I remember back in high school my basketball coach would have us run laps and jump up to touch the backboard with ankle weights on as part of our practice. He even encouraged us to wear them throughout the day during school. The idea was to strengthen our legs to help us jump higher and run faster. It was all the rage back then, even college and pro athletics were all doing it. But unfortunately, as great as my coach and all the others coaches were they did not know what damage as being done to the knees. Many athletics of that era still suffer effects of improper ankle weight usage. Let me explain the problem. Take two pens that have a clicker on the end. Face them clicker end to clicker end and put one rubber band in both clips of the pens and tape and heavy object like a metal nut to the writing end of one pen and stand the completed object in a vertical position, nut on the desk. Now imagine the pen on top is your upper leg, the clickers in the middle is the knee-joint, the other pen is the lower leg the nut being the ankle weight. Now grab the upper leg and lift the whole object up like it was jumping and notice how the pens separate at the “knee-joint”. There lies the problem, when you jump or run with ankle weights it’s the knees that take the punishment. The ankle weight acts much like an anchor causing a lot of stress on the ligaments around the knee-joint and potentially causing damage.
So why bring all of this up? Because I still see trainers at gyms and studio using the same damaging exercises. I watch them take overweight individuals that are already stressing their knees, adding ankle weights and making them run and jump. Whether your over weight or not the damage being done verse extra calories burned are not at all equal. If you’re a trainer stop it and if you’re a client refuse it.
Ankles weights should never be worn when running and jumping. They are great for leg lifts, steps ups, abs and a list of other safe and non-damaging exercises you can Google. I idea is to get the most from your body with the least amount of pain or damage. So unless your into punishing your body like an ultimate fighter or MMA athlete, please use the ankle weights correctly, your knees will thank you.
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