Wearing a Weighted Vest Is the Easiest Thing You Can Do for Your Bone Health

Walking with a weighted vest is gaining popularity— for good reason

In the last year or so, you may have noticed a surprising uptick in women walking in weighted vests popping up on your feeds. While weighted vests aren’t as cute as previous TikTok fitness-adjacent trends like, say, Lululemon belt bags or oversized Stanley tumblers, they’re a lot more functional. Researchers have found that wearing a weighted vest while walking or doing other aerobic training can help prevent bone loss in women — a critically important fact, because bone density often declines in late perimenopause and menopause, so proactively building up bone strength prevents debilitating bone breaks as women age, as well as critically preserving strength and endurance.

But it’s not just the benefits that are causing weighted vests to explode in popularity; it’s also that they’re easy to add into an existing routine, and for many people, that’s half the battle.

“[After listening] to the book Outlive by Peter Attia, M.D. last year, I was looking to improve my long-term health in ways that felt doable and accessible to me,” says Paige Fowler, a mom of four who shares about her life @ourhomepage. “I’ve always enjoyed walking for exercise. When I read about the benefits of rucking [walking with weight on your back] and weighted vests, it seemed like it could help me get even more out of something I already enjoyed doing.” 

PEOPLE spoke to women who have tried (and loved!) the trend for their tips on how to get started with this easy but effective strength training strategy.

How to build a weight vest routine

If you’re already a walker, this is easy. “I wanted to try one because I am going through menopause and I already take daily walks,” says Nina B. Clarke, host of the podcast Nina’s Got Good News and a content creator @ninabclarke. “I wear it almost every day when I take my dog for a walk for about 30 minutes. I also wear it around the house doing chores like  laundry and cooking dinner. I have even recorded a couple of episodes of my podcast wearing the vest in my office! Eighteen months later, I can honestly say I am in love with my vest.”

Yolanda Russell, a content creator @_yolandarussell and former RN, also says walking her dog was a natural way to incorporate a vest. “I wear it pretty much every day, for about 45 minutes to an hour. My walking pace is rather slow because I’m walking my nearly 12-year-old pup.”

Fowler stresses that you don’t have to do the same length or intensity every day to feel it. “My goal is to go for a weighted vest walk outside most days of the week. It doesn’t happen every single day, but I do my best,” she says. “I have a two-mile, three-mile, and four-ish mile loop in our neighborhood and I pick the one that I have time for on that day.” 

Benefits of wearing a weighted vest

The potential bone density benefits of weighted vests are a draw, of course, but they aren’t really possible to see on a day-to-day basis.

“A lot of the benefits that I’m after such as preventing bone loss, preventing falls as I age, etc. aren’t things I can measure right now, but I trust that they’re there and they keep me wanting to get out for my walks as often as I can,” says Fowler.

Luckily, these far-off goals aren’t the only reason to wear one. For starters, it can be a really simple way to improve fitness: “It has helped increase my strength and endurance by pushing the intensity of my walk. I have also noticed it has helped strengthen my core as well as helped improve my posture,” says Clarke. Russell has seen changes to her body, too: “I noticed my clothes, especially my pants, fit looser without really doing any other activity or changing my diet,” she says.

And there are mental benefits: “The biggest change has actually been to my mental health,” says Fowler. “There’s something about knowing that the weighted vest helps me get even more out of my walks that has helped me prioritize going on them. I walked outside in nearly all weather this winter and didn’t get the winter blues this year.”

What to look for in a weighted vest

Most experts advise looking for one that is at least ten percent of your body weight, up to 15 percent. But there is some trial and error here: “I ordered a 12 pound weighted vest, and it didn’t feel like much for me,” says Fowler. “I’m so used to carrying babies, toddlers, and a heavy backpack filled with our kids’ water bottles, plus I strength train a few times per week, so I felt like I could do more. I ordered a 15 pound vest and it felt great—I could feel the weight, but it wasn’t too heavy.” Clarke and Russell both have 12 pound vests and say they are happy with the weight. 

Russell likes that hers has pockets for keys and other essentials, but don’t stress too much about aesthetics otherwise— weighted vests are for function, not fashion (Russell says that her boyfriend jokes that she “looks like 50 Cent” in hers!).

“Did I feel like I looked kind of silly at first? Absolutely,” says Fowler. “But I didn’t let that hold me back.”

Clarke agrees: “I wish I had gotten mine sooner!”