Why the Menopause Set Is Obsessed With Weighted Vests

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Giancarlos Kunhardt

In a world where watches measure heartbeats, rings score sleep patterns, and our days are reduced to data points, there’s a growing, almost gnawing need to optimize every second. Do you feel it? The pressure to outdo yourself—to one-up the you you were yesterday? “Everyone’s desperate for a way to do better,” says Abbie Smith-Ryan, PhD, a professor of exercise physiology and sports nutrition at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. For women in midlife, there’s a distinct urgency, as our shifting hormones usher in fresh health concerns—bone loss, heart disease, metabolic conditions—compelling us to raise our wellness game (now!): to eat smarter, train harder, lift heavier.

The latest menopausal imperative: Be heavier, courtesy of a weighted vest. It’s no longer enough, it seems, to log a bewildering number of steps and reps each day. We must hit these goals while wearing approximately 15 pounds of galvanized steel. After all, do you even lift if you’re not doing a proper farmer’s carry in your influencer-approved weighted vest?

Weighted-vest vibes vary from tactical to nautical to athlete-chic. Some styles slip over the head or wrap around the shoulders, buckling alongside the ribs or atop the breasts. Others are slim and fit snugly, like a second skin you can wear under sweaters, with a zipper up the front and corset-like laces cinching the sides. They come lined with steel plates, leaden bars, or tiny pouches of iron sand, which are, in certain cases, removable, allowing for wiggle room in the weight and an ability to acclimate to the heft over time.

If you’re old enough to remember My So-Called Life, you’ve probably seen one of these contraptions in the wild—or been served one on your social media platform of choice, or been pulled into a conversation about the merits of weighted vests by another mom on the sidelines of your high schooler’s basketball game. My feed used to give me weighted-vest suggestions mostly from menopause doctors (who link to them in their Amazon stores), but lately I’ve noticed some of my favorite plastic surgeons and nurse injectors wearing them in their off-duty hours when walking or strength-training or gardening.

Succumbing to the influence, I joined their ranks late last year, as a 47-year-old aiming to defend against the myriad blows of waning estrogen (which I’ll get to in a sec). I’m not alone. When I pitched this idea to Allure, executive beauty director Jenny Bailly said that she has watched the fad transcend Instagram and pick up steam among the protein-charged, power-walking women in her New Jersey borough.

Online and off, “we’re seeing this trend of doing anything we can to be active,” says Rachelle A. Reed, PhD, an exercise physiologist and nutrition coach, “especially if it’s weight-bearing and adds some kind of load to our bones.” It’s partly a bid to offset the bone loss and stooped shoulders that are associated with menopause, but it’s also a way to eke more exercise potential out of any activity, even mundane ones like coffee runs. A weighted vest fits the bill. And for most, it’s “less intimidating than starting a structured resistance-training program with heavy weights,” says Dr. Reed.

By augmenting our frames in this way—strapping on the equivalent of a newborn baby before running, vacuuming, jumping rope—we force our bodies to perform at a higher level than they ordinarily would, Dr. Reed explains. “When you up the intensity of your usual walk by wearing a vest, your heart and respiratory rates increase, you expend more energy [and, thus, burn more calories], and your musculoskeletal system has to work harder to maintain posture and keep up with the additional demand of carrying an extra 10 pounds.”

To understand how weight affects bone, consider the astronaut, says Caroline K. Messer, MD, a double board-certified internist and endocrinologist in New York City. “Before we knew anything, astronauts would go into space without any medications on board, and they pretty much all developed osteoporosis [weak, brittle bones] after landing,” she tells me. In a sense, a weighted vest has the opposite effect, making us heavier and enhancing the bone-building impact of gravity. “When you weigh more, every time you take a step, the bone feels it’s being injured and this stimulates cells called osteoblasts to lay down new bone,” she says. (Strength-training spurs similar growth—contracting muscles stress the bones they’re attached to—as do pavement-pounding aerobics, like running and jumping.) Conversely, when we slim down, reducing the load on our skeleton, we lose bone density—approximately 2% for every 10% of body weight shed—which is a vital concern for menopausal women in general, and even more so if you’re considering a GLP-1.

