Weight Loss For All logo
  • Home
  • Food & Diet
    • 4 Common Factors of Healthy Diets
    • Vegan vs Vegetarian Diet
    • High Protein Diet
    • Glycemic Index Diet
    • The Kimkins Online Diet
    • Diet Mood Swings
    • Intermittent Fasting
    • 8 Foods to Reduce Stress and Anxiety
    • The Many Amazing Health Benefits of Peaches
    • Beer Calories and Carbs
    • Nutrition for Vegan Bodybuilding
    • The Amount of Protein in Tuna
    • Negative Calorie Foods
  • Exercise
    • How Much Exercise Is Good For Your Health?
    • How to Be Safe at Newly-Reopened Gyms
    • Benefits of Using Ankle Weights When Exercising
  • Sleep
    • How to Get to Sleep Easier at Night
    • Quarantine Fatigue
  • Stress & Anxiety
  • Metabolism
  • Contact
Weight Loss For All logo
  • Home
  • Food & Diet
    • 4 Common Factors of Healthy Diets
    • Vegan vs Vegetarian Diet
    • High Protein Diet
    • Glycemic Index Diet
    • The Kimkins Online Diet
    • Diet Mood Swings
    • Intermittent Fasting
    • 8 Foods to Reduce Stress and Anxiety
    • The Many Amazing Health Benefits of Peaches
    • Beer Calories and Carbs
    • Nutrition for Vegan Bodybuilding
    • The Amount of Protein in Tuna
    • Negative Calorie Foods
  • Exercise
    • How Much Exercise Is Good For Your Health?
    • How to Be Safe at Newly-Reopened Gyms
    • Benefits of Using Ankle Weights When Exercising
  • Sleep
    • How to Get to Sleep Easier at Night
    • Quarantine Fatigue
  • Stress & Anxiety
  • Metabolism
  • Contact
Menu
  • Home
  • Food & Diet
  • Exercise
  • Sleep
  • Stress & Anxiety
  • Metabolism
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Benefits of Using Ankle Weights When Exercising

Benefits of Using Ankle Weights When Exercising

If you are trying to lose weight, the most effective way to do burn fat is to lift weights. Strength training burns far more calories than cardio, and you can get in serious shape by combining a solid weightlifting program with a good cardio program.

With ankle weights, you can do the two workouts at the same time!

Why Ankle Weights?

Ankle weights add more weight to your feet, meaning your legs have to work just a little bit harder as you walk or jog. You don’t even need to walk or jog faster than normal, as the addition of a few pounds to your ankles will increase the difficulty of your cardio workout significantly. Yet you won’t just be working harder in terms of cardio, but your leg muscles will also get a great workout. The weight of every step will force your entire leg–upper and lower muscles–to work harder.

Caution: Do not use ankle weights for jumping exercises. That strain on your feet can cause tiny tears in the joints and muscles and even cause stress fractures in the bones. Just use them when doing light cardio (jogging, walking, cycling, etc.).

Now, keep in mind that ankle weights are NOT the most effective way to build strength in your legs. The best way to do that is by doing actual leg exercises, such as squats, lunges, leg presses, leg extensions, leg curls, and the list goes on. Ankle weights will give your legs a bit of a workout as you do cardio, but their ultimate goal is to increase the difficulty of your cardio workout.

It’s important that you DO NOT use ankle weights all the time. You should only strap them on for a short time, do your workout, and then take them off. If you walk around in ankle weights, you can place excess pressure on your joints. The joints in your ankles and feet are fairly delicate compared to most of the other joints in your body, so using ankle weights all the time can lead to serious strain. Make sure to only use them for a set amount of time every day.

Best Workouts for Ankle Weights

Here are the workouts where you should consider adding ankle weights:

  • Trail Walking — The soft forest/trail floor will be easier on your feet, and you can slow your pace down as you walk. However, by adding the ankle weights, those up and down-hills will be much harder, leading to more leg strength.
  • Stair Climbing – If you’re going to climb stairs (slowly, not the way athletes do), adding ankle weights will make your upper legs work a lot harder. You can see more muscle strength gains thanks to the weights.
  • Elliptical Training – For those who find the elliptical workouts a bit too easy, adding ankle weights will force your legs and glutes to work harder. You can increase leg strength and tone your lower body by adding ankle weights.
  • Water Aerobics – If you are doing aerobics in the water, adding ankle weights will make it much harder.

One very important thing to keep in mind when using ankle weights: watch your stride. If you are walking, your hips may end up working harder to support the weight, and this can lead to a serious strain on your joints. You can actually seriously damage your body if you aren’t careful to walk properly with ankle weights.

Be very careful with the weights, but use them to enjoy an awesome, supremely effective cardio/strength training workout!



Disclaimer: All tools and information on this site are intended as an aid to help healthy adults lose weight and not intended as medical advice. The information presented here is not for pregnant or breast-feeding women or for any person under the age of 18. If you suffer or think you may suffer from any medical condition you should consult your doctor before starting any weight loss exercise regime. Any weight loss exercise programs or diet should be started slowly and we advise you to always consult your doctor or physician beforehand. The information on this page may NOT be accurate, therefore you should NOT take any of the content as a source of reference for any reason whatsoever! You are responsible for comparing the information with an accurate source before using any, or part of this content. Talk to your nutritionist or doctor before beginning on a restricted calorie plan.

  • Contact
© Copyright 2022 WeightLossForAll.com. All rights reserved.