Hi, my name is Bozhidar, and today I’m going to go over my favorite top 3 best weighted vests that I have ever used.
And I’m going to help you decide which one’s going to be right for your specific needs, your specific goals, and most importantly, your hard-earned money.
In the next few lines, I’m going to show you which is the best weighted vest for CrossFit, running, hiking, and walking.
Instead of doing a #3, #2, #1 this time I will go category by category, choosing my favorite weighted vest in each category to help you decide which is going to be right for you.
Which weighted vest is going to specifically target what you are looking for.
Let’s jump into the first category.
Click here to check the latest price on Amazon <
The first category is going to be focused on a low budget.
Times are tough. We’re all looking to make our pennies stretch as far as we can.
And, oftentimes, we want to pick up a piece of home gym equipment, but we don’t even know how often we’re going to use it.
So why not try to kind of get away with not spending a lot of money, especially if we might only be pulling our weighted vest out, every few months, just to try something a little bit different.
So, most people, when they look for a budget weighted vest or plate carrier, are going to find that the first ones that come up are going to be sand weighted vests.
Click here to see an example of a good sand weighted vest
Sand vests are essentially vests that have pockets of little individual sandbags.
And frankly, they get the job done and they will work but I have personally noticed through use that they never get a good fit.
You never get a good feel.
They tend to slide around significantly during use and they tend to be bulky on your body.
So a lot of the movements that you want to do with them when you have that weighted vest on are somewhat limited.
Whether you are doing running, pull-ups, or even kettlebell swings with the weighted vest on, that bulkiness really kind of impacts how you do that movement and it can be super irritating.
My favorite budget weighted vest is one that I made myself.
I built this homemade weighted vest for under $50.
Essentially, you will have to buy this airsoft weighted vest for under $50 bucks on Amazon.
You can click this link to check it here.
After you get it you will insert two, 10-pound weights, one in the front, one in the back, and you use cardboard and foam, which you have around the house in order to get a really tight, solid fit.
It works great.
It came out better than I expected.
And frankly, it’s one of my favorite weighted vests that I use more often than you would think considering how many great weighted vests I have here in my home gym.
The only problem with building your own weighted vest is that the steel prices are going up and up.
So trying to find 10-pound cap plates, even the cheap ones can be difficult, at least at the price point that you might be looking for.
I would suggest using the Facebook marketplace, in terms of the prices.
You probably could pick up some old used 10-pound weights that would fit perfectly into a budget vest.
Another great inexpensive cap plates I found are these ones.
Click here to check my plates.
Onto the next category.
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The next category is for all of you who only care about pure unadulterated performance, pull-ups, burpees, air squats, pushups, CrossFit, and all that good stuff.
If all you care about is training then the North gym weighted vest is absolutely the perfect fit for you.
It is an engineering marvel in terms of how they have designed this vest.
They literally went through a house of quality to put all the good stuff in here and kind of avoid everything that kind of racks up the price point on these things.
The one thing that this North gym weighted vest does better than everyone else the competition has to do with fit.
And that’s why it makes it the best weighted vest for CrossFit, climbing, running, and other intensive sports.
If you’re doing burpees, wads, it’s going to be a long, long day if you don’t get a solid fit and this one’s going to give you the best fit out of all of them.
How do they do it?
Much like a lot of the others, the North Gym model has adjustable shoulder straps.
One of the nice things about North gym is that if you are bigger, thicker, and wider, they actually have a second-tier of straps for you.
It works great with bigger boys and girls in order to really get a good placement on your shoulders.
With this weighted vest, you get two sets of waist Velcros, one large and one small allowing you to really pick and choose which one is right for you.
Also, the plates are side-loaded allowing the actual frame of this weighted vest to be much, much more narrow.
What does that mean?
It means when you’re putting your hand up above, when you’re running when you’re shadow boxing, your shoulder, isn’t going to be rubbing up on fabric unnecessarily.
But that’s not all.
Here is the one thing that sets this weighted vest above all the rest when it comes to training.
The plate.
Most plates, if you’ve ever seen a plate for a weighted vest are absolutely flat.
