Weighted Vests

This week Brianna is chatting about the weighted vest trend! In this episode, she talks about the different benefits that come with this newer trend. 

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Salud 

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Transcript

0:22

Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Brianna flying solo today because Bailey is on her honeymoon. And you guys could probably already tell that it was me, because clearly I don't do the intro very often. But today I'm gonna bring you guys kind of a short and sweet episode on something that I feel like has become kind of a trend lately. And of course, with every trend, I feel like I'm seeing so many things on social media that's either like, this is the most life altering thing you'll ever do, or this is the most dumbest thing. Don't believe the hype because. Right. So today I'm gonna be talking to you about weighted vests. I personally am a fan of it, so let's just throw that out there. I think you guys know that already. Bailey and I have talked about it, but weighted vests have become really popular. I will say. It's not a new thing. I feel like trends come and go. This was probably a trend, like in the eighties, I feel like was maybe the last time that we kind of saw it, but. Neither here nor there, weighted vests have become a trend again. And so I will say that walking with a weighted vest can be particularly beneficial for women. Not that it can't be for men, but for women to help with strength, bone health, metabolism to an extent, endurance to an extent, right? It all depends. So number one. The major thing is that it's gonna help improve bone health. So women, especially post-menopausal face higher risks for osteoporosis due to the declining in or the decline in estrogen. But women really start to be at risk for osteoporosis starting around 35,'cause that's when we start to see a decrease in bone mineral density. So. 35 is for what a lot of people would consider much sooner than menopause. So this is really something that anyone can benefit from. So we do know that w wearing a weighted vest while walking in research does show that it helps to increase the femoral neck, aerial bone mineral density. Basically what that means is they do attest on a certain part of your bone on the femur to see. Like testing for osteoporosis? Is it losing density? Is it increasing? And so this particular area has shown to improve when a weighted vest is an intervention for participants. So this is essentially because you're increasing weight bearing exercise, and that weight that's bearing down on your bones challenges them to rebuild remineralize get stronger. So you're adding weight to a very specific part of your body in a way that helps to improve that bone density. Also, it can be a safe intervention for a lot of women like not every female is going to. Go to the gym, load up a squat rack and do squats. Right? So this is a safe way to distribute that weight onto the body, onto the spine and go get benefits. The other thing too is it helps to maintain both bone health when we're trying to actively lose weight. So actively trying to lose weight can negatively impact, impact bone health. So we do see with weight loss. We all, you know, obviously we see a decrease in muscle mass, but we also see a decrease in bone mineral density, specifically in older women. So this can be something where if you know, Hey, I'm actively trying to lose weight. Maybe you're actively trying to lose 20 plus pounds. This could be an easy intervention that can help to maintain your bone health while trying to lose weight. Obviously eating enough helps too, right? Doing strength training. But you know, with any weight loss, we do know. You can lose muscle mass and you can lose bone mineral density. The other thing that it's gonna do is it's gonna enhance strength and muscle activation for some people. Okay? So wearing a weighted vest recruits more lower body and core muscles to help you stabilize that extra load. And this can lead to like greater, like glue quad usage. With that being said. That's not gonna be for everybody. So if you take someone that like doesn't work out at all right now and they throw on a weighted vest and they start walking, they're probably gonna see this strength enha enhancement more because they're untrained. So if you're someone who's like already going to the gym, you're already doing lower body movements, you're already training your muscles. You might not see as much improvement in this, and I think this is one of the things that are going around in social media saying like, you're not gonna improve your strength. That's not a real thing. Okay, well maybe, maybe if you're someone that already works out, you're not gonna see that much improvement in that. But it still doesn't mean that there's not benefits. And if you're someone who doesn't work out yet, this can be an easy way to increase intensity to a pretty relatively low intense. Form of exercise, if that makes sense. So, and again, with everything, just because you're not gonna see benefits in every single area doesn't mean that you're not gonna have benefits, right? Some are gonna have more than others, and that's okay. The other thing, and this is also hotly debated, is that it boosts your cardiovascular and metabolic demand, so in some people that extra. Increase in weight is gonna increase intensity. It's going to increase energy expenditure, meaning you will burn more calories while walking with it than not. Again, it depends. If you're someone who already does a decent amount of cardio, maybe you jog, maybe you run, maybe you cycle, maybe you already walk. Often, it might not increase cardiovascular, in metabolic demand. Okay? It might not. Because you're already a trained individual now, somebody who hasn't or isn't doing anything, yeah, they're gonna see that. Right? And this is where you can test it on yourself. So you can go for a walk, check your heart rate, and then you can do that same walk with a, with a weighted vest and see, is my heart rate higher? Does it give me a more intense workout? There you go. I'm not saying, and again, this is the thing on social media, like it's actually not burning that much more. It might be negligible for some people, but for others, maybe not. And also like for me particularly, I use it to increase the intensity of a workout. I can go take a walk, especially like on a treadmill. I'm not really in that zone too, like I'm just kind of hanging out because I do it often. But if I throw a