In this story:

• The side effects of menopause

• The evidence supporting weighted vests

• Who can benefit from a vest (and who can skip it)

• How to choose (and use) a weighted vest

• The Best in Vests

The side effects of menopause

Before exploring the benefits of weighted vests, let’s first address the very real health risks that women are aiming to curb by wearing one.

Underlying many midlife health woes are disappearing hormones, estrogen being the biggie in women. Historically, dwindling estrogen was blamed for hot flashes and night sweats, vaginal dryness and painful sex—infamous hallmarks of “the change.” But menopause, it turns out, is a far more holistic event, given that estrogen essentially rules the motherboard of the female body. Working in concert with progesterone and testosterone, estrogen influences nearly every cell, organ, and system in some way, acting as an anti-inflammatory, an antioxidant, a lubricant, a regenerator, and a regulator. All three hormones are critical to our well-being—and all three diminish in menopause. In their absence, our bodies don’t function as they should. And when even one part falters, there can be profound consequences.

Since many women use weighted vests to help shore up their skeletons, let’s start there. The bones, muscles, and collagen-rich joints of our musculoskeletal system all take a hit during menopause, primarily due to the drop in estrogen. In a landmark paper published last summer, board-certified orthopedic surgeon Vonda Wright, MD, estimated that 70% of women in midlife will experience “the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause”—a term she coined for a cluster of symptoms including musculoskeletal pain, joint disease, cartilage damage, loss of muscle mass and bone density, an increased risk of fractures, frozen shoulder, and more.

Throughout life, our bone tissue is maintained by bone-building osteoblasts working in harmony with counterpart cells called osteoclasts, which break down old bone that needs replacing. (In her book The Menopause Manifesto, board-certified OB/GYN Jen Gunter, MD, underscores the gobsmacking magnitude of this bone-remodeling process by revealing that our “entire skeleton is replaced approximately every ten years.”) “Estrogen stimulates osteoblastic activity,” notes Dr. Messer. “When estrogen levels decline in menopause, we no longer have the same degree of bone growth we once did.” This is why hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is FDA-approved to prevent osteoporosis. Bone loss is “a silent symptom of menopause,” because it happens “slowly and insidiously,” adds Kristi Tough DeSapri, MD, a board-certified internist in Winnetka, Illinois, and former director of the Northwestern Medicine Program for Women’s Bone Health. Eventually, she explains, our seesawing bone cells fall out of balance. “And when there’s more bone loss than bone formation, we end up with a diagnosis of osteopenia [low bone density] or osteoporosis.”

To wit, “we lose about 10% to 12% of our bone density in the years around our last period, and there’s a continued decline over time, such that we lose 30% of our bone density between the ages of 50 and 80,” says board-certified internist Stephanie S. Faubion, MD, the medical director of The Menopause Society and the director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Women’s Health. Dr. DeSapri points to additional data showing that women lose, on average, 7-10% of the bone mass in their spines and 1-5% of that in their hips through the menopause transition.

This is a consequence of vanishing estrogen but also midlife muscle atrophy, which, according to Dr. Smith-Ryan, can occur as early as the late 30s. “When our muscles can’t pull on our bones as efficiently,” she says, taxing them to promote growth, “we lose bone density.” By the time women enter menopause, our muscle mass is declining at a rate of roughly .6% a year. This “increases our risk of falls, fractures, and loss of independence,” Dr. DeSapri notes.

Muscle deterioration affects more than our frames, however. Since muscle helps to regulate blood glucose levels (by taking up sugar from the bloodstream) and control metabolism, says Dr. Messer, its loss can lead to weight gain (about a pound and a half per year in midlife) and insulin resistance, which occurs when our cells become less sensitive to insulin (the hormone that converts food to energy), causing blood sugar levels to rise. Says Dr. Reed, “We need to pay attention to our metabolic health and our ability to make the right amount of insulin to manage our blood glucose”—especially as estrogen plummets. (Before menopause, estrogen protects against insulin resistance; HRT has also been shown to reduce insulin resistance in menopausal women.) If left unchecked, insulin resistance can spiral into prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic conditions.

