Weight Vest During ARC Training?

[tango]

    As the title says, feedback on using a weight vest during ARC training as a general idea?
    For me personally, I've played with using one since my gym does not have a treadwall, very little in the way of options for traversing, and for lack of a partner I'm often relegated to doing laps on autobelays (which don't necessarily cater to appropriate difficulty for my needs in ARC-ing).  Also, since climbing trad is in my goals I feel the extra weight is a reasonable approximation of learning to climb while managing extra weight.

    However, thoughts, opinions, curses or spells on the idea of using a weight vest during ARC training in general?







    Edit: I realize (too late) that there is a thread, titled differently, that treats this same basic idea.  "ARC w/rack and pack for specificity."  Sorry if I ruined anyone's day with my thread-spray.  I promise I searched before posting.


    Advice, thoughts, opinions, etc. still welcomed.            

    

[tedwelser]

I don't use extra weight (besides being a bit out of shape during ARC season). My reasons are that my ARC terrain is pretty steep and I feel like the weight vest could be hard on my elbows and also might mess with my sense of balance.

I have friends who use a weight vest while they climb overhanging crimp fests, but their elbows and tendons are in their early 20's and still seem pretty indestructible. I think 5-10 pounds that are tightly attached to your middle would not be likely to hurt you or throw off your balance too much. But I do think 20-30 in a weight vest (often high on the body) might be potentially counterproductive.

I hear you on the difficulty of finding the right circumstance in a modern gym for ARC-ing, and the auto-belays seem like the best option. I think one good solution would be to start with a vert/slightly overhanging 5.9 with comfortable handholds. Then, climb up it with a combination of using the foot holds as normal, smearing, and edging on small parts of the holds or toeing into the bolt holes of the holds. Climb down using the full footholds. Then repeat.

Generally, I have found that you can dial in the difficulty of most gym jug hauls by restricting yourself to more challenging feet on limited portions of the holds for some of the moves. And then if you get a little too tired you can create a rest by using the feet that you want.

I feel for you when trying to train effectively at many commercial climbing gyms! It can be very tricky to find something that will work. You might also talk with the route setters about your training needs. When I used to route set I would set routes and training sections specifically for some our members so that they could train better.