What Muscles Does a Weighted Vest Work

A mong the most popular resistance training equipment at the moment we have the weight vest that is easy to buy online and at sporting goods stores for those who are interested in expanding their space-saving workout gear collection. What gives the vest this almost unmatchable reputation stands in how easily it integrates with almost any workout routine that comes to mind, amping the results you would normally enjoy without wearing it.

You might have previously heard that it aids build muscle mass faster, but how exactly does it work? What muscles does the vest target? In this article, we will take a closer look at the weighted wearable to understand what muscles it engages, how you can use it for optimal fitness improvement results, and even give you useful insight regarding the best exercises and workouts to perform with it on. So, stick with us to get fully acquainted with this “military-style” training tool.

Woman Wearing Weight Vest CrossFit Trains

What Muscles the Weight Vest Engages

Since the wearable packs extra weight which you must carry while performing any given movement, the load is felt directly on your upper body area. Therefore, the muscles top-tier weight vest work regardless of the physical activity you take up include:

1. Upper back muscles: Trapezius (triangular-shaped muscle; goes from the center of the back to the collar while running athwart the shoulder blade), rhomboids (small center-positioned muscles that run up beneath the base of the collar);
2. Chest muscles: Pectorals (large, flat muscles; go athwart the entire area of the chest);
3. Shoulder muscles: Rotators (four small muscles located underneath your shoulder), deltoids (muscles that wrap at the top of the shoulders; divided into three areas – posterior deltoid, anterior deltoid, lateral deltoid).

You might wonder why we didn’t include the arm muscles too. After all, they are part of your upper body muscles. Well, for the vest to directly impact them and help these muscles grow, you must perform exercises that engage them. The extra weight you have to carry during those movements will have your biceps, triceps, and forearm muscles grow quicker in turn. For example, weighted vest push-ups activate arm muscles and help build mass more optimally than no-load push-ups would.

This isn’t where it ends, however. For example, the vest might not directly work your legs, but if you do do squats with it on, the additional weight surges resistance. In turn, while you naturally engage the legs and glutes during the exercise, you put more pressure on the muscles, leading to mass increase. This makes the weight vest a pivotal tool for building muscles considering that you can do almost any workout that comes to mind with it on, so you won’t be limited when it comes to what muscles are engaged.

Best Weight Vest Exercises and Activities to Work Muscles

Alright, so now we have established that the sky is the limit when it comes to the muscles it can engage and work. It’s all in the calisthenics and workouts you do and what they target specifically rather than in the wearable itself. In this section, we want to help you get the most from this workout equipment by listing and explaining the best activities and calisthenics, all of which you can execute with the vest on to surge their potential and build muscle mass at an unseen pace.

Military Weighted Vest Workout

Train like the Navy SEALs with the CrossFit Murph Workout

Now let’s move on to the best weight vest workout you can do. What is considered a hero WOD (workout of the day) in the CrossFit world, the Murph workout is one of the most challenging routines anyone who is passionate about fitness can take up. It is named after the hero Navy SEAL who died in action in 2005, Lt. Michael P. Murphy. This was his training routine, and it is common across all military branches for people to train using his routine nowadays for the level of difficulty and the mental and physical benefits it brings. Every Memorial Day, the CrossFit community through a Murph event where people strategize and do their best to follow through with the challenge in record time celebrates this national hero.

It is a whimsical workout if you think about it considering that all the equipment you need is a 20-pound vest, a pull-up bar, and a resilient pair of running shoes. Of course, you need strength, stamina, and will to complete it. The exercises might not be out of the ordinary, but you do need to strategize and break them apart in separate series to make it to the end because of the sheer load and level of exertion they entail. Forthwith, let’s see what exercises the Murph workout program comprises:

• A 1-mile sprint;
• 100 pull-ups;
• 200 push-ups;
• 300 squats (take the vest off for this part of the routine);
• Another 1-mile sprint.

One day, you will be able to finish the calisthenics series consecutively in the order we provided above. Until then, put on your 20-pound vest and sequence the training program as compulsory to reach the numbers above without pushing yourself to the point where you won’t make it to the half.

The Hidden Perk – You Burn More Calories

Aside from the topic of our article, helping build muscles and increasing strength, this weighted wearable has other ways in which it welfares users. One of these benefits refers to an increase in the calorie burn process regardless of the activity you take up. How many calories do you burn when you wear a weighted vest, though? The exact answer is contingent on the workout, the intensity of your exercise routine, how long you do it for, and how much you weigh to start with. Keep in mind that the heavier you are, the more calories you burn during the same period as a slimmer person. Nevertheless, it is estimated that doing physical activities while wearing a vest that weighs 15% of your body weight amasses to a 12% increase in burned calories.

Here is an exemplification of the difference this wearable makes for weight loss (for our examples, the person weighs 180 lbs. and wears a 27-pound vest):

• Calories burned when walking with a weighted vest: Walking on a level surface for 60 minutes at a 2.5 MPH speed without the vest helps burn 255 calories. With the vest on and under the same conditions, 297 calories would be burned.
• Calories burned when running with a weight vest: A casual run at a speed of 6 MPH (10 minutes per mile) for 30 minutes amounts to 420 calories burned, while the wearable would raise the bar to 485 calories shed.
• Calories burned when doing cardio exercises with a weight vest: If without the supplementary weight you would normally burn approximately 350 calories during a 30-minute workout session, with the vest on you would burn around 410 calories.

For short, a 180lb person wearing a 27lb vest will, on average, contingent on the exact activity they perform and the intensity of the workout itself, burn an extra 30 to over 100 calories than they would without the vest on. If your end goal is rapid weight loss, this wearable is one of your best allies.

The Takeaway

Hands down, a weight vest is a smart purchase to make. You can incorporate it into almost any bodybuilding routine you can think of, and the outcome of its presence is game changing – it will help you amp muscle mass faster. Not for nothing, but as we already pointed out, the army use it in their training drills. This alone is enough to prove how much of a difference it makes for strength training, especially considering that it can help toughen all the body muscles as long as you take up the right exercises. We hope that you found the information you seek in our article, and get the most from your weighted wearable if you choose to buy one!