Fading estrogen also threatens our hearts. When supply is robust, “estrogen helps keep bad cholesterol [LDL] down and good cholesterol [HDL] up,” Dr. Faubion says, but as levels dip and we lose the antioxidant effect of estrogen, we tend to see the reverse. Within one year of menopause, women can experience negative changes in blood lipids, including LDL, HDL, and total cholesterol, adds Corinne Menn, DO, a board-certified OB/GYN, menopause specialist, and medical advisor for the telemedicine platform Alloy Women’s Health. What’s more, blood pressure commonly spikes around menopause. And we accrue more visceral fat (the dangerous abdominal kind), since we have less estrogen to break it down. All told, Dr. Menn says, “these changes raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, which is the number one killer of women.”

The evidence supporting weighted vests

Can a weighted vest solve all that? Not exactly—not on its own, anyway. But exercise can curtail many of the side effects of menopause, particularly when combined with dietary tweaks (more protein and fiber, less simple carbs) and a prescription for HRT, when appropriate.

Experts agree: A mix of moderate blood-pumping cardio (150 minutes a week) plus some sort of resistance training can burn calories (to keep weight stable), preserve muscles and bones, and boost heart and metabolic health (to say nothing of the mental lift exercise offers). We don’t necessarily have to “lift heavy shit,” as social media dictates, but for the sake of our bones, we should partake in activities that harness gravity: “Walking, where the full weight of your body is on your feet, is better than cycling is better than swimming, when it comes to maintaining bone density,” Dr. Faubion tells me. Wall push-ups, resistance bands, and yoga can also fortify bones.

As can weighted vests—and there’s a surprising amount of science behind them. I found several (small) studies dating back to the '90s investigating their health effects, mainly in postmenopausal women. In one trial, a group of 60-somethings wore weighted vests while doing jumping exercises three times a week, for 32 weeks out of the year, over a period of five years. At the end of the experiment, researchers compared the bone mineral density of subjects’ hips to that of a control group and saw less bone loss in the exercisers, concluding that the weighted-jumping workout helped to maintain the bone density of hips over time.

Another study had women do lower-body strength training while wearing weighted vests (three times a week for nine months) and noted improvements in lean body mass, muscle strength and power, and even lateral stability (which keeps us from tipping over), suggesting that this type of workout may reduce the risk of falls.

In a separate randomized controlled trial, postmenopausal women with osteoporosis walked on a treadmill with a weighted vest for 30 minutes, three times a week, for six weeks. Their outcomes were compared to those of women who did the same workout without the vest. While markers of bone growth improved in both groups, only the vest set gained better balance.

This other randomized controlled trial from 1993 provides further proof of bone benefits: Seniors who participated in one hour a week of “low-level” exercise with a vest reported less bodily pain and improved physical functioning and saw their bone density increase by 1% at the 20-week follow-up. In the control group, bone density decreased by 0.6%.

While the majority of studies had subjects wear vests only while exercising—usually for an hour or less, a few times a week—a new trial out of Wake Forest University required participants to vest up for most of the day. Funded by the National Institute on Aging and currently pending publication, the study looks at whether weighted vests, when worn for up to 10 hours daily, can help offset bone loss in older adults who are actively losing weight. As subjects slimmed down (using a mandatory meal plan and exercise routine), researchers added back lost pounds by augmenting the weight of their vests in order to avoid “unloading” their bones. (This research is predicated on a similar but smaller 2017 study, in which daily use of weighted vests slowed bone loss in older adults with obesity during a 22-week weight-loss program.)

Weighted vests have the potential to enhance certain workouts and keep us strong and steady. Not only can they “increase core and lower-body strength, which is key for stability as we age,” says Dr. Menn, but the resultant muscle gains can also translate to a faster metabolism, better insulin sensitivity, and healthier cholesterol levels.

“Losing weight negatively affects bones,” says lead investigator Kristen M. Beavers, PhD, an associate professor in the department of health and exercise science at Wake Forest University. Traditional resistance training has been shown to lessen the blow. If a weighted vest can do the same, she says, it may offer an easier, less expensive way to safeguard bones during weight loss. Dr. Beavers expects the results of her trial to be published in the coming months.

