I've Got 99 Problems but Weighted Vest Walking Solved One

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I have a two-and-a-half-year-old English Springer Spaniel named Daphne. Like most of us, she lives up to her full charm potential when her body is well cared for. To meet her significant exercise needs-and to partake in the wondrous natural environment of my rural Ottawa neighbourhood-we go out on near-daily walks. Six months ago, I ordered myself a 20 lb weighted vest out of curiosity and a desire to increase the strength-building potential of our walks, especially on days when it may be the only movement I get. It’s become so much a part of my routine that I wanted to share what I love about it, my lessons learned, the problem it unintentionally solved, and the current evidence supporting it.

What I Love About Weighted Vest Walking

My husband has often said, “When you love something, you really go for it,” which proved true about weighted vest walking as well. One week into owning my first vest, I promptly ordered a second one that could scale to 44 pounds. The 20 lb vest (pictured here; photographed by my 8-year-old) goes on like a backpack; the 44 lb vest goes over your head and looks far more tactical.

In early 2022, I developed mid-back pain that I can only chalk up to the dramatic increase in sitting. I hadn’t changed my exercise routine (still a blend of yoga, mobility, strength training, walking, and occasional HIIT), but I was sitting-and sitting for prolonged periods-regularly. My RMT and osteopath both had ideas about what would help, and their support did offer temporary relief, but it never lasted. The mid-back pain subsided on weekends at home with lots of relaxed movement and returned on Mondays-perhaps you’ve had a similar experience with other injuries.

A few weeks into weighted vest walking being a regular routine (3–5x/week), it crept into my awareness that the pain was gone. It hasn’t been back. Nothing else changed, so I’m going to attribute it to the vest. I can love and commit to just about anything that reduces pain.

Lessons Learned

When I first put on the weighted vest, I enjoyed the downward pressure on the tops of my shoulders-it felt simultaneously grounding and lengthening, sort of like the neck and shoulder stretch I get from my headstand bench. In motion, it seemed to increase my proprioceptive awareness and heightened my attention to walking form. I enjoyed the extra heat it brought to my winter walks, and the additional effort and load for my hips and legs was felt from the first walk.

It quickly proved to be a “chocolate almonds exercise”-this is what I call exercises that don’t feel like a lot initially but quickly become too many. The morning after my first walk, my hips and calves were super snug. By the end of the first week, I was hobbling around in the morning-my calves and feet were so tight.

Fortunately, I’ve learned this lesson before from running without sufficient stretching and foot care. To do the activity (running or weighted vest walking) without suffering:

• Roll out my feet using massage balls

• Stretch my calf muscles in two positions: bent knee and straight kneed

Practice Note: calf stretching requires you to do it with both your knee bent and straight to reach all the muscles that will affect your knees, too. Please do not stretch your calves by putting all your body weight into one foot off a stair-my RMT assures me many of her clients have snapped their Achilles by doing so. Standing calf stretches, downward dog with one knee bent, or reclined use of a yoga strap will do the trick just fine.

Two Cautions: Arthritis and Shoulder Injuries

Let’s assume you don’t have arthritis-because if you do, please don’t take up weighted vest walking without guidance from one of your holistic healthcare team. Weighted vests are like any other medicine-they can be a poison when applied to the wrong person in the wrong dosage or context. If you already have arthritis in your spine or hips, adding too much load or duration can aggravate inflammation in the short term.

Also, the type of vest you get matters to accessibility. The over-the-head vests are a rotator cuff injury waiting to happen if you don’t have strong, mobile shoulders. I would opt for the kind that look like vests and go on like a backpack.

The Evidence for Weighted Vest Walking

Preventing Osteoporosis and Strengthening Bones

My passion for axial loading has become a household joke-this refers to the mechanical stimulus to the skeletal system the added weight provides, in conjunction with your body responding to the ground reaction force of walking, which can stimulate osteogenesis (bone formation) and help maintain or increase bone mineral density (BMD). As my grandmother had osteoporosis, I’m keeping my eye on maintaining good BMD.

• Snow and Shaw (2003) found that postmenopausal women who walked regularly with a weighted vest showed significantly less BMD loss at the hip than those who didn’t.

• Moreira-Marconi et al. (2022) reviewed studies and found positive associations between weighted vest exercise and lumbar spine and femoral neck (that’s the top of your thigh bone that connects to your pelvis) bone mineral density.

Improving Lower Body Strength

I probably noticed significant effort in my lower body when I started because I went above the 5–10% starting weight recommended for weighted vest walking. At present, I’m on a higher-weight hiatus as this summer has been more heat wave than not, but I know I’ll feel it when I return to higher weights in the autumn.

Walking with added load increases recruitment of your glutes and quadriceps, spinal erectors (the beefy square muscles on either side of your spine), as well as your deep core and hip stabilizers.

• Park et al. (2019) showed improvements in lower limb strength and balance in older adults after six weeks of weighted vest walking.

• Li et al. (2015) found that weighted vest training improved balance scores in elderly adults still living independently, especially when combined with resistance or dynamic movement tasks (like lifting soup cans as weights).

I’m very enthusiastic about the importance of maintaining balance as we age, so this is exciting. (Side note: Gains were especially notable when combined with incline walking or stair climbing-but one thing at a time.)

Improving Proprioception and Mental Clarity

You’ve probably heard of the nervous-system-soothing benefits of weighted blankets, but perhaps you don’t know the mechanism. Adding weight with external load like blankets or vests stimulates our proprioceptive system. Sometimes called our “sixth sense,” it provides information on our position and movement. Stimulating this system helps organize incoming stimuli, which is another way of saying it helps you keep a clear relationship with reality.

This is how I describe the purpose of yoga-a tool for helping you see things clearly. For example, you might walk into a yoga class thinking, “I’m so right and they’re so wrong,” as you rehash an email thread in your mind, and then walk out with a more nuanced understanding of the situation because the practice’s stimulation of your proprioceptive system helped you organize and interpret the stimuli of your thoughts.

Other Benefits

These are the benefits I’m mostly interested in, but others are being studied-like cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes.

In Sum + TL;DR

Given how busy most families are, I appreciate that weighted vests can efficiently meet a few needs at once: movement, time in nature, and strength-building. It’s a deeply satisfying companion to a walk.

TL;DR:

Weighted vest walking can strengthen bones, support postural muscles, and improve proprioception (body position and movement awareness) - especially when paired with mindful movement. It’s a surprisingly elegant tool for those looking to stay strong and grounded through everyday life.

references:

Snow, C. M., & Shaw, J. M. (2003). Bone loss and physical activity in postmenopausal women: Weight-bearing exercise as an effective intervention. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 3(1), 193–203.

Moreira-Marconi, E., de Souza, T. S. R., Sampaio, R. A., Teixeira, D. S. S., & Coelho, F. M. (2022). The effectiveness of weighted vest exercise for bone mineral density in older adults: A systematic review. Geriatrics, 7(3), 69. https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics7030069

Park, J., Lee, J. H., Lee, S. Y., & Yoo, C. (2019). Effects of weighted vest walking on balance and lower extremity strength in elderly. Journal of Exercise Rehabilitation, 15(5), 715–719. https://doi.org/10.12965/jer.1938426.213

Li, J., Li, J., Li, J., & Li, J. (2015). Effects of resistance and balance training on balance ability in older adults. Journal of Aging Research, 2015, Article ID 768356. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/768356