blackvans1234

Just wondering if anyone has considered using (or has used) some sort of weighted vest for hill training.

Has anyone ever heard of this?

License2Ill

Get in the gym for some real weight training. A weighted vest is just silliness.

chasm54

Makes no sense. What matters for training is how much power you are putting out. You can put out just as much power on a light bike (no weighted vest) as a heavy one (weighted vest). You just go slower with the latter.

If you want to make climbing hills harder, simply maintain your cadence in a higher (harder) gear.

aramis

A weighted vest would be stupid. If you want it to be harder, go up the hill faster.

I can imagine it would be annoying having a big heavy vest on you while you ride and it would probably make it harder to produce power.

sprince

If a weighted vest is stupid, what about a heavy bike or bigger gear? Seems like just another way to increase resistance.

chasm54

You don't get it. What matters is you, not the weight of what you are propelling. Watts are watts. You can train at 500 watts on a light bike just as easily as on a heavy bike, you'll just go faster.

License2Ill

Riding isn't about being resistance training. If you want to train for better strength, you don't do it on a bike.

It's like the guy that once told me he played tennis to stay in shape.

"But what do you do to get in shape for playing tennis?"

"I play tennis."

And around in circles it went. If you understand proper training you understand that a mostly aerobic activity is not something to use to train for strength. It isn't even the first thing you should do to train for better aerobic capacity.

sprince

Yeah, I get it. It's completely useless when it comes to training for any effort over 3 minutes. But on the other hand it's no less reasonable than training behind a motor bike, or doing hill climbs on a big gear if you are trying to increase power. The bigger gear would be a less convoluted path to more resistance though.

CommuteCommando

I've been working on loosing my natural weighted vest for a couple of years. I have considered using something like it once I hit my goal weight just to remind myself of where I've been. Other than that, go faster, or climb steeper.

JoeMan

I would echo others comments about getting into the gym for front and back squats as well as dead lifts to increase your hill climbing prowess.

mr_pedro

Nope, never heard of it. You could do it if you want to simulate how a certain slope feels like while riding on a less steep a slope. But even then it is not practical, to simulate a slope twice as steep as what you are riding on, you would need to ware a vest weighing roughly the same as you and your bike.

Like others have said, if you want to make it harder for yourself you can just ride harder, I assume you are not spinning out of gears on your hill climbs?

njlonghorn

Where I live, there are lots of hills, and even some steep ones, but none of them last very long. If I turn a bigger gear to increase power output, the hill ends sooner. If I want to make a hill last longer at high wattage, I have to use artificial means to slow myself down.

I have a Camelbak that I bought for longer rides, but I have been experimenting with it for hill training, too. When full, it weighs about 7 pounds, which doesn't make enough of a difference. Last night, I found that I can fit two 10-pound weight plates in the pocket, brining the total weight to 27 pounds. I might also be able to squeeze in a 5-pounder or two.

I haven't tried it out yet, but I'm thinking about it. I would start small and build up from there. My biggest concern is back strain, so I don't want to overdo it.

Number400

Yes, my cycling coach had me in a weighted vest doing hill repeats 1-2 times a week over the winter. It is a small part of training and is done to help build strength ON THE BICYCLE. Worked for me!

Best to find a hill that takes 8-9 minutes to climb and climb it seated over and over for about an hour. It taught me tons about my climbing cadence, HR, positioning, gearing, etc...

You can get a 10-12lb vest at Walmart.

sprince

That's an interesting idea. I've got plenty of steep hills but nothing longer than 100 vertical feet. Think I'd have to add about 200 pounds to simulate a real climb.

blackvans1234

Don't worry, we can ride together and you can push me up the hill with one arm while you pedal.
Im 196 and my bike is 20

sprince

Funny! Almost as funny as my neighbors watching me inexplicably struggle for hours to climb a little hill just a few hundred yards long with a big puffy vest in 90 degree temps. After careful consideration, I think it's only fair for blackvans1234 to assume the responsibility riding with you for the very first field test of this new, cutting edge training technique.

blackvans1234

Indeed, ill bring the bon bons and megaphone

rumrunn6

they make weighted vests for a reason, just sayin' ...

Nickfrogger

We have to have something to ridicule!

Looigi

If you're climbing a hill and it doesn't seem hard enough to get a good workout, stop, fill your jersey pockets with 1/10 your weight in rocks, and proceed. Either that, or up shift one gear and get about the same effect.

mr_pedro

fify

njlonghorn

Without rocks, climb at 6 mph for 1 mile = 10 minutes of intensity.

With rocks, climb at 5 mph for 1 mile = 12 minutes of intensity.

gregf83 

Or you could forget about the rocks and just increase intensity on the flats before, after or in lieu of the climb.

sprince

I think there would be a big difference between 10% body weight and something tangible. A few pounds would be about the same as simply increasing the intensity, but 100 pounds would work the muscles in a way that you could never get from greater intensity.

Carbonfiberboy 

You may be correct, however the real question is . . . how does that help what sort of athletic performance and does it help at all? Principle of specificity and all that. I'm curious about that because I've been riding tandem with my wife for several years now and don't get out on my road bike. However, I'm not curious enough to spend all day hammering in the mountains without her to find out. Maybe I'll get a chance to go over to the local 1000' climb and see what I can do on it.

Probably turns out that climbing with a weighted vest makes you better at climbing with a weighted vest. Some extra core and arm strength, some extra weight in protein to support it, etc.