Studies aside, most of the experts I interviewed believe weighted vests have the potential to enhance certain workouts and keep us strong and steady. Not only can they “increase core and lower-body strength, which is key for stability as we age,” says Dr. Menn, but the resultant muscle gains can also translate to a faster metabolism, better insulin sensitivity, and healthier cholesterol levels.

A proper-fitting vest may even head off hunching, Dr. DeSapri theorizes, by recruiting the muscles surrounding the spine that help with posture (though this has yet to be proven). I will say, when I’m walking in my vest, especially on hilly terrain, I find that I’m frequently reminding myself to keep my back straight and shoulders down, so as not to stoop under the weight. (The vest isn’t uncomfortable, though; I almost find it soothing, like a wearable weighted blanket.) If nothing else, it may encourage us to be more mindful about our posture.

When asked if weighted vests could cause back pain down the road, Dr. Reed answers, “Usually, if someone's using a progressive approach—starting very low, with an appropriate weight—and listening to any feedback from their body, they're likely to be okay.” More concerning for some experts is the potential for knee-joint pain—adding weight can exacerbate it, so if you tend to experience joint pain, it’s a good idea to speak with your physician before using a weighted vest.

Who can benefit from a vest (and who can skip it)

Barring those with severe osteoporosis, chronic back pain, knee troubles, or balance issues, pretty much everyone can safely wear a weighted vest. Which isn’t to say everyone needs to wear one.

While the science holds up, not every expert is sold on the worth-it-ness of weighted vests for active, middle-aged women. “I wouldn’t tell someone to buy a weighted vest unless she was completely sedentary or very frail and all she could do was walk,” says Dr. Smith-Ryan. “If your skeleton isn’t loaded at all, and you don’t have a lot of other stimuli, then a vest may offer some benefit.” In her opinion, though, high-intensity exercise, done even once a week, provides more bang for your buck. “In an ideal world, you’re doing high-intensity exercise a couple times a week, resistance-training four days a week, and then adding in some walking—and that’s where you can throw on a vest as a supplement,” she says. “But you don’t need the vest, especially if you’re loading with other forms of exercise,” and not just, say, swimming exclusively.

Of course, in the real world, where time and resources are limited—and sleep and stamina equally scant for the menopausal among us—we can’t do all the things, all the time. And that’s okay. “As an exercise scientist, I believe in conventional resistance training and lifting heavy weights—but not everyone can start there,” says Dr. Reed. Often, older people especially don’t have access to weights or they’re reluctant to go to the gym. “Some have never exercised before and don’t even own a sports bra,” Dr. Reed adds. “If we can, at a bare minimum, get them walking for a few hours a week while loading their skeleton with a vest, that is going to make them stronger, so they can move with vigor and free from pain well into their later years.”

On this point, Dr. Smith-Ryan agrees: The bone benefits seen with weighted vests aren’t dramatic, but as we get older, “even maintenance of bone density is really beneficial.”

Consistency is key, however. “Whatever intervention you use to decrease bone loss, it has to be sustained,” Dr. Messer says. “You can’t just wear a weighted vest for a few months and then stop, because you’ll quickly lose that new bone. You have to pick something that’s actually realistic for your lifestyle—something you can keep up long-term.”

How to choose (and use) a weighted vest

Before shopping for a vest, decide if you want the fixed-weight kind or one with weight that can be adjusted. Most of the experts I spoke to prefer the versatility of the latter. “When we start a patient on a vest, we don’t have them add any weight to it, so they wear just the vest itself, which is about two pounds,” says Dr. Messer. “Then we very slowly add on weight—but we never want the total weight of the vest to be more than 10% of the person’s body weight.”

For beginners, 5-10% is a good rule of thumb, says Holly Rilinger, a menopause-focused fitness coach and trainer in East Hampton and New York City and founder of The Lifted Method. So, if you weigh 120 pounds, your vest should be in the 6-12 pound range.

