What all these players have in common, besides the fact they trained with me at Competitive Edge Sports, is that they all use weight vest in the preparation of either the off-season or combine preparation phase. This is how we incorporate weight vest into our training:
The Xvest is our vest of choice. Over the years we have evolved from sandbags to other vests on the market, to currently the best vest we have ever used. With the size of our athletes and sheer number of athletes we train, the weighted vests meet our needs and expectations.
If you want your athletes to be explosive, you have to train them explosive. We use our vest for a number of training drills and movements.
Some of the application and benefits:
- Running stadium steps
- 40-yard sprints
- Agility drills
- Mobility training
- Jumping
- Explosive 40 starts
- Plyometrics
- Upper body
- Lower body
- Increase lung capacity
- Acclimatize
We use the weighted vest two days per week. We use the vest for
incline work, which can be stadiums, hill work and on the treadmill.
We use the vest for
position work, ballistic warm-ups on cold days, quick foot ladders and other
specific
movements. We use the vest in the weight room for box step-ups and split
jumps, walking lunges, standing broad jumps and vertical jumps.
Make sure that you gradually increase the amount of resistance for your players.
Remember, you are building from a low base and just like in the weight room
where you would gradually use progressive resistance over a period of time.
You don’t
want your athletes starting out using 40-pound vests.
Why and How Do Weighted Vests Work?
By overloading your body
and doing these exercises or movements at an increased weight you are creating
a new level of resistance and reprogramming your muscle fibers and your brain
to work under new level of resistance. Once the vest is removed you are able
to reap the benefits of that resistance. The brain and muscle fibers believe
they are functioning at the previous weight load; therefore, vastly improving
your overall endurance, quickness, vertical jump, strength and speed.
The improvement in power and speed occurred because of max V02 (the body’s
ability to take in oxygen and distribute to extremities), and the activation
of fast-twitch muscle fibers in the legs. Weighted vest will improve speed endurance
and the more reps your athletes get, the more fast-twitch muscles are recruited.
Last but not least, we use weighted vests as a way to acclimatize our athletes
to the summer heat. The weight of our vest will stimulate the weight of football
equipment and our players gradually get used to both the heat and the weight
of the vest, making the transition from summer training to two-a-days without
a problem.
In closing, the weighted vest offers a tremendous training aid for your speed
and strength program.
Chip Smith is the founder and president of Competitive Edge Sports and can be contacted at 770-365-5548 or www.competitiveedgesports.com
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