I have a stand up desk that I have been using for about a year now. Its been great for my back, and I love it. About a month ago I started wearing a 40 lb weight vest for about 3-4 hours in the morning. My intent was just to skim extra calories out of my day (not to increase strength or performance).
What is interesting is that I appear to have lost 2 lbs a week almost passively by doing this. That implies quite a bit of calorie skimming. So far I have no pain that I can directly pinpoint to this, and it has not affected my workouts.
I cant be the first person to think of this, so I guess I am wondering why more people are not taking this route. There has to be a reason why this is not recommended.
[quote]koffea wrote:
I have a stand up desk that I have been using for about a year now. Its been great for my back, and I love it. About a month ago I started wearing a 40 lb weight vest for about 3-4 hours in the morning. My intent was just to skim extra calories out of my day (not to increase strength or performance).
What is interesting is that I appear to have lost 2 lbs a week almost passively by doing this. That implies quite a bit of calorie skimming. So far I have no pain that I can directly pinpoint to this, and it has not affected my workouts.
I cant be the first person to think of this, so I guess I am wondering why more people are not taking this route. There has to be a reason why this is not recommended.
[/quote]
It has crossed my mind before. One thing that made me think twice and not do it is heart health. A 40lb weight vest just being worn around seems to me that it is mostly just making your heart work harder throughout the day? I guess you could take some baseline blood pressure measurements and then take some measurements throughout the day while wearing the vest and see if it is affecting your blood pressure negatively?
I would use the weight vest while doing sprint work, and plyometrics exercises.
Wouldn’t the negative effects depend heavily on how much the person weighs to begin with?
I’m 170-173lbish right now. Putting on a 20-40lb vest only only get me up to 190-210lb. Hardly heavy when compared to many of the folks here.
My guess is that the issue would be joint/posture related. Suddenly throwing 20lb+ onto your body can’t be good unless you ease into it with progressively heavier weights.
[quote]magick wrote:
Wouldn’t the negative effects depend heavily on how much the person weighs to begin with?
I’m 170-173lbish right now. Putting on a 20-40lb vest only only get me up to 190-210lb. Hardly heavy when compared to many of the folks here.[/quote]
I would think that current body weight would be a factor. I would also think that wearing a vest for a long period of time, the body would adjust and return to homeostasis. My thoughts are that the physical rewards are to small when compared to the risk of having your heart work harder for little gains while your body is in a non-work mode while wearing the vest. Just my opinion and why I never went through with it. Possible risk…very little reward.
[quote]
My guess is that the issue would be joint/posture related. Suddenly throwing 20lb+ onto your body can’t be good unless you ease into it with progressively heavier weights.[/quote]
I used to weigh well over 300lbs, I now weigh between 185 and 190 (most of the weight loss has been in the last 12 months). So the comparative weight is not a lot for me compared to just 12 months ago.
Ill monitor my Blood pressure this week though and see if it is elevated enough to be concerned. I normally walk with 60lbs on. With 60lbs and a fast paced walk (averaging 15 min miles), my heart rate goes up to 120 BPM and plateaus for the duration of the 45 minute walk.
Wouldn’t it be good for your heart if anything, since thats the purpose of aerobic conditioning? In a sense HIIT/ other conditioning would work your heart a lot harder too but than take it below the baseline when the activity is over? I think people who get negative effects such as the heart wearing out/ oxidative stress are the ones who take it to extreme levels such as iron man and stuff.
[quote]koffea wrote:
I used to weigh well over 300lbs, I now weigh between 185 and 190 (most of the weight loss has been in the last 12 months). So the comparative weight is not a lot for me compared to just 12 months ago.
Ill monitor my Blood pressure this week though and see if it is elevated enough to be concerned. I normally walk with 60lbs on. With 60lbs and a fast paced walk (averaging 15 min miles), my heart rate goes up to 120 BPM and plateaus for the duration of the 45 minute walk. [/quote]
That’s great.
I’d be interested in your blood pressure findings. Please post back the results.
Dunno, I would want my standing posture to be absolutely perfect and even then, additional compressive force on the spine for 8 hours and more? Maybe invest in some gravity boots?
[quote]pushharder wrote:
This heart health concern has me puzzled. If one put on a 40 lbs backpack and went for a 3 hour hike would one need worry about putting too much stress on the heart? If not, why would one worry about the scenario described in the OP?[/quote]
My thoughts that made me decide not to do this myself was that I would be wearing a 40lb vest all day, every day. My thoughts were, and I could easily be wrong, that all that I would really be doing is making my heart work harder for 9-13 hours a day. When I would normally be at a normal heart rate and blood pressure level.
HIIT training, cycling, walking, hiking all these forms of “exercise” are great and have their place and can be used to enhance a persons well being. Wearing a 40lb vest at your stand-up desk for 9-13 hours a day is just an unnecessary strain on your heart for little to no reward. IMO
Do it man, and add weight every 1-2 week for one year, and please keep us updated. After this year take another good year to go up from 200lbs to 300lbs added weight, then 2 years from 300lbs to 400 lbs. Maybe just take a day off every sunday. Very serious about that.
It’s like in dragon ball when Goku and Krillin are trained by Master Roshi. Who knows if you won’t end up being able to jump as high as the sky after this? Anyway you’ll be ripped and strong as hell.
[quote]pushharder wrote:
This heart health concern has me puzzled. If one put on a 40 lbs backpack and went for a 3 hour hike would one need worry about putting too much stress on the heart? If not, why would one worry about the scenario described in the OP?[/quote]
My thoughts that made me decide not to do this myself was that I would be wearing a 40lb vest all day, every day. My thoughts were, and I could easily be wrong, that all that I would really be doing is making my heart work harder for 9-13 hours a day. When I would normally be at a normal heart rate and blood pressure level.
HIIT training, cycling, walking, hiking all these forms of “exercise” are great and have their place and can be used to enhance a persons well being. Wearing a 40lb vest at your stand-up desk for 9-13 hours a day is just an unnecessary strain on your heart for little to no reward. IMO
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“About a month ago I started wearing a 40 lb weight vest for about 3-4 hours in the morning.”[/quote]
I probably should have been more clear. My thoughts and comments were based on my plans of wearing one all day.
I still would not recommend wearing a weight vest at your stand up desk 3-4 hours a day. Instead I would recommend wearing a weight vest every day you go on a long walk, do plyometrics, do sprint work(really I would suggest a small parachute here, or if you have a workout partner have them attached to you with a bungee cord rope), etc. I don’t know man, I just don’t like the idea of wearing one when you’re not working out.
I had the Dragon Ball Z thought too… Maybe your body will adapt to the extra weight, and you’ll feel like you’re floating when you take the vest off (plus be crazy strong, of course)
[quote]pushharder wrote:
This heart health concern has me puzzled. If one put on a 40 lbs backpack and went for a 3 hour hike would one need worry about putting too much stress on the heart? If not, why would one worry about the scenario described in the OP?[/quote]
To be honest, strain on my heart never entered my mind. But I had a similar comparison when I first started thinking about doing it. Whats the difference between this and hiking? When I go hiking my backpack is generally 30 - 50 lbs. The only thing I could think of is my backpack shifts quite a bit of the weight to my hips, and off of my shoulders and spine.
I would like to know what OP finds when he takes some blood pressure readings. I could be completely wrong in my thoughts. I have doubted myself re-reading through this thread again.