By Kay L Bayly
Driving the girls to school in the morning I often see women taking their daily walk. Sometimes by themselves or with a friend. Sometimes with a dog or two, or pushing a pram. Usually walking along and enjoying their time outside and the sunshine. (I live in the Sunshine State, so we do enjoy many mornings of sunshine)
Of course I see lots of people running, jogging and bike riding too. This is great. To get outside and get your body moving is fantastic and definitely one of my core messages. But sometimes I get really worried when I see someone out walking.
Some people try to combine their walk and carrying hand weights--or worse, strap on ankle weights. Bad idea.
According to May 2013, Bottom Line Health, "Adding hand, or ankle weights to your walks will cause only modest increases in the calories you burn but may lead to serious injury since they change your centre of gravity and subsequently your gait."
Also, holding hand weights while walking, can damage ligaments and tendons in your shoulders. Our shoulder joint is not the same as the ball and socket joint of the hip. The arm bone is only attached to the shoulder with ligaments and tendons, and these can be damaged easily. Every swing of the arm is pulling and stretching these ligaments. In a three kilometre walk you might swing your arms six thousand times! That's a lot of pulling.
When we use arm weights in the gym, we might do a particular exercise ten times and might repeat that two more times for a total of thirty. We use a heavier weight to give the arm muscles some exercise and protect the shoulder joint. So we are strengthening the muscles and protecting the joint and the ligaments. The complete opposite of walking with weights.
I have also seen people walking with ankle weights. Again that is a lot of pressure on our joints with no real increase is strength of muscles. The ankle weights create a damaging pull on the knee joint and may trigger hip and back injuries as well. Again, bad idea.
No weights while walking! OK.
To make your walk more intense, walk faster, find some hills to walk up and down, or do intervals. Intervals are where you walk as fast as you can for 20 seconds, then slow it down for 20 seconds, and repeat. This gives you a more intense workout and jump starts your cardio-vascular fitness, and weight loss. You will find you can work harder and push yourself, without the weights. Then hit the gym two or three times a week, or do body weight exercises at home or at the park, and give those muscles a short but strong workout. This gives you the all-round fitness that you were hoping to achieve.
So please make my mornings more pleasant and enjoy your walks without the weights.
Of course I see lots of people running, jogging and bike riding too. This is great. To get outside and get your body moving is fantastic and definitely one of my core messages. But sometimes I get really worried when I see someone out walking.
Some people try to combine their walk and carrying hand weights--or worse, strap on ankle weights. Bad idea.
According to May 2013, Bottom Line Health, "Adding hand, or ankle weights to your walks will cause only modest increases in the calories you burn but may lead to serious injury since they change your centre of gravity and subsequently your gait."
Also, holding hand weights while walking, can damage ligaments and tendons in your shoulders. Our shoulder joint is not the same as the ball and socket joint of the hip. The arm bone is only attached to the shoulder with ligaments and tendons, and these can be damaged easily. Every swing of the arm is pulling and stretching these ligaments. In a three kilometre walk you might swing your arms six thousand times! That's a lot of pulling.
When we use arm weights in the gym, we might do a particular exercise ten times and might repeat that two more times for a total of thirty. We use a heavier weight to give the arm muscles some exercise and protect the shoulder joint. So we are strengthening the muscles and protecting the joint and the ligaments. The complete opposite of walking with weights.
I have also seen people walking with ankle weights. Again that is a lot of pressure on our joints with no real increase is strength of muscles. The ankle weights create a damaging pull on the knee joint and may trigger hip and back injuries as well. Again, bad idea.
No weights while walking! OK.
To make your walk more intense, walk faster, find some hills to walk up and down, or do intervals. Intervals are where you walk as fast as you can for 20 seconds, then slow it down for 20 seconds, and repeat. This gives you a more intense workout and jump starts your cardio-vascular fitness, and weight loss. You will find you can work harder and push yourself, without the weights. Then hit the gym two or three times a week, or do body weight exercises at home or at the park, and give those muscles a short but strong workout. This gives you the all-round fitness that you were hoping to achieve.
So please make my mornings more pleasant and enjoy your walks without the weights.
For everything a women need to stay fit, healthy, sassy and sane in midlife and beyond, visit http://kaybayly.com/
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