anyone have experience with a weighted vest to help build bones?

Thanks for your reply, I'm not sure what a hip strap is that would be used for a weighted backpack.

I wear a weighted vest for a 2 mile walk each morning. I don't think there is any study showing weighted vests increase bone density. If anyone has seen one please let us know.
I'm going to walk each morning because I want to and it's a way I support my wife being active, so why not wear a vest that provides more impact and resistance than just walking. Seems like it should support bone density and bone strength. But I don't rely on the vest for improving bone density. Twice weekly I do free weights roughly per the LIFTMOR trials for exercise proven to increase bone density. And I do body weight exercises for core and theraputic issues twice weekly. And I do balance exercises for fun.

I wear a vest my wife bought so it's a woman's vest but it works well. It is pricey but it has some nice features like the weights are what they call soft flex which means they do not feel like metal and they are 1" by 3" by 3/8" of a soft pliable material. Why does that matter? Well if you fell with a vest or back pack of hard weights with hard edges that could be bad. This is the only vest I've tried so I don't know what the other brands are doing.
The maker of these vests is https://ironwearfitness.com/. I have the CoolVest Short women's model.

I weigh 150 lb and started with 9lbs and now I wear 18lbs and I hardly notice the weight except when putting it on and taking it off. Some follow the backpacking logic of a hip belt to reduce strain and weight on the upper back but I want the weight/force going down the full length of my spine. I personally do not do various exercises with the vest. Vests do not appeal to me as a way to do resistance exercise. Each to his own.

Thank you for your reply. This is overwhelming with all the options for adding weight bearing belts, vests etc., medications and supplements. It's also hard to know who the "honest merchants" are!! But at least we are doing something!

Can you please tell me how you implement the Liftmor program? Do you do it at home or in a gym and do you have a spotter or personal trainer during these exercises? Thanks

@vgkime, sorry I'm late replying to "how to implement the LIFTMOR program". I can lay out what I've done and why but I want to be clear that I started trying exercise programs in junior high and have continued exercising off and on the past 60 years. I practice sensing inside my body and pay attention to how my movement effect me. I've also already experienced a lot of mistakes in my exercise efforts such as damaging myself with extreme stretching as a teenager. So, I'm not some super something expert or athlete at all but I'm probably not at the same starting point as many when starting exercises for bone health.

First your question about having a trainer:
I do not have a trainer but I specify below what I do instead and why I don’t think it’s an absolute requirement for me. I know Belinda Beck (lead researcher behind those LIFTMOR studies) does insist that you should have a trained person observing at every LIFTMOR workout. Many experts seem to agree that you need a trainer observing and correcting your form when using weights. I have a contrary opinion that having to have a highly trained observer to be able to lift weights seems like something that is perhaps true for many people but not true for others. That said if I could have, I would have gone to Belinda Beck’s place to be certain I got this right. But with hindsight I think I’ve done just fine without a trip to Australia.

Instead:
I have simply studied how to do the exercises I use. I relied on my past years experience exercising and self observing my body as a starting point. I watched videos of people performing squats and deadlifts. I paid attention to Stuart McGill a low back expert in particular. His methods have greatly helped me greatly with low back / hip problems before I knew I had bone thinning. I experimented. I used much less resistance than LIFTMOR uses. I had my wife watch a video I liked showing good squat and deadlift form. I then had her watch my form telling her what to watch for. I did not use weights that were as high a percentage of my 1 rep maximum (as LIFTMOR uses) even after I felt confident that my form was consistently good.

Finally I went to one sports medicine specialist one time to have him watch me do the exercises to check my form and discuss applying the exercises for me.
This expert recommended I not do the overhead press as I already have upper arm / shoulder issues. I follow that advice as it is obvious from many years experience that overhead presses and related shoulder movements are bad news for me.

I always do a thorough warmup. Not stretching type stuff. I do movements through a reasonable range of motion until my body feels ready. That’s 5-10 minutes for me. Also I always use lesser weights first on each exercise.

