Weight vest

Question answered... thanks!

Pete Hunt wrote:I'm more interested in weight vests than I am in hearing different opinions on the actual usefulness of a weight vest to improve one's climbing ability.

Good luck with that!

may cost more than $100, but i know climbers who drank lots of beer to put on a weight vest.

otherwise, maybe try a SCUBA shop? dont they use weights ?

Have dealt with these guys before, although I haven't used this specific vest they only sell top notch equipment.
againfaster.com/weight-vests/

bags of pennies/coinage work great for hangboarding, safe too

This one's cheap and get's good reviews on the site...

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Altus-40lb-Adjustable-Weighted-Vest/12177384

Hope everybody will share more information.
Thanks

I bought a 20lbs. max vest for less than $60 at a store called "Play it Again Sports". It was new, but still a decent price. 40lbs. to climb with is a little excessive. Most pro gym climbers like Patxi and Eric Horst only use 20lbs, I believe Eric even agrees with that in his book. You will get a lot of elbow strain even with the 20lbs. I went down to 10lbs. and that seems to work fine without any joint pain. Obviously, you may react differently, but its easy to over train. If you are going to do 40lbs, at least work up to it very gradually, but I still wouldn't recommend it.

TomCaldwell wrote:Most pro gym climbers like Patxi and Eric Horst ...

Ya, those two guys are pretty much in the same category....

Monomaniac wrote: Ya, those two guys are pretty much in the same category....

haha I was thinking the same thing.

But yea, you need to start out at a very light weight. 5 pounds doesn't sound like much until your halfway through a V whatever you climb. Start small or your elbows/fingers/shoulders/knees will explode.

Monomaniac wrote: Ya, those two guys are pretty much in the same category....

Thanks for contributing.

Here's an anecdote you'll love: So our gym in Dayton has a finger crack on a vertical wall. If you use tracking it's probably a painful 11+ or 12- (the crack is made of textured 2x4s which flex as you jam...yeah, it's "top notch"). If you use "any feet", well then it depends on the feet.

So one night this woman shows up whom I've never seen in there before and after warming up she dons a backpack filled with dumbels (I saw at least 30#, could have been more), then starts running laps on the crack. I would have been super impressed except that she was using these humongous footholds that protrude several inches from the wall. So all she needed to do was lean in over her feet and her legs would support all that weight in her pack. All she really needed to do to get a better workout was to use smaller feet. And that's the lesson:

Dump the weight vest, and use smaller feet!!!

this is where that trad' double gear sling comes in handy. Load it up with cams and big hex nuts and start pulling plastic with your load of metal.

That is basically my approach. I'm too lazy to take my rack off my harness no matter what I'm climbing, my partner does it also. I just consider it weight training, especially when your trying to pull some form of roof/bulge you start to notice it.

Mike Anderson wrote:... And that's the lesson: Dump the weight vest, and use smaller feet!!!

That way your calves get a better workout?

Assuming you are pragmatic in your approach and use of a weight vest, climbing, specifically overhanging terrain, with extra weight has its benefits.

The anecdotal counter example of a woman improperly using extra weight and loading it on her legs is and example of a bad training method, which is different than the efficacy of training with a weight vest properly.

Do a google search for HIT workouts.

Go natural and organic – grow one yourself. Tis the season.

Beer is exceptionally effective any time of the year.

John Bachar says doing weighted pull ups gives you mad power

Go to supplycache.com, wild land fire supplier. We use the vest for our physical fitness testing and preseason workouts.