This one is curved.
And what does that allow it to do?
The additional curve allows it to sit much closer to your chest.
Most of the flat ones are just uncomfortable.
They sit on your chest and in order to get a tight feel, you’ve got to really pancake your chest and back together and it can really kind of limit out your oxygen.
These things are curved, allowing a much tighter fit without having to crush your body.
Those curve plates, along with North gym’s ideal design, allow this weighted vest to sit nice and high up on your body, preventing any issues and it allows for really good functional movement and free range of motion on your shoulders.
I will say one of the best things about this vest is that it’s sold on Amazon with free shipping and the price is really good compared to a lot of the Rogue and other expensive brands.
Click here if you want to check North Gym’s weighted vest latest price <<
Before I show you another honorable mention, let’s get to the last and final category for the weighted vests.
Click here is you want to check the Wolf Tactical Weighted Vests’ latest price on Amazon <
The last category on my list has to do with multipurpose use.
Oftentimes when we buy one piece of equipment, we really want to get as much use out of it as possible.
And that’s where the Wolf tactical weighted vest comes in.
For many of you, when you think of a weighted vest, you’re thinking of calisthenics, you’re thinking of CrossFit that type of style.
But many people go beyond just working out with their weighted vests. They want to use them for rock climbing and hikes.
They want to hike with the weighted vest on, or they want to use it as a plate carrier out into the field for their business.
If they’re into security and they actually have to put in a ballistic plate on the inside.
Conversely as well, if you go into the range and you want to have a ranged vest on this, is it.
This is your swiss army knife of the weighted vest.
The Wolf tactical vest does it all.
For you functional trainers out there for you athletes for you CrossFitters, it works just like all the other weighted vests.
The plates get loaded in from the bottom. You’ve also got velcro waist straps in order to secure it up around the waist and shoulder support that can be adjusted.
But the best thing about this vest is that there is a metal cable that runs all the way through the shoulders and down the back in order for that extra support.
It fits tightly and allows you to move really well.
It doesn’t sliding too much, unless you go in a super long run, like over 20-30 minutes.
When you sweat, you do get a bit more sliding in this thing, but for working out, it delivers nicely.
Now, for those of you who are looking for the best weighted vest for hiking, you can use this it really.
You can even go do some rock climbing as well.
You can load this thing up with plenty of weight and just go out all day long.
The Wolf tactical weighted vest is very strong because of the cable that supports it over the shoulders.
It can easily handle a ton of weight.
This thing is rated for 50 pounds.
I currently have 37 pounds worth of plates and I will be honest with you even though it’s super, super heavy, you can still get a really nice feel and fit once you put it on and lock it in place.
For those of you looking to use this Wolf tactical as a range vest, I also got molle webbing on the front, molle webbing on the back, and velcro and molle webbing on the top chest.
And it also has a functional pocket at the top as well.
Everything you could possibly want when going to the range.
Click here if you want to check Wolf tactical’s weights vest latest price <<
And now it’s time for my honorable mention.
One of the main problems with respect to these weighted vests is the actual weights inside them.
We know everything is going up including steel prices.
It’s so hard and frankly, so expensive to find the inserts for these weighted vests.
Especially if you already have a weighted vest with plates in it and you want to get additional plates to add some weight to it.
Or if you just want to get a second set of weights that are lighter than the ones you currently own.
That’s where I recommend you to go for sand.
Here’s a link to my favorite sand weighted vest that you can use for almost anything.
Click here if you want to check it out
It works great with almost anything and it doesn’t bounce around. And most importantly the weights are adjustable and are made from sand which is only of a fraction of the price of steel.
And that was all for this article.
Now you know which are my favorite and best weighted vests for CrossFit, climbing, hiking, walking, and home gym training and why.
Feel free to check them out and select the one that fits your needs the best.
If you’ve got any questions regarding anything I talked about regarding weighted vest, please drop them in the comments below.
I’ll give you an answer.
Thanks for taking the time to read my article.
If you want to learn even more cool stuff about home gym equipment you can check these few great articles as well:
Good luck,
Bozhidar
