A Weighted Vest Is Your Best Friend

Dear Bodyweight Maniacs,

Don't you just love doing kick ass stuff using nothing but your own bodyweight? So do I. Just the feeling of being free to do all sorts of exercises and workouts that just hit the fucking spot man. A few favorites of my own would be Handstand Push-ups, Animal Movements, Pan Squats (which is from the Pan Program, DDP Yoga and even a few Pull-ups here and there. A lot of us get a bad rap that bodyweight training is only good for endurance and not enough to do to get crazy strong; personally I beg to differ since i'm a big dude and the majority of my training is using my bodyweight. So with that in mind, what can we do to add resistance?

For those playing the home game, bodyweight exercise does have it's pros and cons like every damn method but it certainly doesn't bring just endurance to the table. If we considered on building crazy strength, how can we add resistance if it's using your own body? For those that have the answer thank you for your understanding but yet there are other ways to add resistance.....

Slower Reps

Time Under Tension

Higher Difficulty Of An Exercise

& My personal favorite since I've recently added it in is the use of a Weighted Vest.

Now does using a weight vest count as doing the same with weightlifting? It's a both yes and no answer and i'll tell you why...Yes because it's adding weight to increase the density but no because it's not the same as using a barbell or dumbbell. You're increasing your bodyweight to a higher degree in which you bring a level of intensity throughout your movements. Some people like to do lunges, squats, jumping, sprinting and push-ups/pull-ups which is all awesome but for me I use it to amplify my animal styled training to increase growth hormone and cut my workout almost in half to get greater benefit without injuring myself. I never go to failure or put so much stress on my joints that it's fairly painful. I'd like to be as pain-free as possible.

Although I enjoy slamming down a fucking cool sledgehammer and toss around the Sandbell and play with the cables but all in all, bodyweight exercise is my general past time and I've never really needed anything to get big and strong; at 250+ I can do plenty of push-ups, multiple reps in pull-ups, can do 100 hindu squats in under 5 minutes and have held a free standing handstand plus a push-up to boot. It's all about what you want to make of yourself. I'm in awe of the gymnastic style training and the Barstarzz in NY and around the world but I'm mere a basics guy who makes the best of doing things for a man who shouldn't be doing shit like this.

A weighted vest can be your best friend if you progress the right way. One day I plan on training in a 100 pound vest but for now i'll stick to a 20 lber. That keeps going as it is. Be mindful and think old school. You won't move as fast as you usually do but after some hard, rough training and taking that sumbitch off you'll feel like you can walk on air. May I also warn you it is not recommended you train in a vest in hot shit weather, just walking in that thing is a bitch, I've walked over a mile wearing one and lost tons of water weight because of it, also hungry as hell. If you plan on training outside wait until it cools off a bit or limit the amount of time and bring a good gallon of water.