Make sure your abdominals are contracted, and you lift your leg from the crease of your glutes. This will ensure proper form and help you build a solid foundation for exercises like deadlifts! Leg lifts: This is a great exercise for your abs as well as your quads! Perform any type of crunch with the weight attached, and always remember to generate the movement from your core to keep the strain out of your hip flexors!
Lateral leg lifts: This is a great exercise for runners! From a standing position, squeeze the side of your hips to lift your ankles off the ground. Repeat for 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps to help strengthen your hips to avoid knee injuries while running.
Whether you're fretting over exercising in high heels and skimpy clothing or worrying about having…. They keep your pelvis aligned. When you engage in targeted exercises, like lunges and side-lying leg lifts, the glutes play an even more central role. Adding weight to these exercises makes your glutes work harder.
As we've seen, making your muscles work harder strengthens them and burns fat. Whether you're walking or simply standing, your abs, like your glutes, play a subtle but important role. Your abs are a key component of good posture. Strong abs help keep your body in proper alignment.
Unfortunately, the abs can be difficult to train. Training the abs involves maintaining good posture throughout your workout and throughout your day. It also involves targeted exercises, like abdominal leg lifts. As with side-lying leg lifts for glutes, adding ankle weights to abdominal leg lifts increases the intensity, strengthens the muscles, and burns fat.
Of course not. This means that you can secure them around your ankle or your wrists. During exercises that target your legs, glutes, or abs, wrap the weights around your ankles. To target your biceps and triceps, wrap them around your wrists.
So we've just seen that ankle weights themselves are versatile. At the same time, they add variety to your overall exercise regimen. Adding variety can improve your workouts simply by making them more enjoyable.
Few people enjoy doing the same exercises over and over again. However, the benefits of a varied workout actually run deeper. In fact, adding variety can make your workout more effective. Over time, your body becomes accustomed to the demands you regularly place on it. Eventually, it may not even respond to those demands. This adaptive resistance is often behind the frustrating plateaus that athletes encounter. Adaptive resistance can also contribute to injuries.
When you repeatedly use the same muscles in the same ways, they are more vulnerable to fatigue and wear and tear. Adding variety prevents your body from adapting to any one routine. Periodically increasing the intensity of your regular exercises by adding ankle weights keeps the body on its toes. Adding ankle weights also varies the muscles you use and the angles and patterns in which you use them. This variety can keep all of your muscles fresh and protect them from overuse injuries.
Ankle weights are safe and effective with the proper precautions. In fact, when used properly, ankle weights can make your workouts safer by adding variety. As with any element of an exercise regimen, staying safe while using ankle weights means listening to your body and following expert advice. If you don't follow the necessary precautions, ankle weights can contribute to your risk of sprains and strains. They can also change your walking or running gait, which can lead to injuries.
Finally, adding weights increases the resistance and loads your joints experience. Of course, it is precisely the process of increasing loads, resistance, and intensity that strengthens the body. To remain safe, however, this process must be gradual, and your workouts must be appropriate for your health and fitness levels. Ankle weights themselves don't cause injuries.
However, they can increase your risk of injury if you aren't careful. Most ankle weights come in a variety of weights and sizes. Begin with the lowest weight.
As your body becomes accustomed to that new load, experiment with heavier weights. Starting gradually also means limiting the amount of time or number of reps you complete using ankle weights. If you're planning to wear ankle weights while you walk, don't go for miles on your first attempt. Instead, experiment—slowly—with what your body can handle. The first time you wear weights, try walking at an easy pace for just a few minutes.
If that feels comfortable, increase the pace and duration gradually over your next few sessions. If you're using ankle weights while you complete leg, glute, or abs exercises, again, limit yourself to just a few reps for your first session.
Maybe you usually complete three sets of leg lifts. On your first attempt, do just one of those sets with the weights.
Once again, you can gradually increase your reps as your body adjusts. Keep in mind that variety goes both ways.
Your body needs new and more difficult challenges. However, it also needs rest. Adding ankle weights to every workout session doesn't contribute variety. Instead, it simply establishes a different "normal" routine. As with any routine, a routine that consistently uses ankle weights lets your body adapt. It also leaves your muscles vulnerable to injury.
As you plan your workouts, be sure to include more and less intense workouts, and be sure to include rest. On more intense days, complete at least some of your exercises using heavier ankle weights. Alternatively, you could use a moderate ankle weight but extend the duration of your workout or complete more reps.
As a general rule , it's best to avoid increasing weight and duration at the same time. This goes back to letting your body adjust gradually. On a less intense workout day, opt for lighter ankle weights or fewer reps. Or simply forgo the weights. Planning your workouts can keep you accountable and help you incorporate variety.
Still, your plans need to remain flexible and responsive to your body and your life. Maybe you're tapering for or recovering from a marathon. You'll likely use lighter ankle weights before and after a tough race.
In fact, you might avoid them altogether to let your body rest for a time. Perhaps you're recovering from an illness. If so, your body is already working harder. As you feel better and gradually return to working out, go slowly. Don't expect to return immediately to the level of endurance you had before your illness.
Perhaps you're dealing with significant stresses at work or at home. Exercise can be a great way to manage your stress. Again, though, it's important to treat your body gently, especially when it's already stressed. Don't load yourself up with the heaviest ankle weights when you're already bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders. Or maybe you're not dealing with any of the above stresses.
You're healthy. Your work and home life are calm. And you're not eyeing any big races or events. But you're experiencing pain or swelling after exercise. Once again, it's essential that you listen to your body. Especially when they are new, significant, or chronic, pain and swelling can be signals that your body has been stressed beyond what it can handle.
If you experience pain and swelling in the ankle or elsewhere while using ankle weights, remove the weights and let your body rest. If your symptoms don't improve with rest and conservative care at home, see a doctor.
Be like Rocky and use the stairs at your local stadium for a calorie-busting workout. Even a stair step machine will burn calories in one hour for a person who weighs pounds, according to Harvard Health Publishing. Ankle weights apply increased force on the joints and muscles surrounding the ankle, exacerbating existing problems while potentially causing injury. ACE Fitness says that wearing ankle weights while sprinting is making undesirable changes to the muscle firing patterns. Ankle weights will not benefit your running form in any way and will adversely affect your gait.
Individuals who are frail or overweight are particularly at risk of the extra strain on their ankles and knees. For best results, talk to your doctor before adding ankle weights to your workout routine. Fitness Workouts Exercise Equipment. Do Ankle Weights Work? By Brian Connolly Updated July 19, Aubrey Bailey is a Doctor of Physical Therapy with an additional degree in psychology and board certification in hand therapy. Bailey is also an Anatomy and Physiology professor.
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