One of the best pieces of equipment that you could add into your workout program if you want to move away from the normal dumbbells and barbells selection is a weighted vest. Let’s take a closer look at what this is all about.
What is a Weighted Vest?
A weighted vest is going to be great for adding additional resistance in many of your exercises while allowing your arms and hands to stay free. For those who are new to strength training, they can also provide a slight amount of added resistance while still allowing you to really focus on the movement pattern.
The nice thing about the weighted vest is that you can add more or less weight to it, changing how much of a stress load you’re placing on the body in an instant.
Let’s now look at five great exercises that you should consider doing with a weighted vest.
6 Weighted Vest Exercises
1: Pull-Ups
Pull-ups are the first exercise a weighted vest is ideal for. Once you get to the point where you can easily complete 20 pull-ups or more, you won’t really be seeing any further strength gains from this exercise.
You could work on muscular endurance, but without added resistance, you won’t see an enhancement in strength. The weighted vest will easily provide more resistance that you’ll then have to act against.
2: Decline Sit-Ups
Moving on, the second of the exercises to perform is the decline sit-up. This movement on its own is great for adding additional resistance beyond the basic crunch, but once that gets too easy, you need to add more. The vest will provide this once again. Simply strap it on and perform the movement pattern.
3: Lunges
Lunges are yet another movement to perform with your weighted vest. Doing the lunges with it will free your hands from having to hold dumbbells, making it easier to perform the action pattern.
If you have a very weak grip strength, that could be a limiting factor in you challenging your lower body enough.
5: Squat Jumps
If you’re looking to build power, squat jumps will deliver. With the added weight of the weighted vest, you’ll reap even greater benefits from this movement and really turn it into a fat blasting, strength building exercise.
6: Push-Ups
Finally, the last exercise that you’ll want to consider using this piece of equipment for is the push-up. Push-ups are great for working the chest, biceps, triceps, and shoulders, and will also target the core to a small extent as well.
When performing these with your weighted vest you’re going to add move force to react against on both phases of the exercise, increasing the stress and tension on the muscles as you do it.
So there you have the primary exercises that are great picks to perform with a weighted vest. If you’re tired of always using free weights or weight machines, this vest may provide a very nice alternative.
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