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Has anyone used weight vests?


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If your goal is to increase mass I'd advice you to buy a dipping belt instead. I haven't used a vest as i really don't see the point. The resistance it'll give you is limited and can easily be substituted.

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If your goal is to increase mass I'd advice you to buy a dipping belt instead. I haven't used a vest as i really don't see the point. The resistance it'll give you is limited and can easily be substituted.
I agree, use a dipping belt to increase mass for pull-ups and dips or make one using a weight lifting belt and a chain.

 

I made my own dipping belt for pull-ups and dips using the weightlifting belt I already owned and a chain I found lying around the house. It held 50lbs easily. Or substitute the vest for a weighted backpack. I don't think $49.99 for 20lbs is worth the money.

 

no_oops, what exercises do you want to use a weighted vest for?

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Weighted vest = good for improving conditioning, bad for mass building as the applications are too limited.

 

Since you can usually find a used (and sometimes new) 300 lb. barbell set for the cost of a 75 lb. weighted vest, it would make more sense to buy weights vs. relying on a vest to build mass. A weighted vest WILL let you have some resistance for dips, push-ups, pull-ups and some very light squats and sit-ups, but that's about it. Why not invest in something that can last a lifetime if taken care of, will offer dozens of options for training, and won't get boring in a very short time?

 

Yes, wearing a weighted vest for walks and other things will make your conditioning go through the roof over time if you go heavy enough and for enough time (I used to throw a 50 lb. sandbag in a backpack and go for an hour's walk and stair climbing with it, and it definitely upped my overall conditioning for daily movement), but it won't carry over much at all to anything dealing with weight training. That, and changing the weights on vests is kind of a pain in the backside, as they're often fixed-weight, or, you'll have to keep sliding out and replacing little weights that fit into a multitude of pockets, which can get pretty tiresome.

 

Take that money, invest in some good dumbbells or a nice barbell set, and you'll have a lot more you can do with it!

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i think weighted vests are the shit, sadly i don't have one haha .... doesn't it make sense to wear one though? even doing random shit during the day? your body started getting used to the weight and eventually regular stuff feels easier when you're not wearing it. i wanna make one, thinking of using a life jacket with sand or something

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doesn't it make sense to wear one though? even doing random shit during the day? your body started getting used to the weight and eventually regular stuff feels easier when you're not wearing it.

 

Exactly. It makes sense to wear one for doing great work to improve conditioning, but when asking about mass building, it's very limited for what it can actually be good for.

 

After reading the chapter on weighted vests from the book Rock, Iron, Steel by Steve Justa, I don't question how much they can make everyday activities seem easier once you improve conditioning with them. He has a story about wearing a 100 lb. home-made chain vest for months on end while at work (and he was doing heavy manual labor jobs all day!), saying that when he finally stopped wearing it, nothing seemed hard any more and that he felt twice as fast and efficient at just about everything physical. So, in that regard, I give vests a lot of credit, but when anyone asks about using them to gain mass, I definitely do think that it's at the bottom of the list of what I'd ever choose to use as a training device.

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I use an Adonis weight vest. It allows you to put plates in it for weight. It probably isn't as well-balanced as those which have 1/2 or 1 pound plates covering them, but it is incredibly cheap. If you have the right weights, you can put three five pounders in each front slot and two twenty-fives in the back slot, for a total of eighty pounds.

 

Adonis Weight Vest

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