Hey guys, I’m thinking about buying a weightvest to train specifically for basketball and track. I’d imagine the program would consist of a 10-30 lb weight vest and exercises such as sprints, uphill and downhill; vertical leaps; plyometrics, natural GHRs, etc. Does anyone have experience with using a weight vest for athletic purposes? Would it work to put on inches for vertical or shave time off sprints? thanks
I’ve had mine a few years now and I can tell you that it works very well. One caveat: make sure that you don’t overload the vest. Most athletes are better off working with only about 10% of their body weight with the vest.
If you go 200 pounds don’t load the vest to more than 20 pounds.
This is for two reasons, first your joints will thank you down the road. Second, more weight will only distort the natural movement in your sport, and you don’t want that.
Good luck in 07!
Exactly like the above said Go LIGHT!!! its not recomended even by the makers of the vest etc to do such things as the explosive training you talk with loads do to the injury vs. small pay back ratio. It’ll beat you up.
Phill
Thanks for the advice
Has anyone personally seen gains in athleticism with the vests?
I believe it is in Kelly’s Vert Jump Bible (it might be in Charlie Francis’s sprinting book, I read them one right after the other), but he does not recommend a weight vest for vert training.
The only way it was found to be effective was in wearing the vest continuously for a number of weeks. The elite jumpers in this study gained a couple inches with this method, but the gains disappeared shortly after they stopped wearing the vest all day.
Based on Charlie Francis’s info, I think he believes that weight training will get you the strength base and sprinting/plyometric exercises will get you the power conversion. You don’t need a kind of hybrid training for “power” involving exercises with the weight vest.
Edders, don’t rip my head off, this is not a response to your post. I’ve never actually used a weight vest to train, this is just what I’ve read.
Hey guys, I found this report and would like some insight on this from those with training knowledge: Weight Belts | Adjustbale Vertical Weight Belts
“Extensive research has been done on male and female athletes using hypergravity training. showing 10-25% increase in maximum vertical jump height after just 3 weeks of training(Bosco, 1985, 1986), and a female study showed 11% increase over just 3.5% in the control group(Sands, 1995). Athletes who did no specific jump training still increased jumping ability by 10% after just 3 weeks(Bosco, 1985).”
This is from “hypergravity” training, as advertised from jumpusa.com’s weight belt. I would think that the weight belt and weight vest would have the same exercise results, unless the location of the weights proves to be a major factor. Any answers?
[quote]smallmike wrote:
I believe it is in Kelly’s Vert Jump Bible (it might be in Charlie Francis’s sprinting book, I read them one right after the other), but he does not recommend a weight vest for vert training.
The only way it was found to be effective was in wearing the vest continuously for a number of weeks. The elite jumpers in this study gained a couple inches with this method, but the gains disappeared shortly after they stopped wearing the vest all day.
Based on Charlie Francis’s info, I think he believes that weight training will get you the strength base and sprinting/plyometric exercises will get you the power conversion. You don’t need a kind of hybrid training for “power” involving exercises with the weight vest.
Edders, don’t rip my head off, this is not a response to your post. I’ve never actually used a weight vest to train, this is just what I’ve read.[/quote]
Oh come on when have I ever ripped anyones head off on these threads? Okay…don’t answer that…
Seriously, I’ve read those opinions too and they have merit. But, It’s been my personal experience that if it’s used wisely the vest can help. It’s one more tool in the bag.
vest should be 10-15% of bodyweight tops.
Basis behind it is correct.
Though I don’t have the cited studies in front of me, I do remember one of the more impressive ones being slightly misleading. The test resulted in a 10% gain in vertical leap, but what no one ever called attention to was that that average vert went from around 40 cm to around 44 cm. Neither number is all that impressive.
My point is, take the studies with a grain of salt. Weight vest can be used to see athletic improvements, but I wouldn’t use them for anything outside of on box jumps.
what about walking and or skipping rope? can you get results using the vest in this fashion? been thinking
about adding vest but not sure of its
worth particularly above said.
any info and feed back would be great.
Barton
[quote]bartonmlee wrote:
what about walking and or skipping rope? can you get results using the vest in this fashion? been thinking
about adding vest but not sure of its
worth particularly above said.
any info and feed back would be great.
Barton[/quote]
Yes love mine for things like walking, hiking, BW exercises etc. use it nearly daily.
Phill