Using a weighted vest when you exercise can help preserve muscle and bone density—so long as you follow these four golden rules

Weighted vests have been having a bit of a moment this year, with athletes and influencers espousing their many benefits across social media.

It’s hard to argue with load-bearing exercise, widely considered an effective remedy for age-related conditions like sarcopenia (muscle loss) and osteoporosis (bone weakening).

So, when I was offered the chance to test out a new streamlined weighted vest from U.S. brand OMORPHO I seized it—and promptly set about using the 6lb G-Vest Run and 10lb G-Vest Icon for all my workouts for 30 days.

The problem was that I happened to be training for a marathon at the time and forgot one of the fundamental principles of how to exercise safely.

Instead of building strength gradually, I bit off far more than I could chew.

I compounded the added load I was wearing during workouts by running further each session, or at faster speeds, which led to my knees swelling up and my fitness plateauing.

Now that I’m on the other side of the marathon, I’ve had time to reflect. Here’s what I would have done differently.

1. Start as light as possible

Strapping on an extra 10lb might feel manageable at first, but over the course of a 30-minute workout, it can really take its toll.

It’s like reaching for a heavier set of dumbbells in the gym.

If you’ve benched 45lb weights all your life, you wouldn’t suddenly increase that by 20lb. You’d move onto 48lb, then 52lb, then 57lb and so on.

The same principle should apply to weighted vests.

“The general recommendation, like with most resistance training, is to start light and gradually build up as strength and comfort with the vest improve,” Holly Haywood, lead instructor at Third Space, a chain of luxury health clubs in London, tells me.

A good starting point is no more than 5% of your bodyweight.

“For example, someone who weighs 160lb might begin with an 8lb vest,” says Haywood.

“As your body adapts and if your technique remains sound, you can progressively increase the weight, so long as wearing the vest doesn’t affect your technique.”

If using the vest for running workouts, like I was half the time, I’d argue you’d be better off starting even lighter, more like 1-2% of your body weight.

Then, when you feel ready to go up in weight, progress gradually in incremental jumps of no more than 2lb at a time.

2. Don’t wear it on long runs

I thought wearing the weighted vest during my slow-paced, long runs would be easier and more effective than during short interval sprint sessions.

I was wrong.

In practice, the extra weight gradually wore down my joints, muscles and resolve, bringing one particularly sapping 14-mile run to a grinding halt at the 12.5-mile mark.

That’s why I also wouldn’t recommend wearing one when taking long walks either.

“Wearing a weighted vest and moving under a heavier load forces your body to work harder, resulting in more calories being burnt,” says Haywood.

“But if the vest is too heavy, or worn incorrectly, it can put additional strain on joints such as knees, hips and ankles.”

It can also compromise form, elevating risk of injury.

“It’s vital to always speak to trainers or physios to make sure your vest is working for you, not against you,” adds Haywood. “If it begins to feel uncomfortable on your joints, move to a lighter vest, or remove it completely.”

3. Save the vest for bodyweight workouts

While giving my knees time to recover, I focused on using the vest to add incremental load to bodyweight exercises like push-ups, dips and pull-ups.

This, I found, is where the OMORPHO vest excels.

Its figure-hugging design meant the vest didn’t clatter into the floor when performing push-ups or restrict upper-body mobility on the pull-up bar (nor while running, jumping, sprinting or doing sit-ups for that matter).

That meant I could focus on executing each rep with good form.

The added resistance offered by the vest also made workouts more efficient, because I was able to increase the intensity of the session without having to perform more reps.

Just make sure your movement patterns are sound before adding load, warns Haywood. “Good form should always be your top priority.”

4. Remember, weight is not the only variable

The biggest mistake I made during my month-long weighted vest experiment was forgetting one of the fundamental principles of exercise: only increase one variable at a time.

In the context of running, the duration of your run is one variable. The tempo or speed at which you run is another.

Then there’s the weight, or load, of the vest.

I was increasing multiple variables at once: running further, or faster, or more frequently, while carrying a heavier load.

With hindsight, in the first week I should have run the same distances at the same paces as the previous week, just wearing the 6lb (or lighter) G-Vest Run, and taken note of how my body coped.

If you’re still determined to introduce a weighted vest into your workouts, Haywood recommends starting with something as simple as a treadmill walk.

“Build up your volume as you would your mileage if you were training for a run or race,” she says, suggesting beginning with a brisk walk for 15-20 minutes.

“Provided you’re feeling good with the weight, add a 1% incline to increase the effort, rather than increasing speed or time.”

Once that feels comfortable, in your next session you could increase the incline by another 1%, or your speed by half a mile per second.

Just don’t increase everything all at once.

“Adding a weighted vest to your workouts will make every step or rep feel a little harder,” says Haywood.

“So all you’ll need to do is make slight tweaks to your variables over time to see improved muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness.”