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I'll give you a hint with
this review...the X-Vest is an Xcellent piece of training
equipment. LOVE these things. I figure why keep you in suspense
since you probably know we like these vests already anyway!
So in this review, keeping
in mind it is a very useful piece equipment, we're going
to go through the benefits and the potential drawbacks of
X-Vest training.
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First
Off, What is the X-Vest?
Glad you asked! Basically,
the X-Vest is a weighted vest, specially designed to fit snugly
and comfortably on your body so you can perform a variety of activities
with it...bodyweight training, cardio, plyometrics...you name
it.
Here's what the vest
looks like...
It's made from tough
material with soft cloth on the inside as well as good padding
to keep it comfortable. It has wide elastic velcro straps that
go around your waist to cinch the bottom of the vest to your body.
The shoulders have
adjustable nylon webbing straps with plastic buckles so you can
adjust how the vest rests on your shoulders.
The weights in the
vest are in the form of small 1 lb steel sticks that slide into
the pouches in the vest - the number of pouches depends on the
capacity of the weight vest you get - all the way up to 84 lbs!
They've got a nice
design...comfortable, usuable, practical...don't try and wear
one through airport security, though.
So that's the what...
What Are The Benefits
of the X-Vest?
This is where the FUN
begins...at it's simplest, the X-Vest is a way to to increase
your bodyweight. The benefits of increasing your bodyweight include:
1. Increased caloric expenditure
during ANY activity you do...anything from walking to weight
training. This happens not only DURING the training sessions but
AFTER the training sessions due to increased metabolic rate from
carrying the extra load.
2. Increased resistance/workload
on your muscles during training, be it bodyweight training or
even conventional weight training. The X-Vest is a great way to
increase the resistance used with bodyweight exercises like push-ups,
chin-ups, lunges, etc. You can also wear the vest when doing standard
weight training exercises.
3. Improvements in bone density
with regular use. You carry more weight, you get stronger bones...simple
as that.
4. Increased core strength
from carrying the extra load on your upper body while performing
exercises.
5. Improvements in speed and explosiveness
in athletes by increasing the bodyweight load on athletic performance
drills, e.g. shuttle runs with a weight vest on. When the vest is
removed, your body will be used to training with the extra weight
and you will feel light and fast. It's also very effective for vertical
jump training.
6. You can use it to load yourself
for exercises that put torque on your body because the resistance
is out in front of you. For example, pushdowns for triceps and barbell
curls for biceps. When you increase your bodyweight with the vest,
the resistance out in front of you becomes less in comparison to
your bodyweight. That means less torque on your lower back and it
also means you'll be instantly STRONGER in those exercises.
7. It'll make you bulletproof...seriously,
wearing 84 lbs of steel on your chest will at least make FEEL bulletproof,
even you're not ACTUALLY bulletproof. I'm not volunteering to test
that potential benefit.
What Are The
Downsides of the X-Vest?
As good as the X-Vest is, it does
have a few drawbacks that I need to mention. But to be honest, taken
in perspective as to the benefits of the vest, they're pretty minimal.
Nothing that should stop you from using one of these.
1. When doing exercises with your
body in a horizontal position, the vest waist straps can slip off
the lower weight pouch will flap freely. This is only an issue with
the heavier vests (84 lbs) that have a weight pouch over the lower
abs. With the lighter vests, the weight is higher up on the chest
and you won't have that problem.
2. If you're training in a hot environment,
it will increase your body temperature faster than training without
it. It is an insulated vest and it keeps your core heat in. Something
to be aware of, for sure.
3. Can be challenging to get in and
out of, especially when using you're fatigued from training and
you don't have somebody around to help. Nick Nilsson (our Director
of Online Operations) has been using the X-Vests a lot and came
up with an easy way to get around this - you'll see a video of that
method below - he's using an 84 lb vest).
4. Can be a pain in the butt to change
weights, especially if you want to go from 84 lbs down to something
like 20 lbs. That would involve removing 64 weight sticks.
5. The potential to try and use a
heavier vest than you probably should...if you like to challenge
yourself, believe me, the temptation will there to try use a LOT
of weight on the vest. This is fine for bodyweight exercises...you'll
learn fast enough how much you can and can't use with those. But
when doing athletic movement like plyometric training, start light
and progress slowly. Don't do rebounding box jumps from 3 feet up
with an 84 lb vest on unless you like the taste of your kneecaps!
Those are the main drawbacks that
we've identified. Like I said, nothing that should really stop you
from using one of these vests. They're VERY effective for what they're
designed to do.
What Can You Do
With An X-Vest?
The sky's the limit! You can do pretty
much ANY activity with the X-Vest that you can do WITHOUT the X-Vest.
What the X-Vest does is just make your body a bit heavier while
doing it. The only thing I REALLY would not recommend would be swimming,
for obvious reasons.
And naturally, you
do need to be aware of your limitations when adding weight to
specific types of training (like the plyometrics that I mentioned
above).
You can walk, jog (be
sure to start with light weight if you're going to jog with the
vest on), do interval training, wear it while cycling, doing athletic
drills, etc. Pretty much any type of bodyweight exercises are
fair game as well as many free weight exercises (in fact, you
add some interesting twists on exercises like barbell squats and
deadlifts when you add in the torso loading of the vest).
One of the interesting
features of the vest is that it also comes with several hooks
that you can clip things onto, e.g. cables, parachutes, that kind
of thing. It gives you even more options for training with the
vest.
Nick has put together
some videos of exercises he's done while wearing the X-vest (the
84 lb version).
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