Weighted vest stair climbing

adasmfp

So, I have been doing calisthenics for a few months now and I just ordered a weighted vest. I had plans to begin doing some special cardio and leg excersises, since calisthenics only can't really work those out for me. So I am pretty much a newbie to cardio excersises and more strength-requireing leg excersises. Is it a good idea to begin my cardio excersises with weighted vest (5 or 10% of my weight) to kind of boost my progress? I want to climb stairs with weighted vest mainly for excersising leg muscles, but I also want to begin cardio excersises with those. So my question is, can I begin running and climbing stairs with weight at the start, or should I begin without them?

gearhead426hemi

I wouldn't recommend running until your body and joints get used to the extra weight. Weight vest are a great way to add weight for strength increases but it will shock your joints if you go to hard to quickly. All my home workouts are calisthenics since I don't have real weights at home. I use tractor tires, sand bags, concrete, sledge hammers and my favorite Olympic rings for all my workouts. I have 1 tractor tire that is 250 pounds and another that's 400 pounds. I stack them on top of each other for box jumps ( tire jumps ). I flip them down my road, I do squats and leg presses with them as well. I will grab a sandbag, log or whatever heavy object I have around the farm and do weighted one leg step ups. Best of luck and feel free to add me. I have crazy workouts and its always fun to see what others are doing for workouts.

NorthCascades

I'd recommend starting with something easier and more sustainable. A lot of people hate cardio because they pick the most horrible forms imaginable.

kenyonhaff

Weights while walking or whatnot have shown to cause more joint issues than any real benefits. If you are overweight you already have plenty of resistance.

sgt1372

I've got a vest that I can load up to 75# but have never used more than 25# for most body weight exercises. Chose the 75# vest for backpack conditioning, not for exercise generally.

If youre a newbie, I suggest you develop sufficient strength and conditioning b4 using your vest and then add weight progressively in increments of 5 - 10#.

10-15% of BW to start would probably be too much. Better to work up to it.
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No problem wearing the vest on StairMaster (or just climbing stairs) or walking on a treadmill (or just walking around). Also great for added resistance doing BW exercises like pullups, pushups, dips, squats or lunges.

However, I'd recommend against doing any RUNNING or JOGGING w/the vest on with HEAVY weight because of the stress on the joints and body generally.

IMO, the heavier the weight, the slower the motion, the better.

GemstoneofHeart

Definitely slow motion. I made the mistake years ago of doing curls with measly 5 pound weights while power walking. Big mistake and I pulled a pectoral/shoulder muscle. That was over four years ago and still to this day that muscle gets tight and locks up sometimes.

buffgrl

Everyone already said what I was going to say so...don't do it, you're not ready for it, you will hurt your knees or pull something. Get reeeeeallly good with your own body weight before you wear a vest. Not feeling it enough? DON'T LEAN ON THE MACHINE or prop yourself up in any way- I see people making this mistake all the time and all it does is take work off of your lower body so that you're not getting the full benefit. You should be fully upright and if you're holding on at all, it should be for stability only and not supporting your weight in any way. Also you can always go faster, that sure makes it harder. When you can do 90 second to 2 minute stair running intervals at level 17-20 (with a 60-90 second moderate stepping period at level 10-12) for 10 minutes straight, all without flying off the machine, then maybe think about adding the vest. By the way, don't try that interval workout until you can climb for 45 minutes straight at level 12. Work your way up slowly. The Stairmaster Queen has spoken!

stephanne13

gearhead426hemi wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend running until your body and joints get used to the extra weight. Weight vest are a great way to add weight for strength increases but it will shock your joints if you go to hard to quickly. All my home workouts are calisthenics since I don't have real weights at home. I use tractor tires, sand bags, concrete, sledge hammers and my favorite Olympic rings for all my workouts. I have 1 tractor tire that is 250 pounds and another that's 400 pounds. I stack them on top of each other for box jumps ( tire jumps ). I flip them down my road, I do squats and leg presses with them as well. I will grab a sandbag, log or whatever heavy object I have around the farm and do weighted one leg step ups. Best of luck and feel free to add me. I have crazy workouts and its always fun to see what others are doing for workouts.

