Thread: ankle weights (anybody use them ?)

i have the 10lbs per leg set. I use them occasionaly for abdominal exercises like V-sits, they definately kill but i don't use them for anything else.

Everyday.

http://www.drmirkin.com/public/ezine050805.html

Wearing ankle weights will not help you to run faster or longer, or jump higher...

Ankle weights can also increase your chances of being injured. Since they force you to lift a much heavier weight when you raise your knees, they strengthen the quadriceps muscles in the front of your upper leg without strengthening the hamstrings in the back equally. This can make your quad muscle proportionately so much stronger than your hamstrings that you are prone to injury. The same principles apply to carrying weights when you walk or run, or wearing weighted belts or other devices. Strength training should be done using weights with proper form in specific exercises, and should be kept separate from your aerobic activities.

i hear there bad for you

they can be used in re-hab situations.

also, if someone has weak hipflexors you can use them to help strengthen them up. Some people may have a weak psoas since it is only really activated past 90 degrees on hip flexion. You have help to strengthen that using some sort of resistance. Sometimes in athletes it is the hip flexors that are weak and holding back their sprinting power as the recovery leg doesn't turn over quick enough. Zatsiorsky has written about this and other strength coaches that I have seen lecture or have talked to have also hinted towards this and will often use resistance work to build up hip flexor strength. Lee Taft told me he uses it for people that need extra hip flexor strength. I also know that Mike Boyle does Psoas activation work as part of the warm up. And Greg Werner has guys lie on an incline looking bench and flex their hip through a ROM while resisted (if he feel that it is something they need to work on).