Can anyone find me a link that actually says that wearing a weight vest for distance running is beneficial or detrimental? My friend is arguing that i should wear a weight vest for every run and i can't find anything that says that he's wrong. I know that it affects body mechanics but can't find a reliable source.
I vote no. Mostly due to the nature of distance training vs. sprinting. As a distance runner wearing a vest you lose more iron to foot striking and put your body at that much of a greater chance for injury especially when the purpose of easy running is to recover. I would say only as an experiment (and I wouldn't do this on myself) is to wear it while you are not running and only during the off season of an important race. This guy must be a sprinter, someone who needs to have more resistance and doesn't spend as much time running as the real runners.
The guy is a wrestler. who thinks he knows everything in the world.
If you're going to use a weight vest for running, I would use it only for uphill running or maybe strides on a soft surface. Strength training can bring about great improvements in endurance sports, but the strength training must be motion specific. Try to find a long hill or maybe just a treadmill (would work the best) and use it for uphill running. I would caution against running longer distances on flat ground or downhill with it tho, and don't jump into something like that too fast.
Anyone who says just run more miles is an utter fool, the same ones that tell you to never run on a treadmill and to never lift weights. There are numerous studies that demonstrate the advantages of motion specific strength training. Do some searches for articles if you want to.
I trained with a weight vest my Senior year in High School. I started off at 2 pounds and increased it 2 pounds every other week up to 10. I never suffered an injury or iron deficiency. So it certainly didn't hurt me.
I improved a lot, cutting my times from 4:51ish to 4:31 and 10:40ish to 9:53. But a lot of that had to do with my summer running when I wasn't in the vest. I ran 16:28 5K in XC, then wore it through the winter and spring, before phasing it out a few weeks before the end of the season.
Go get fat over the summer if you want a weight vest. Completely useless.
Alan
Don't be an ignorant fool, Alan. It can be a valuable training tool if used properly. Running all of your miles in a weight vest would obviously be an example of improper use. Use it for strength training, e.g. hill sprints, maybe strides.
Not sure if this is a pro or a con but Alberto has Kara wear a weight vest during the last few miles of some of her long runs.
Earl wrote:
Not sure if this is a pro or a con but Alberto has Kara wear a weight vest during the last few miles of some of her long runs.
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Does he also gives her pills? Shots? Has his philosophy changed from when he juiced in the 70's and 80's?
Why do so many elite runners say his runners are "dirty"?
RI runner wrote:
Does he also gives her pills? Shots? Has his philosophy changed from when he juiced in the 70's and 80's?
Why do so many elite runners say his runners are "dirty"?
Way to stay on topic, douche.
Spinach Salad wrote:
RI runner wrote:Does he also gives her pills? Shots? Has his philosophy changed from when he juiced in the 70's and 80's?
Why do so many elite runners say his runners are "dirty"?
Way to stay on topic, douche.
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I'm sorry, there are rules here? There are certain things we are not allowed to talk about? No one is suspicious how someone goes from ready to quit due to failures, to ahead of everybody in the country in what 20 months?
bvuiwvv wrote:
Don't be an ignorant fool, Alan.
Here we go again with a nature vs. nurture argument.
The next thing you'll tell me is that running with hand and/or ankle weights will make you faster or that a damned parachute will make you sprint faster.
Resisted running will not make you faster, regardless of what you may have heard or what some 80 year old football coach may have told you.
Running hills isn't resisted running....it's running up a hill, which requires an alltogether different muscle activation and strength.
As a sidebar, Lydiard was onto something when he was having his athletes run sprints on a slight decline. ASSISTED RUNNING is a great way to improve speed.
Alan
A vest is not the same as ankle or hand weights.
It is ABSURD to think that something as unspecific to running as weight training like squats, deadlifts, etc (where one is on 2 feet, with feel split apart, deeply bending one's hips......all elements that do NOT occur when running) can help running but something as specific as weighted running could not. Absurd. And I don't think that classic weight training like squats etc do not help. No, I think they do. But that is GENERAL strength training/conditioning. Again, if that helps, why on earth would something as specific to running as running up a hill with weighted vest for 50 m not potentially help?
And running on a decline is NOT "assisted running" just as running up a hill isn't resisted running, right Alan? You can't have it both ways. And if you are going to dismiss running with weights, I've read several studies denouncing the positive effects of assisted running. Two can play at that game (just because something hasn't been proven beyond any doubt to help, doesn't mean it might not. Not all studies are perfect. So I think assisted (like Alter G) or resisted running can both have potentially positive effects if done right).
To answer the OP's original question: running all or most or even a lot of one's workouts in a weighted vest would be dumb. Used occasionally and judiciously it could help. Be strength trained previously, only add very small amounts of weights at first, even just do walking. And gradually build up to some short sprints with moderate weights. Anything that causes you to feel awkward or change your stride would be bad.