Weight Vest Workouts
Replicating increased body weight is a brilliant way of adding intensity to your workout and helping you to appreciate your actual body weight. Having experienced being both a heavier and more moderate weight athlete I can honestly say I found nothing physically harder and psychologically difficult than running distance carrying an excess tyre. This said, not everyone should strap on a plate carrier and suffer through every workout.
Increased body weight puts more stress on our bodies and is much harder on our joints and connective tissues and will make you pay for putting one on too early. Days of soreness is not cool and will have a negative impact on both your training and your health. It is vital that we introduce our bodies to this training stimulus steadily and at the right point, considering appropriate volume and intensity as we would anything else in our training. For example we wouldn’t look for weighted push ups if we are still working on our knees or on a box, instead we can find our intensity through moving to our toes or lower on the box. Understand your current ability and ask yourself the question, “will my choice of scaling make me better?”. Getting messed up by a workout is a resounding no!
As a master of all of the movements in a workout a vest is a great place to go. It will make body weight movements harder and will put your body under pressure just by moving. Moving load over distance requires more energy. Don’t be scared of strapping one on but do change your approach to deal with it as your workout will feel different. Break your workout down earlier and start slower. Remember, Crossfit workouts including “Murph” reward consistency and you will always be quicker accelerating throughout the workout instead of peaking early.
As Sarum Crossfit are doing “Murph” on Memorial Day I’ve listed below Scaling options for the workout to benefit beginner, intermediate and advancing athletes. Advanced athletes completing the daily whiteboard 99% as prescribed should be attacking this one as prescribed with a 10/7kg vest.
Beginner (1 mile run above 10 minutes, 1 or less strict pull ups, 1 or less press ups)
For Time
0.5 Mile Run
10 Rounds
10 Ring Rows
15 Box Push Ups
20 Air Squats to Med Ball
0.5 Mile Run
Intermediate (1 mile run below 10 minutes, Less than 5 kipping pull-ups, less than 5 push ups)
For Time
1 Mile Run
20 rounds
5 Jumping Pull Ups (Bar 1 inch under wrist)
10 Push Ups
15 Squats
1 Mile Run
Advancing (1 mile run below 10 minutes, 5 or more unbroken pull ups.)
Complete as prescribed but do not wear a weight vest.
Remember that everyone is different and these are only guidelines. Make sure your workout is both beneficial and fun and ask yourself the same question, “will my workout make me a better athlete?”.
Article by Gareth Iles
