The Best Ankle Weights Workout

As a runner, I’ve injured myself a few times now as a result of core weakness. (um, four BIG babies=JelloBelly after!)  So four years ago it was with great interest that I found myself ordered sternly by my sports med doctor to slap weights on my….ankles.

Yes, who knew that just as my children now clung to my ankles, the solution to my weak core would be down there as well. Obviously there was more going on down there around my feet than just crushed Cheerios! It turned out that ankle weight exercises (no, not running with them!) are a great way to improve core strength. Who knew? At the time, certainly not overtired-former-couch-potato me. But luckily, I’m a quick learner.I started with just two-pound weights on each ankle and over a period of weeks progressed up to ten pounds on each ankle (my maximum). (In some of these exercises our legs acts like levers so the weight we put at the very end doesn’t need to be heavy to place a significant workload on our muscles.)

Once two sets of twenty reps felt easy at my current weight, it was time to move up a couple of pounds.

(Note: each time I increase weight, I always lower my number of reps down to about twelve and slowly work back up to two sets of twenty again before moving on. )

Did ankle weights help me? Absolutely – I went from months of significant hip and back pain to training for the New York Marathon. And I still use ankle weights to this day to off set the resulting weakness on my right side. (My hip had become misaligned due to my weakness, throwing all sorts of muscle groups into stress and ultimately atrophying my right quad)

Below are some great exercises with ankle weights that can especially benefit female runners who might have weak core muscles like I did.  Try them out and see if they make a difference to your training!

~Melanie

The Best Ankle Weights Workout

Matt, DietsinReview:

As I was walking to work the other morning, a lady with ankle weights and dumbbells in her hands power-walked right on by me.

First off, this added resistance during aerobic activity strains the joints and can cause injury to the ligaments and tendons. Secondly, it just silly.

So, if you are guilty of this, please do your joints and your body a favor by hitting regular non-weight/resistance bearing cardio followed up by your weight training.

It is a proven fact that the human body reacts to specific training (Law of Specificity). The Law of Specificity refers to the similarity between a training activity (exercise) and the actual task (goal). If you are training to run faster in a competition, then you have to run fast in practice (not use ankle weights). It is as simple as that.

With that being said, ankle weights are a great way to add progression to an exercise in the weight room. For example, a standard leg raise for the lower abdominals can be made more challenging simply by adding ankle weights or any type of weight or resistance for that matter.

Below are a few exercises that can be performed with ankle weights. The majority of exercises that can be performed with ankle weights are for the abdominals or the hips/hip flexors. I recommend performing two sets of 20 repetitions of the following exercises. Good luck and please feel free to ask if you have any questions!

Ankle Weight Exercises

(CLICK ON IMAGE TO PLAY)
	bent arm side bridge and hip abduction with ankle weight
	glute kickback on all 4s with ankle weight
	lying on back leg raise with flutter kick and ankle weight
	lying on back leg raise with scissor kick and ankle weight
	lying on back straight leg raise with ankle weight
	side lying hip abduction with ankle weight
	side lying hip adduction with ankle weight

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