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Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum

Training with a weight vest
by: Chip Smith
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Over the last 13 years, I have had the opportunity to train over 40 NFL players. Some of the players I have trained are: Brian Urlacher, NFL Rookie of the Year and three-time Pro Bowl player, Garrison Hearst, Pro Bowler and NFL Comeback Player of the Year, Keith Brooking, Champ Bailey and recent top draft picks, Dewayne Robertson, fourth pick in the 2003 NFL draft; Terrance Newman, fifth pick in this year’s draft and Jonathan Sullivan, the sixth pick in this year’s draft.

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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