So, how does one do a fr?
I couldn't find a way..
I wouldn't mind reading about the different ways you incorporate excercise.

rybo

adamwinkowskimfp wrote: »

So, I have been doing calisthenics for a few months now and I just ordered a weighted vest. I had plans to begin doing some special cardio and leg excersises, since calisthenics only can't really work those out for me. So I am pretty much a newbie to cardio excersises and more strength-requireing leg excersises. Is it a good idea to begin my cardio excersises with weighted vest (5 or 10% of my weight) to kind of boost my progress? I want to climb stairs with weighted vest mainly for excersising leg muscles, but I also want to begin cardio excersises with those. So my question is, can I begin running and climbing stairs with weight at the start, or should I begin without them?

I would start the stair climbs unweighted. Build up and then add the vest once you have reached a certain level.
Also there are a lot of calisthenics exercises for building leg strength. Cossack squats, shrimp/skater squats, pistol squats, rear foot elevated split squats, step ups and walking lunges. Don't be fooled that you can't work legs very well using only body weight.

adasmfp

Just to make it clear for some people, I don't want to do cardio to lose weight. Dieting is for that and I am already skinny. I want to build leg muscles for explosiveness and fatigue resisatnce, and also strengthen my cardiovascular system for greater stamina and heart health. I don't have any access to free weights and machines I can use for squats, so I wanted to use best calisthenic excersises for legs and added weight. I excluded box jumping already, because I don't want to ruin my knees, and squats, because even 30kg is not enough for squats for me. If stairs climbing with added weight is bad/not very effectve, I am open to alternatives.

sgt1372

adasmfp wrote: »

If stairs climbing with added weight is bad/not very effectve, I am open to alternatives.

Don't think anyone said wearing a weighted vest while stair climbing is bad or ineffective in building leg and overall body strength.

People (me included) were just cautioning you to work your way up to doing it progressively to build up your strength (both muscles and joints) b4 using really heavy weights.

Good luck!

adasmfp

If I am easily able to do 10 dips with my bodyweight, is this alright for me to do start doing them with let's say, 5-10% of my bodyweight in weighted vest? Does it go same for all bodyweight excersises? Thanks for replies btw.

adasmfp

First of all, I don't go to gym but to a street workout, because I prefer bodyweight excersises over free weights or machines. And I have never seen a stairmaster machine in my life, what I have in mind is going up the normal stairs in a block of flats to the top and going down or using the elevator. Working legs with bodyweight is good only to some degree. Sure, I can do pistol squats or box jumps and one leg calf raises dozens of reps per set, but gains stop there. So I wanted to put a weighted vest in use for building leg muscles in various excersises, since doing squats even with fully equipped (30kg) vest is not enough for a squat. Also, this vest may be able to improve my gains and strength in upper body excersises such as push ups, pull ups and dips.

sgt1372

adasmfp wrote: »

If I am easily able to do 10 dips with my bodyweight, is this alright for me to do start doing them with let's say, 5-10% of my bodyweight in weighted vest? Does it go same for all bodyweight excersises? Thanks for replies btw.

You don't say how much you weigh but give it a try at 5% and see how you feel doing your planned workout.

If you struggle and feel exhausted using that much weight, cut back until you can do it w/o feeling that way and then increase the weight progressively after that. On the other hand, if it feels too easy, just increase the weight until it feels challenging but not exhausting and the add weigh progressively up from there.

FWIW I weigh 158 and I currently only use 20# of weight (about 12.5% of my BW) in my vest. I can easily do 20 dips, 15 pullups and 25 pushups w/20# in the vest but I started doing this w/only 10# (just 6% of BW) in the vest about 6 months ago.

The weights in my vest weigh only weigh about 2.25# each and I've just only added 1 weigh a month or so, which is very slowly.

I could add much more weight but my objective is to build strength and endurance. So, IMO, slower is better for this purpose.

adasmfp

So the most important thing here is slow progression and making sure that I am not putting too much stress on joints, tendons and muscles because I will make more harm than good?

sgt1372

adasmfp wrote: »

So the most important thing here is slow progression and making sure that I am not putting too much stress on joints, tendons and muscles because I will make more harm than good?

Yes.