The vest should fit securely, close to your body, its weight distributed evenly over your front and back. It helps if it can be fastened or cinched in multiple spots as opposed to just one. If you have large breasts or you’re nursing, you may need to try a few options to see what’s most comfortable. This is a popular topic on Reddit, where women talk about vests smooshing, shoving, or bisecting their breasts in weird ways. (One Redditor claims this Aduroa Sport Weighted Vest, with a single strap across the top of the bust, fits her double-Ds without issue.)

Rilinger encourages her menopausal clients to start by wearing their vest for 10 minutes a day, five times a week, and to “conquer walking before trying more intense and complicated movements,” she says. “This is the lowest risk exercise with the highest reward.” You can gradually add weight or time under tension, building up to a brisk 20-minute walk, and then wearing a vest to do squats or jump training, assuming it doesn’t throw off your form.

As always, keep your expectations in check. Despite what these vests may conjure (given their aesthetic), they will not rescue you from a sea of menopause symptoms or render you bulletproof against midlife health risks. But they are backed by legitimate science—which cannot be said for all (most?) of the products being peddled in the menoverse. And who knows? A cute, new vest might just motivate you to move more. Or it may add an air of confidence to your workouts. Or perhaps inspire other acts of self-care. (Not long after ordering mine, I booked a bone scan I’d been putting off forever.) All in all, I can think of worse ways to spend 50 bucks.

The Best in Vests

If you're in the market for a weighted vest, these are the six to consider, according to experts (and this writer) who have been wearing them.

Zelus Adjustable Weight Vest

Adjustable Weight Vest

$40.00, Amazon

I bought this vest on the recommendation of plastic surgeon Gabriele Miotto, MD. She went for the 20-pound fixed-weight version; mine adjusts within a range of 4-10 lbs. In my opinion, it’s a great starter vest for walking, but—one drawback—no matter how I try to adjust the fit, it still shifts around too much to wear while strength-training or doing even basic jumping exercises.

RITFIT Adjustable Weighted Vest

Adjustable Weighted Vest

$80.00, Amazon

With thick, adjustable shoulder straps, this vest distributes its weight evenly across the upper body to help prevent shoulder and back injuries, says Dr. Messer. It comes with packets of iron sand to customize the weight. And it’s made of neoprene, which is soft and breathable.

HyperWear Hyper Vest Pro

Hyper Vest Pro

$210.00, Amazon

Dr. Beavers chose this vest for her study because it offered “a high degree of precision,” allowing her team to “titrate the load to 1/8th of a pound” when aiming to offset the bone loss that accompanies significant weight loss. Given that subjects were wearing it for long stretches, she says, “we liked that it fit comfortably over or under clothing, wouldn’t interfere with upper-body movement, and allowed for full chest expansion without restricting breathing.”

Prodigen Weighted Vest

Weighted Vest

$36.00, Amazon

Dr. Reed purchased this affordable, fixed-weight style “as a way to try out the weighted-vest trend.” It’s best for walking, she says. “I wouldn’t take it to a plyometric-based workout class.” Menopause influencer and board-certified OB/GYN Mary Claire Haver, MD, wears this same vest in some of her Instagram posts and features it in her Amazon store.

TRX Hexgrip Weight Vest

Hexgrip Weight Vest

$300.00, TRX

“This vest is more of an investment,” says Dr. Reed. She describes it as “athletic, fitted, and durable,” and says she can comfortably wear it while lifting because “it doesn’t feel too restrictive.”

Omorpho G Vest

G Vest

$299.00, Omorpho

According to the Wall Street Journal, supermodel Kaia Gerber owns this neoprene vest in white, if that sort of thing matters to you, and The Hollywood Reporter claims Olivia Rodrigo likes it too. It has adjustable shoulder straps and side cords. Its weight (a fixed 10 or 9 pounds) spreads evenly across the torso, and it’s sleek and snug enough for sprinting. Allure visuals director Kathryne Hall wore it for the photo at the top of this story and found it more comfortable that she'd expected. “It's funny—when I first put it on, I felt like I was wearing armor, but I forgot I was wearing it after a few minutes,” she says. “I would definitely use one to help gain bone density.”

Read more about menopause:

• We've Lost the Plot on Menopause

• How to Tell If You’re Having Hot Flashes From Menopause

• Do You Need a Test to Tell You That You’re Menopausal?

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