weighted vest on, I will get into that zone two cardio much quicker, and it will have a more intense. Workout then if I don't wear the weighted vest. So for me, I know if I wanna do more, zone two, or if I wanna get to a higher heart rate, less period of time, or I don't wanna increase like cardio. Like I don't wanna go for a runner, I wanna cycle, I just wanna walk. But having an increased heart rate, it works. So again. This is highly individualized, so sometimes it'll raise your heart rate, sometimes it won't. But this is useful if you are trying to get into a different heart rate zone, the other thing is it can really help with balance, posture, and, and core stability. So I kind of mentioned already that like it distributes weight over the spine, but it distributes it evenly. And this is the difference between like carrying dumbbells when you walk or like ankle or wrist weights. That is not really the same. You're not loading it up evenly. This is loading it again, it's over your spine. It's even, you're helping with your balance, your posture, and you're gonna be utilizing those core muscles for stability. Again, if you're someone with like rock hard abs, maybe you don't need it for stability, but in general, you're probably gonna be recruiting more of those muscles. So. Lastly, and I think this is the key thing to take away, is it's convenient and it's accessible. This is something I talk about all the time with clients, like, what is a life hack? What can you add to your routine that is simple, easy, accessible, not a lot more work, whatever it is easy. You can put a weighted vest on and you're going to increase the intensity of a walk. You're going to increase the load on your spine, so. It's not that hard, right? You're not having to go to the gym. You're not having to buy extra equipment other than buying the vest, you can just slap it on and go. The other thing too is you can adjust as needed, so a lot of vests will have like removable weights, making progression. Easy, more gradual, more safe. So it is recommended to start light, I would say five to 10% of your body weight. If you are a well-trained individual, you'll probably be able to get away with more, but the idea is to start slow. So five to 10% of body weight. See how you feel. So a simple hack to increase intensity or increase load in something that you may be already doing It can be a safe intervention that you can introduce relatively quickly. Just being mindful of how heavy is my weighted vest. But all in all, I kinda like this hype. Like I kind of like the hype. Again, it's easy, it's accessible. It has been researched to help with specifically. Bone mineral density, which is something that is so important for women, especially as we age. We are at such a higher risk of osteoporosis. Now, add in maybe all the years of chronic dieting, or maybe you have been undereating, add in. Have you been taking certain oral contraceptives that might be kind of depleting bone mineral density? Have you maybe not prioritized certain minerals over your life? Does it run in your family? It's a hack that you can add in to get a lot of benefit, and again. Maybe you're not increasing a ton of calorie burn or improving your cardiovascular health as much as some people are hyping it up. But it all depends. What is your baseline? Where are you at right now? All in all, I think everybody can benefit from it. It's not one of those things that's gonna be hurting you, and even if you don't get the highest benefit that you can, you're still benefiting So just some tips on if you're, again, thinking about a weighted vest, start light. Five to 10% of your body weight. I would try to get a vest that you can change out the weights just because long term it's probably gonna save you a little bit of money and you can always modify if needed. Like let's say you think, oh, 10 pounds or 10% is gonna be great, and then you get it and it's a. Not feeling as comfortable. Okay. You're able to drop it down and adjust. The other thing is to make sure that it fits correctly, so they should be snug and they shouldn't be bouncing around when you're walking like it should be. Snug. The other thing would be to use good like walking posture and then walking shoes. So we don't want to increase joint stress. Make sure you have good walking shoes. Don't do what I've done and wear like Birkenstocks while walking with it. Wear good shoes. That's just good. That's just a good, good recommendation for anyone who like walks and then build up your duration and intensity gradually to help reduce any sort of like hip, knee or lower back strain again. How trained are you? If you are new to this, we don't need to be like coming out the gate running. Listen to your body, allow yourself to gradually build up intensity. And then of course, watch out for any past injuries. If you have a neck or a shoulder or a knee injury or a hip injury. Make sure you clear it through your doctor or your, physical therapist, we wanna make sure that we are improving and helping any past, injuries and we're not exacerbating any issues. Right. And that's the same with any workout. You don't just wanna, go into a workout and hurt a past injury. There are so many out there. Read the reviews, get an adjustable one, read the sizing, that sort of thing. Also, I didn't even share my mocktail. I'm like the worst. Clearly I take Bailey's lead when it comes to the intro of our podcast, but I am doing these new, I don't even know if they're new, but they're new in my grocery store. They're called Salud. Cheers to health, and it is an electrolyte, so it has potassium, magnesium, and sodium in it, but it also has elderberry, which has been really helpful for me because I have been, I've been fighting something. I don't know if it's a cold. I don't know if it's allergies. I don't know what it is, but I'm convinced that's why my HRV has been so low. I text Bailey and I was like, duh, that's why it's low. I've been fighting sickness even though it was low prior to that, but. It's just what I'm blaming it on right now. Anyways, hopefully this has been helpful. Both bailey and I will be back next week with a brand new episode chatting about something interesting. If you guys we're kind of heading towards the end of the year, things get a little bit hectic. If there's certain things that you guys have questions about or want to hear about, even if it's a repeat of something we've done, send us a DM over at mocktail minutes on Instagram and we'll make sure that we get something up for you. All right guys. Have a good one. Bye.