What’s the Deal with Weighted Vests?

What’s the Deal with Weighted Vests?

There's a recent trend online of people purchasing and wearing weighted vests during walk, running, even biking! 

If you've seen this, you might be wondering: "Should I be doing that too?" 

Weighted vests are a great tool, but let's talk about their uses, where they fall short, and if you should use it for running.

⚖️ The Bone Density Argument — Does It Hold Weight?

One of the biggest reasons people say they use weighted vests is to improve bone density especially if you're looking to fortify bones with age. But the science is clear:

A 2020 review published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research and guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) both reinforce the following:

The gold standard for improving bone density is progressive weight training 1-2 times a week, working up to 60, 70, or 80% of your 1 Rep Max during functional lifts.

If you're serious about improving your bone density to reduce frailty and osteoporosis with age, amaing! But walking with a weighted vest is not the ONLY thing you should be doing.

Walking and running are great exercises to reinforce repetitive impact, which helps improve bone density. But unfortunately tacking on a 10-15 pound weighted vest isn't going to be enough to effect OPTIMAL change.

If you could pick one, it'd be best to utilize your time for progressive heavy weight lifting than walking with a weighted vest.

💥 So What Does Improve Bone Density?

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, progressive resistance training and impact-loading activities are the two most effective strategies for bone health.

✅ Strength training 1–2x/week, progressing toward heavier loads over time
✅ Impact-based movement, like jumping, hopping, or bounding — performed safely and strategically
✅ Proper recovery and nutrition, especially adequate protein, calcium, and vitamin D

✅ Otherwise, Vests Can Be A Great Tool!

If you’ve added a vest to your walks and feel like it helps change up your routine, improves posture, or gives you a satisfying challenge, great! 

Use them if you're having trouble with grip strength while adding extra weights to your program, want to work on trunk strength and postural muscles, or increase the challenge of a strength program. 

They can be a great tool to add to the resistance of your workout. I've used them as a physical therapist helping older adults or individuals with limited arm/hand function improve the quality of their exercise sessions.

I just don’t want you to think it’s a replacement for what your body actually needs to work towards optimal bone density.

Which, again is: 1-2x/wk of HEAVY strength training with a goal of reaching 60, 70, or 80% of your 1 RM (not sure what that means? reply to this email and I'll give you more explanation). 

🚫 Why I Don’t Recommend Weighted Vests for Running

If you're not specifically training for an event like a ruck, a military pack test, or trail running with gear, adding a vest to your runs doesn’t help much and can actually be counter productive when talking about injury risk.

Weighted vests increase compressive and shear forces on your joints, especially the spine, hips, knees, and feet. That’s extra load your body has to manage.

Managing running injuries is all about reducing and balancing out repetitive forces of running. So I wouldn't recommend using a weighted vest for run training, especially not if you're injury prone.

Ways to improve running? Hill repeats, speed sessions, long runs, etc. 

Let's just let running be running. 

🧠 The Bottom Line: Train Smarter, Not Just Harder

Here’s a common fitness principle to remember:

Keep your heavy days heavy. 

Keep your cardio days cardio.

• Want better bones? Strength train. Progressively. With consistency.

• Want better cardio fitness? Move consistently for 30+ minutes each day, add in interval work, and recover well. 

Questions about this topic? Reply to this email and we can talk more about it. 

 ➡️ Reply to me directly at [email protected] to ask your questions or share your experience while dealing with running related injuries.

✉️ Share with a running friend who you want to help stay injury-free this season!

❤️‍🩹 Currently dealing with an injury?: Check out my Return to Run Program - a personalized strategy for you written by a Doctor of Physical Therapy and Run Coach.