Looking for Weighted Vest Workouts? You’ve Come to the Right Place

Welcome fitness buffs! If you’re ready to amp up your fitness regime with a weighted vest workout, you’re in the right spot.

In this concise guide, we’ll delve into the top weighted vests, examining key factors like weight capacity, comfort, durability, and cost-effectiveness. Our aim? To help you pinpoint the perfect vest for your goals and budget.

Plus, we’ll provide innovative weighted vest workout ideas to boost your routine, whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro.

So, dive in and discover the top weighted vests that can revolutionize your workouts, and help you unlock greater results. Let’s embark on this fitness journey together!

Weighted Vest Workout Ideas

From classic bodyweight exercises to cardio staples, we’ve curated a list of impactful workouts that benefit from the added challenge of a weighted vest. Incorporate these exercises into your routine and watch your strength, endurance, and physique reach new heights.

Push-Ups

First, push-ups with weighted vests help to build endurance and strength. Over time, regular push-ups can help to increase muscle mass and reduce body fat. Using a back loaded weighted vest adds an extra challenge to this bodyweight workout.

Additionally, push-ups can help to improve posture and prevent injuries. When done correctly, push-ups can also help to tone the abdominal muscles and improve flexibility.

So now, vests with some weight make push-ups a weighted vest workout.

That additional vest weight, even if just a few pounds, causes the heart rate to increase just a bit, which increases calorie burning and oxygen flow to the muscles.

Squats (With Or Without Barbell)

Squat workouts are a great way to tone and strengthen your lower body.

They target all the major muscles in your legs, including the quads, glutes, and hamstrings. In addition, squats also help to work your core muscles and improve your balance.

Squats with weighted vests, like a budget weighted vest or the best weighted vest for women, are a great way to increase your heart rate and boost your stamina.

Most people think squat reps are only being done at the gym with a barbell and a squat rack.

But weighted squat reps can be done anywhere, especially as a weighted vest workout.

Lunges

Lunges with additional body weight can also be varied to target different muscle groups – for example, adding vest weights or pulses will increase the intensity of the exercise and help to build more muscle.

Adding vest weights to the exercise takes everything up a notch.

Weighted vests, such as a high quality weighted vest, require more body strength to push up off your leg, more balance to stay upright when going down low, and more endurance to raise and lower yourself in and out of the lunge.

Hiking Or Running

A weighted vest can benefit all cardio training, but steep hill hiking is a different kind of challenge with the extra weight, including HIIT or other cardio.

Hiking up and down hills is hard enough without additional vest weight, but an adjustable weighted vest takes a typical run to the next level.

“I actually do use a 20 lb weighted vest for ultra training, but I don’t run in it as much as do steep hill power hikes,” says John Loftus, owner of runyoupotential.com, running coach, and 2x Boston Marathon age group winner (50-54 and 55-59 AG).

“This builds strength in the power hike muscles which get used in ultra races because often hills are hiked instead using more energy running”

He says, “When I do the steep hill workouts, it’s often 1/4 mile power hike up, fast walk down and repeat that for 40 minutes to an hour. The weighted vests are also good hike training to condition the core and legs and prepare for wearing a backpack.”

Burpees

Burpees are a great way to get your heart rate up and tone your legs and butt. The jump-and-balance movement is also great for improving coordination.

Burpees may seem like a simple movement, but they are pretty challenging. They require a lot of coordination and balance, so adding vest weight to turn this into a vest workout will increase the fitness ante.

Additional vest weight will make your body work harder for every aspect of a burpee. Weighted vests will make you fight hard for your range of motion.

With the best weight vest workouts, you will have to fight to jump higher. Your landings will impact your feet and legs more. Jumping up and dropping to the push-up will be more challenging, as the weighted vest will try to slow you down.

Sit-Ups

Weighted sit-ups are a great way to tone your stomach muscles and improve your core.

tone the muscles in your legs and hips. By contracting these muscles during a sit-up, you can help to lift the torso and improve your overall balance.

Gravity wants to keep your torso flat on the ground, even more so with weight vest workouts.

Fighting your way upward against the vest’s weight means taking your weight and thrusting it through the power of gravity into a sit-up position.

So it goes without saying that adding more vest weight, such as a short weighted vest or a lightweight vest, will require even more energy and effort to rise off the floor.

Plank

Weighted planking is a great way to work for multiple muscle groups while also improving your balance and stamina.

Using your body to support yourself and the weighted vest, like a versatile vest with adjustable belt, can avoid putting unnecessary strain on your joints.

Holding the position for an extended period will challenge your muscles and see results quickly.

Making this a weighted workout doesn’t make any of those reps any easier.

Thanks to the weight vest’s extra resistance, your arms and legs will have to find the strength to support even more vest weight than before.

Pull Ups

No list of great workout ideas to do with some extra weight would be complete without including the good old-fashioned pull-ups.

These exercises can be challenging already, as the weight of your body provides all the resistance you need to work hard and build muscles.

But adding a few extra pounds, or many for that matter, like those offered by most weighted vests with various weight options, can take these already tough workouts to the next level.

Pull-ups are a must-do exercise if you want a great workout with a weighted vest, such as the best budget weighted vest or one with soft neoprene material for added comfort.

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