Loaded Vest Training For Hikers

"To train for backpacking, is it better to use a backpack with weights or a weight vest? Or does it not matter?”

'Loaded' workouts are one of the most relevant and accessible methods of training for hiking. Wearing a pack during neighbourhood walks, stair or hill sessions, treadmill workouts, or actual hiking is a great way to expose the body to extra challenge and develop specific hiking fitness and conditioning. 

But quite often I get the question whether it is the same thing if someone used a loaded vest instead. So in this video, we explore if there is any difference between using a loaded vest or a loaded backpack when training for a hiking adventure (and, where ankle weights come into the equation!).

Video Transcript:

[0:00]All right, hello, hello, hikers, and in today's video, we are answering the question, if you're building up to a big hiking adventure, is it better to use

[0:11]
Introduction to Hiking Load Training

[0:09]a loaded pack or a weights vest? Now, this is a question I get probably a couple of times a month, and it's getting more and more frequent because in the fitness industry, there's a lot of people talking about weights vests and the benefits of doing weights vests walking or general health and fitness. So more and more people seem to have access to these and have these lying around. And it naturally leads to the question when someone's building up to a big adventure if they have one of those lying around are they okay in use and when we are building up to any type of hiking adventure any type of backpacking adventure doing some type of loaded walking is always going to be a foundational method of training for you because it is one of the most specific things you can do for hiking because we want to expose the body to long periods of repeated movements we want to expose the body to those specific stresses as you load the body up so we can get out on our benches, feel comfortable, feel happy, feel confident, and ultimately just get out and have a good time. So a lot of hikers will do sessions like lower pack walking where they just load something up and walk around the neighborhood. Maybe they'll do stair and hill climbing where they do that same thing of going up and down a set of stairs. Maybe they'll be on the treadmill or the stairmaster or do box step sessions where we'll go up and down on a box. Or obviously without hiking when we're loading things up. And this comes back to the question, you know, it doesn't matter if I use a loader or a waist vest. for any of these situations.

[1:29]And realistically, when it comes down to light or moderate weights, and light and moderate is going to be very subjective, and this is for you specifically, it doesn't really allow. If you're going out walking, if you're doing sessions, even if you're climbing.

[1:44]At light to moderate weights, it doesn't really matter what you use. Both a vest and a pack are going to be loading up the torso. They're not exactly the same, but they're close enough and they can work out pretty well. However, as you do start to get a little bit heavier and as you do start to increase the weight a little bit, I would strongly, strongly, strongly recommend transitioning out of the vest and start using a hiking pack. The reason for this is when we're using the vest, as it does get heavier, it can often get very uncomfortable on the shoulders, on the chest, sometimes on the neck and also on top of that, it can sometimes restrict our breathing a little bit as it gets heavier.

[2:18]Alternatively, a hiking pack is designed to have the weight fit a little bit more in action. It's got its hip belt so it'll sit on your hips and won't clap down your shoulders and it's definitely much more comfortable as you get heavier weights. Now, on top of that, the other issue with weights vests, particularly as you're doing longer sessions, they don't breathe particularly well. They are really, really easy to get sweaty, to get stinky and get a little bit nasty. Again, a hiking pack is going to be much nicer.

[2:43]
Transitioning from Weights Vest to Hiking Pack
[2:44]So if you're a hiker and you're building up for a trip, perfectly fine to use a desk that as it gets it gets a bit heavier transition into a pack and if you don't have a pack at that stage that's the time we want to go out and buy one and make sure you've got something you can use.

[2:57]
The Question of Ankle Weights

[2:58]Now the next natural follow-up question i get from this is a lot of people ask okay that makes sense but what about ankle ones i have some ankle weights lying around and i kind of want to use them a little bit more um do you think that's a good idea and you know in 99 or 95 of situations i'm not a massive fan of ankle weights for hikers yes they are another way where you can load up the body and yes they are another way where you can add challenge to the legs but the way it loads things up is a little bit different a weights first and a pack will load up the torso pretty specific close enough the ankle weights will obviously load up our lower lifts and this the issue here is sometimes when we're doing this it can just change the way we walk ever so slightly it can change what's called our focus means every single step we take how far our feet come off the ground it can change that ever so slightly and when we are hiking or we're training for hiking quite often we're on some more uneven surfaces obviously hiking trails not particularly even, if we're doing stair or hill climbing, sometimes we want a bit of rough terrain or unaided steps or whatever it is. And one of the main priorities of those types of sessions is we want to reduce the risk of things going wrong. We're going to be getting tired. We're going to be pushing things forward. And there's always a likelihood of us taking a misstep, having a trip, a stumble or fall, which we don't want.

[4:15]And if we introduce ankle weights into that type of rotation, you know, with a slight change in how we walk, we can just very slightly increase that risk, which I don't think is particularly necessary. There we don't really want and it's not something i really want to lean into when we have those simple options of just loading up a path now if you did have equal weights and you wanted to include it and really did want to use them the main situations i would sort of say is use it in something that's definitely manicured something that's even so if you're doing the stairmaster if you're doing the treadmill or if you're doing box step sessions you can use it in those it's perfectly fine but definitely don't incorporate it actually hiking or anything that's a bit more either. I just don't think it's just worth it.

[4:54]
Final Thoughts on Loading for Hiking

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