With the growing awareness about fitness, innovative ideas are coming up more frequently and one such innovative idea is walking or running with weights. Walking, jogging and running are some of the widely preferred and performed cardio exercises. The goals of these exercises vary from one individual to the other. Some want to lose down considerably while others just want to get those perfect shape and "curves". Whatever the goal may be, everyone wants to burn more calories and to do so many people go for additional weights in the form of weight cuffs, dumbbells and weighted vest and belts while doing cardio workouts.
What is the Rationale Behind this Approach?
The rationale behind using additional weights during aerobic workouts is to increase the degree of the exercise effort for burning more calories and losing weight faster. By using additional weight you may intensify your workout, but along with that the amount of time for which you can sustain your cardio workout also gets reduced. Thus, the total calories burned remain the same! Also, the extra weight that you are carrying may slow down your speed resulting in less calorie expenditure.
Many people also have a misconception that by using additional weight during cardio workout they can tone and build their body along with the beneficial effects of cardio exercises. They should note that they will need specific movements for body toning and bodybuilding, and these movements are absent when you perform cardio exercises with weights.
Is There Any Harm in Carrying Weights?
If you are carrying a hand held dumbbell or using a weighted wrist cuff, there is always a high risk of injury to your shoulder, because the additional weight will always put a constant distraction force at the shoulder joint, thereby challenging its stability. Additional weight will also affect the swinging of the arms during walking and running, thereby increasing the risk of postural abnormality and back strain. Along with the high risk of injury, there are possibilities of accidents especially while carrying dumbbells. Using ankle weight cuffs can pose the threats of ankle instability and soft tissue injuries. A tightly fitted ankle weight cuff may obstruct blood flow while a lose fitting of the same may come in the way of free movement of the ankle, thereby affecting your running or walking efficiency.
The prime motive of carrying weight while walking or running is to burn more calories. After going through all these points and after evaluating the risk of injury over time it will be a wise idea to increase your intensity (speed) or volume (duration and frequency) or both in order to burn more calories in a healthy and safe way.
