possible effects of long term use of wrist/ankle weights

[supergabey]

A friend of mine has been considering wearing his ankle/wrist weights for extended periods of time, as in all day/night for days on end. He said that one day he wore his ankle weights all day and the next his kicks were "incredible". However I remember reading somewhere that wearing them for long periods of time is actually bad for you, although the source didn't say why. Can anyone either confirm or deny this statement? In my internet research I haven't found anything to say yay or nay...

Thanks!
Gabe

[IronFist]

Hey, welcome to the forum.

If he's just wearing them around there's probably nothing wrong with that. I mean, it would just kinda simulate how it would be if you limbs weighed more.

But, if he's punching and kicking with them on, that can lead to a whole host of problems.

So, wearing = good. Kicking and punching while wearing = injury.

[inic]

Gabe? from chelsea?

umm, as for weights, its debatable. I used to where weights when boxing, in 4 min intervals. Punching/kicking just air with weights is definetlly a no-no. If your hitting a bag, i think the benefits outweigh any negatives (if there is even any). Just don't where them more than a few minutes, because then you'll get tired and more likely to slip and injure yourself.

[Royal Dragon]

I don't know, I've piunched and kicked wiht weights for years and had only good resuts fromit. (Except once when the weigth broke, flew across my living room and smashed Terri's plants.)

I can see if your going too heavy, or over extending the joints (Which you shouldn't do even without wieghts), but so long as your carefull, I don't see any harm in it. I found punching at a medium pace, and kicking slower shows better results than trying to go full out. Full out seems to work better on a heavy bag with someone holding it (Or my 500 LBS bag)

[supergabey]

Hi all, thanks for the warm welcome and replies!

So, no, not Gabe from Chelsea, but Gabe from Somerville :)

My friend has actually hurt himself punching air sans weights (showing me how to do an arm flick) so I hope he wont overextend himself when I tell him it's prob okay to use weights. Then again he's 17 and still in that "I'm invulnerable" state of mind :)

Thanks!!
Gabe

[PHILBERT]

For punching I use a resistance band, I get the thickest, toughest one, wrap it around my back and under my arm pits, put one handle in each hand and punch.

[anerlich]

Ankle weights can be great for your kicks. But only if you practice the kicks SLOWLY with the weights on, and do plenty of other work without them.

Running with ankle weights on is regarded as a bad idea by some due to the unnatural affect it has on the gait and the increased associated risk of injury.

[trevorstalker]

Whenever I swim with the drag chute (or drag belt) I get the same feeling -- once it's off I do swim much faster, because you're only adding resistance to an exercise your body is already used to. So, my initial advice would be "Go for it with the ankle weights stuff!"

But then I read each and every post here, telling you not to do so. Now I'm confused. How can this kind of training cause injury? Anyone?

I'm mentioning this because, I too have been training most of my kick drills with ankle weights and so far nothing happened. I'm using a low load (from 1kg to 5kg in each ankle) for say, 8 months, and haven't had any problems yet. Is this supposed to be long term injury? I also use dumbbells on my punching drills (higher load). Would this be bad too?

Peace!

[anerlich]

The normal objection to the use of such weights is the risk of hyperextension of the ligaments around the knee or elbow. Many coaches suggest that full-power kicking in the air (even without weights) is to be avoided, for kicks in particular because of the extra weight of the leg and lack of fine muscular control. If you want to kick for power, do it against resistance, like a bag or bungee cord, which does not allow the inertial effect.

It's probably more a matter of increasing the possibility of a hyperextension injury rather than damage being an inevitable outcome. So if you want to do it, be extra careful. Pavel recommends controlled "shake-outs" to strengthen the ligaments, but suggests an incremental approach (NOT ankle weights) and doing normal kicks on a bag afterwards so the neuromuscular pattern of the "shake-out" does not become ingrained in the kick.

The main muscles that actually transmit power in most kicks (quads and glutes, sometimes hamstrings) require far more weight than ankle weights will ever provide to get a training effect. The muscles that can be helped by ankle weights are those used to move the leg into position for the kick, e.g. hip abductors, hip flexors. In most untrained people these are fairly weak for the weight they have to move, viz. your kicking leg. That's why IMHO slow, concentrated knee lifts and kicks with ankle weights are the best because they work these muscles very hard.

[CaptinPickAxe]

If you want supreme resistance training, Bowflex is the way to go. It'll also get you toned as a MotherF*cker. I had one in Colorado, and when I moved back to Texas, people were like, "****, you look like a million bucks." It don't get any better than that.

[Royal Dragon]

I used to go as heavy as 17 pounds on my ankles when I drilled kicks. One 10 pounder wrapped over a 7 pounder. It worked fine for me, and I never had any problems. Just don't hyper extend, that's all.