course training. If training with a weight vest doesn't make you lighter, more agile and nimble for this, nothing will. https://www.instagram.com/p/BxLKi1tAGxM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link This next one is a lot like the first one. It seems like a no-brainer, yet you don't see it often. Shooting jumpers with a weight vest on? Yes, please! Not only will this strengthen your legs and increase your hops, but it's going to also teach you proper form. You're going to need to have your legs solid beneath you, and squared up to the basket well. This way the added weight doesn't affect your shot, and won't fatigue you too fast. Just be heads up with the type of weight vest you use. The smock or tunic type weight vest may jump and jostle around a bit on you. Having any play with the vest, and it not sticking well to your torso, will mess with your form and shot. https://www.instagram.com/p/B1j4Q6shBin/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Here's another dose of basketball weight vest training. That's if you didn't strengthen your legs and increase your hops the first time around. Well, doing slam dunks with a weight vest on will take care of that for sure! If you're dying to dunk, I can't think of a much better way to get you there, aside from growing taller. Plus, this guy added a 6 pound medicine ball later on. Super clever I must say. You get a "two fer." Better hops and better grip strength. https://www.instagram.com/p/BwfKcHrh0rk/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link This next one is great for all the martial artists and MMA guys and gals. Ever train in the ring with a weight vest? This will build up your stamina fast and help get you through those late rounds. https://www.instagram.com/p/BxMK939FnU3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Here's a spin-off of the MMA idea above. Add a weight vest to your boxing and/or punching bag training. Again, this will put your stamina to the test and run you down pretty quick. Just be conscious of the type of weight vest you use. If it moves a lot on you, it may be more irritating than helpful. https://www.instagram.com/p/BwImr_wBL5S/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link This could be the most ideal use of weight vest cross training period- rock climbing. You might even say, "duh." Not to sound like a broken record, but you don't see it a lot though. If I was a rock climber I'd be doing this all the time. Especially if you have access to a rock climbing gym where you can use the vest, and not worry about taking a fall. https://www.instagram.com/p/B1imNaHjQJG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link This guy right here has come up with a super creative and challenging workout. He's cross training for snowboarding. He deserves a medal or cheat day for this one, as it doesn't look easy. I feel like this would be a suitable cross training workout for other sports. I think rugby could be one. https://www.instagram.com/p/B0_NtsGFO4c/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Ok, while this one isn't cross training specific, the ingenuity and innovation is all there. Who has ever seen anyone doing this? Personally, I love doing stuff like this, not only because it's unique, but you hit so many muscles at the same time. Ain't nobody got time for isolation work. Why not bang out 3, 4, 5 muscle groups at a time? This will absolutely shred your lower body, core and abs. https://www.instagram.com/p/BzjpHVMj_3-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Here's another one that's not simply adding a weight vest to the sport you play. But like the previous workout, this one will give you all kinds of cross training benefits. This will improve your lower body explosiveness which pays off in any number of sports. As noted in the hashtags, this works great for football and baseball training. I imagine it would also work well for hockey and volleyball. https://www.instagram.com/p/BsOZlfslplZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Why Aren't You Weighting Around?

Let's hope this blog got you thinking and creatively inspires you to do your own, innovative weight vest workouts. We'd love to know what you're doing with your weight vest. Please, do share and tell. If you're in the market for a high performance vest, we think having a look at this one would be prudent. Thanks for checking out our blog. We always appreciate you giving us a click and a read. Until next time, stay awesome and have the best weight vest workout of your life!