weighted training vest recommendations

[Notos]

Hi all, I'm in the process of ramping up my training to prepare for OCS (USMC) in the spring, and as the thread title states, I want some recommendations for a good weighted vest, preferably based on personal experience but word of mouth works too. 40-60 lbs would be ideal, and a small size would also be helpful as I'm 5'6 and the larger vests some of my buddies wear don't fit me very well lengthwise. I've scoped out a few options online but would like to see if anyone here has some useful input before making a selection.

[jbhasban]

Hi all, I'm in the process of ramping up my training to prepare for OCS (USMC) in the spring, and as the thread title states, I want some recommendations for a good weighted vest, preferably based on personal experience but word of mouth works too. 40-60 lbs would be ideal, and a small size would also be helpful as I'm 5'6 and the larger vests some of my buddies wear don't fit me very well lengthwise. I've scoped out a few options online but would like to see if anyone here has some useful input before making a selection.

Honestly, I am not going to recommend you do something that is likely to cause you to need orthopedic surgery. Instead, may I suggest you find some hills and run up those? Or an inclined treadmill? Hill running is very similar to weighted running but puts a lot less stress on your joints and is far less likely to injure you. I recognize you do long runs in the military with a lot of gear but you don't need to do that to train for it when there are alternatives that will adequately prepare you for it. The hardest part of military running is the fact that the boots aren't very practical for running and you wear so much clothing that you can become overheated. In addition, running with a weighted vest (especially one of 50 lbs) will alter your stride so much that you will become inefficient at running and it is not likely that your new stride style will correspond to the one that would be optimal for running in military garb.