So maybe that sounds like a discouraging lot of trouble to go to. For me it wasn't. I did not do it overnight. I had lots of prior experience. I researched. I experimented. Because I was already in the severe osteoporosis range I was careful and did not use the 85% of my max that is done in LIFTMOR. I got a good awareness of my form gradually. I decided to increase repetitions and vary sets and repetitions as a substitute for progressively increasing the weights. It's not known whether increasing reps (with maybe a 50%-70% 1 rep max) can take the place of using 85% for bones but there is some evidence that you can build muscular strength and size pretty well that way. So maybe it will work for bone too?
That said here is what I do and why.

LIFTMOR consists of barbell back squats, barbell deadlifts, barbell overhead press, and a jumping pull up to a chinup bar with a drop for impact.

I do instead: goblet squats, dumbbell squats, dumbell deadlifts, farmer’s carry and suitcase carry.
Very occasionally I do some small vertical jumps or heel drops but with my T-scores I’m afraid of substantial impacts especially since they are less controllable than the resistance exercises.

Here’s my reasoning on each exercise:
Goblet squats: These are noted for use as a first weighted squat to learn to use because they make it easier to have good form. You cannot use nearly as much weight as a back squat but at least initially I don’t see that as a problem.

Dumbbell squats: Seldom used it seems but they seem to be easy to implement safely. You do not need a squat rack like you do for barbell back squats. Your form is quite similar to back squats and you can use much heavier weights than with goblet squats.

Dumbbell deadlifts: Easier to implement than barbell deadlifts. Good form is easier to achieve I think and there is no issue in keeping a bar off your shins. Due to childhood injuries I am extra cautious with the deadlift so I don’t have any idea what my 1 rep max would be. I’m just not going heavy on this one.

Farmer’s carry and suitcase carry: I can find no research on either of these exercises for bones. I wish someone would do the research because they seem to be potentially great bone builders. You can use a lot of weight very safely as the movement is so much less complex than squats and deadlifts. Form is easy peasy. You are just walking with weights. Since I’m not doing the overhead press exercise I wanted an exercise where a lot of force went thru my entire spine. Both carries do that and for a good length of time. I hoping that both these exercises will be proven bone builders eventually. Certainly they are popular with strength athletes especially those that prefer free weights and building functional strength as opposed to machine exercises. Many of those stabilizer muscles that are developed with free weights and bodyweight exercises that would be most helpful in preventing or surviving falls are developed with these two carries. I once had an experience of avoiding a fall largely due to having well developed core/stabilizer muscles.

I know this was way long. I just did not want to encourage anyone to follow a LIFTMOR type protocol by saying “oh I do it, no problem”. I wanted to be clear the kind of thought and practice I put into it.
Hope this is helpful.

I wear a weighted vest for a 2 mile walk each morning. I don't think there is any study showing weighted vests increase bone density. If anyone has seen one please let us know.
I'm going to walk each morning because I want to and it's a way I support my wife being active, so why not wear a vest that provides more impact and resistance than just walking. Seems like it should support bone density and bone strength. But I don't rely on the vest for improving bone density. Twice weekly I do free weights roughly per the LIFTMOR trials for exercise proven to increase bone density. And I do body weight exercises for core and theraputic issues twice weekly. And I do balance exercises for fun.

I wear a vest my wife bought so it's a woman's vest but it works well. It is pricey but it has some nice features like the weights are what they call soft flex which means they do not feel like metal and they are 1" by 3" by 3/8" of a soft pliable material. Why does that matter? Well if you fell with a vest or back pack of hard weights with hard edges that could be bad. This is the only vest I've tried so I don't know what the other brands are doing.
The maker of these vests is https://ironwearfitness.com/. I have the CoolVest Short women's model.

I weigh 150 lb and started with 9lbs and now I wear 18lbs and I hardly notice the weight except when putting it on and taking it off. Some follow the backpacking logic of a hip belt to reduce strain and weight on the upper back but I want the weight/force going down the full length of my spine. I personally do not do various exercises with the vest. Vests do not appeal to me as a way to do resistance exercise. Each to his own.