Does a Weighted Vest Boost Fitness?

If you've been wondering if you should invest in a weighted vest to power up your workouts, here's some information that can help

Exercise training while wearing a weighted vest is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance. Social media posts and trainers are promoting them as a potential strategy for improving fitness and health.

Exercising with additional weight attached to the body is nothing new. This idea has been used with soldiers for many centuries if not millennia—think long hikes with a heavy pack.

The modern weighted vest comes in a range of designs that are more comfortable and can be adjusted in terms of the weight added. But could one be helpful for you?

What the research says

One of the earliest research studies, reported in 1993, followed 36 older people wearing weighted vests during a weekly exercise class and at home over a 20-week period. Wear was associated with improvements in bone health, pain, and physical function. Since then, dozens of papers have evaluated the exercise effects of wearing a weighted vest, reporting a range of benefits.

Not surprisingly, exercise with a weighted vest increases physiological stress—or how hard the body has to work—as shown by increased oxygen uptake, heart rate, carbohydrate utilization, and energy expenditure.

Adding weight equal to 10% of body weight is effective. But it doesn't appear the body works significantly harder when wearing 5% extra weight compared to body weight alone.

Does more load mean greater injury risk?