Wearing a weight vest while performing plyometrics will hyper-explode your workouts. Your exercise results will be spectacular. So, are you a football player? Are you a basketball player? A mixed martial artist? How about a wrestler? Maybe you play Lacrosse? Or hockey? Or soccer? Whatever your sport, wearing a weight vest while training will maker faster, stronger and a better athlete.

I was on a mission to find a training method that didn't suck. Something that would make me look cool while I did it. Something that would make my muscles scream and my mind question my own sanity. What did I find? plyometric training while wearing a weight vest. Plyo-what you say? Wearing a what you ask? Well first let me explain the big word that I had no idea of the definition was myself. Actually, I'll be lazy (and probably more accurate) and let Wikipedia explain it...

"Plyometrics is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in sports. Plyometric movements, in which a muscle is loaded and then contracted in rapid sequence, use the strength, elasticity and innervation of muscle and surrounding tissues to jump higher, run faster, throw farther, or hit harder, depending on the desired training goal."

You will look pretty cool training in one too. I felt like some sort of special forces dude or maybe a S.W.A.T. guy while I was out training in my vest. It was quite a conversation piece while working out in the park. Hell, it was almost as good as having a cute puppy with me. Maybe next time I'll train with the vest AND the cute puppy.

All right, enough about my training with cute puppies. You're here to read about effective weight vest training. It works! Plain and simple. But don't just take my word for it. Have a look at what some people a lot smarter than me said about weight vests and training. The folks over at Texas Tech University decided to do a study on the effectiveness of weight vest in a training regime. The research team decided to study track and field athletes. Regardless of what your opinion of Texas Tech might be, it was a real and official university study. What did they find?

After six weeks, both groups improved their vertical jumping ability. The athletes who did not wear any weighted training devices increased their vertical jumps by 1.3 inches, while the plyometric people soared a full 3 inches higher, a terrific 13% improvement. When the athletes were tested on the standard broad jump the results were similar. Athletes who did not wear weighted devices didn't do too bad, increasing their jumps by 2 inches. However, the plyometric group skyrocketed forward an additional 7 inches after six weeks, an incredible 7-per cent increase (from 8'4' to 8'11')

In the 40-yard dash, the test of real significance for runners who want to enhance their leg speed, the merits of added-weight plyometric training were again confirmed. The regular athletes improved their 40-yard times from 5.03 to 4.92 seconds after six weeks of training, but the plyometric-plus-weight assisted people rocketed through the test in just 4.74 seconds, a .33-second improvement from their initial average time of 5.07. Weight assisted vests lit the foot speed of the athletes on fire.