This week, Military Muscle columnist Bob Thomas wrote about vests. Are they worth their weight? Bob says yes:
I look for fitness equipment that's inexpensive, simple to use, portable, allows for a wide range of applications and allows you to maintain a fitness level commensurate with your age and goals.
We use weight vests every day at my gym in Pensacola, Fla., and we don't practice age discrimination. A 77-year-old woman will put on a 12-pound vest for modified horizontal pullups with the TRX straps alongside an active-duty man who is doing step-ups on an 18-inch box with a 50-pound vest.
Weight vests come in many styles and prices, some at a set weight with shot-filled pockets; others, such as the Perfect Weight Vest, shown above, have small bags of sand that make the weight adjustable up to 20 or 40 pounds. Body-armor vests also work.
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The weight vest is a super addition to your home gym — you can also go on long walks with a vest to raise your metabolic rate. If your fitness center doesn't have any, ask them to get a few. It's a great workout accessory that can deliver results for not a lot of money.
Read the rest of Bob's column, and get the complete workout here.
The model: Virginia National Guard Sgt. Josh Stemmler, a 22-year-old Muay Thai fighter with one Iraq deployment, came in to demo the weight vest workout. Stemmler said he usually runs and lifts weights to stay fit and said the weight vest fit high enough that it didn't impede movement and that it "definitely make pushups harder."
The vest: The folks from Perfect Fitness sent us one of their body armor-inspired weight vests for the photo shoot. The vests come in up to 20- and 40-pound versions. We have the 20-pound vest, which comes with 20 small pouches of sand so you can customize the weight. We'll have a full review once we've had a chance to really try it out, but in the meantime … do you work out with a weight vest? Let us know the details at pt365@militarytimes.com. Do you want to be in an upcoming issue? Here's how.
