An exercise vest including a thoracic belt fitting around a person's midsection. A padded elasticized and reinforced band attached to the thoracic belt at center back designed to come from back around in front of each shoulder and connect to unweighting system. Two elasticized and reinforced straps designed to attach in the front and come around each side of patient attach in an x pattern in the back and attach to the unweighting system. The exercise vest is positioned in such a way that as the patient is unweighted it cinches and hugs the person to distribute forces uniformly throughout a patient's torso, preventing wear on the person and strain on the device. This allows us to lift a patient upright out of a wheel chair in an easy, comfortable and safe manner.