[emphasis added]My opinion…
Once your body adjusts to having the weight of the vest, you won’t get any additional benefit from the vest. Strength training is about progressive resistance, and once you adjust to the weight, a static 25 pounds, day after day, won’t do anything except potentially damage your joints. There’s a reason that they tell people who are candidates for joint replacements to lose weight.
If you want to do strength training (which you absolutely should), do strength training. Go to the gym, and do a more traditional strength training program than CrossFit. At my gym (a large urban YMCA) there are people into their 80’s and 90’s doing traditional strength training programs, and getting the benefits of that. CrossFit has value, but it is also hard on the body, because of the number of exercises that require good technique, which most people doing CrossFit haven’t nailed down completely.
So anyway, do strength training. Do cardio. Skip the CrossFit.
I would at the very least double check with your physician, someone who knows the condition of your joints and bone strength, etc.
I'd also ask about the extra weight on the spine.
I'm thinking of equipment for strengthening the quads, for example.
One type: you sit (or lie down?) on sort of a cushioned, moveable pad/table with knees bent, and use legs to press against a vertical surface and push your body weight back. Then slowly add extra weights to the pad/table.
Another type has one standing or lying also with knees bent (or at an angle) and uses the weight of the body *plus* extra weights on the upper body (shoulders? head? I'm forgetting) as one pushes up, using the body weight plus the extra weight.
I am NOT a physician or physical therapist or trainer, but I've always wondered about that extra weight in the second case and the compression on the spine.
(Keep in mind the perspective of someone who has or is at risk of osteoporosis or osteopeni (weak bones, in brief.)
As quantAndHold suggested, there could be negative consequences. Best to check first.
I just suggest asking your physician, and the same for any new exercise/etc.
More discussion like this is likely to get into medical issues...
RM
Statistics: Posted by ResearchMed — Sat Jan 25, 2025 8:49 pm — Replies 22 — Views 1534