Ankle weights are used by athletes who want to strengthen their ankles. These ankle weights help you increase your strength and endurance.
Running is an easy activity to do, and it doesn’t require any special equipment. You can start by simply jogging around the block every day.
As you become better and faster, you may want to add some weight to your feet. This helps strengthen your ankles, calves, and shins.
There are many types of weight lifting equipment available, including free weights, dumbbells, medicine balls, resistance bands, and body weight machines.
Should I Run With Ankle Weights?
Ankle weights do help runners stay healthy by reducing stress on joints and muscles. However, running with ankle weights should be avoided because of the increased risk of injury.
Here are some advantages of running with ankle weights
Calorie Burn
Running with added weight increases calorie consumption. You need to expend more energy to run the same distance. This means you’ll burn more fat.
Strength Building
Running with weights can help you get stronger than regular running.
Boosting Endurance
Ankle weights help athletes by increasing their endurance. These weights work as resistance when doing speed drills.
By raising the heart rate and respiratory rate, they lead to better performance. Your short-term benefit is increased stamina. You can push yourself further than you could before.
Toning And Shaping Your Thighs
Ankle weights help tone and shape the muscles around the thighs by adding extra resistance. When doing exercises, we must try to increase resistance as much as possible.
This means using heavier weights. An example of an exercise that adds resistance is leg extensions.
Toning And Shaping Your Legs
If you want to tone your upper body, you use weights targeting that area. The same goes for the lower half of your body. Using ankle weights when running can help tone and shape your legs considerably.
Don’t use too much weight, though. People should start by doing cardio exercises instead of strength training. They should use ankle weights while running to improve leg muscles.
Ankle Weights Are Versatile
Ankle weights are used to strengthen your ankles and feet. They can also help you in other ways. They help improve your posture, balance, coordination, flexibility, and endurance.
Use them while running, jogging, sitting, climbing, or walking, and you’ll be able to get the benefits that you need.
Can Help To Achieve Stronger Breathing Muscles
By putting more weights on your ankles, your lungs will have to work harder. Over time, this can help your lungs become healthier and stronger.
This helps increase the respiratory rate and heart rates. You should always consult your doctor before using any type of weight training equipment, however.
Another way to increase lung power is to start weight breathing exercises. These breathing exercises are great for strengthening your lungs and heart muscles.
But if you’re not healthy enough to perform them, you shouldn’t do them.
Benefits With Abdominal Workouts
Ankle weights are useful when doing cardio exercises on a treadmill. They target the lower abdominal and keep the pelvis tilted forward.
Warnings Of Using Ankle Weights
Ankle weights have a lot of benefits, but they can cause certain injuries if you’re not careful. Weights on the ankles can easily induce joint stress, muscle strain, and joint overload.
In addition, greater ankle weights might alter your stride, putting stress on your back and hips.
Clinical Use Of Ankle Weights
Ankle weights can improve walking gait in older adult patients. Using an ankle weight of 1% of body mass reduces errors in knee joint repositioning in older adults.
Ankle weights improve balance by improving the strength of muscles to support the foot. Stroke patients could benefit from ankle weights because they help them recover better after a stroke too.
Older adults could also use ankle weights to improve mobility and prevent falls. However, you should always consult with your doctor before starting an exercise program.
So Are Ankle Weights Good Or Bad?
Ankle weights are great tools for people who want to lose weight by building muscle mass. You must know how to properly use them in order to avoid injury.
Consult a doctor before starting an exercise program. Also, make sure you don’t have an existing ankle or knee injury before trying out these devices.
Alternatives
Wearing ankle weights isn’t the only way to improve your running speed.
Lower body exercises with free weights, resistance tubing, or weight machines can help you build leg muscles, which will give you the physical strength to be a faster runner.
Sprinting is the best way to improve running speed if that is what you’re aiming for.
Weighted Vests And Wrist Weights
As well as ankle weights, you can also access weighted vests and wrist weights to add more difficulty to your exercises.
Weighted vests are used by people who want to lose weight. They help people burn calories while walking. A typical weighted vest weighs about 10 pounds.
You shouldn’t wear more than 15 pounds, however but this depends on your build and strength. However, weighted vests are bad for people with back or cervical problems.
They put pressure on your spine, which could lead to serious injury.
Wearable wrist weights can be used for targeted workouts when you need extra resistance. These can help prevent injury by providing more resistance than regular weight training.
Wrist weights should never be worn while doing cardio because they could interfere with proper form.
Final Thoughts
If you are prepared to start using ankle weights, you should aim to be an experienced runner before you reach this stage. This is to avoid any unnecessary injury that could halt your running progress.
If you feel you are ready and have consulted a doctor, then ankle weights can really help your development to becoming a faster and stronger runner.
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