Have You Tried Ankle Weights

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by: mark19
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Word Count: 573
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 Time: 5:57 PM
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If you got a pair of ankle weights from someone for Christmas, you are lucky. If you did not, you might want to think about getting a pair for yourself.

Walking is the standard activity which anyone can recommend to a friend without raising the eyebrows of his or her favorite doctor. In fact, that is almost always the exercise of choice when the doctor thinks you should lose weight to avoid diabetes or any of the other numerous maladies linked all too closely with excess poundage. The belief is that almost anyone can do it, never causing serious damage. Furthermore, it is thought somehow better than any other exercise by virtue of its distinctively human character.

Yet, whether it is good enough to attain the commonly desired ends of fitness and body building is open to serious question. Most people want at very least to go from sedentary and flabby to trim and toned. Waking for a full hour in addition to  drastically reducing fats, sugars, carbohydrates and calories while doing an  intelligently planned supplement routine will most often get a person on the right path. But something more is generally needed. Most popular activities for getting to next level are regular jogging or running along with serious weight training.

Nevertheless, those activities may be better left for six to twelve months down the road. If one is just starting out, a mere walking routine may truly be best.  After a few weeks of doing this on a daily basis, one then can consider graduating to something more, which could be just adding heavy ankle weights. These are available on Amazon for a nominal price, and typically are twenty pounds a piece.

Properly strapped on, they make walking a whole other experience. Walking in deep wet sand is a close approximation of the effect. This not only activates more muscles of the legs than do conventional exercises, but so too more of the back and stomach. This can be felt to be a bit much even if done for a mere fifteen minutes. Therefore care should be taken to avoid overdoing it when starting.

Nevertheless, the caution and extra effort are well invested. The increased resistance for this most humanly normal and usual of motions is exciting right after having done it.  As it is often said, one knows that they have worked out. But that is only the beginning. The resultant light, buoyant feelings turn stair climbing and other subsequent walks during the day into complete fun. That converts into more of these being done more often.

But this may not be the effect when just starting out. If it is not, suggesting that the rest of the day is little other than drudgery, one should consider taking a day or so in between each session to recover. A month or so of proper diet and supplementation prior to starting may also be required These are important to remember as we do not all start from the same point. Nevertheless,we can all get to the same exciting levels by doing the right things, exerting consistent effort with patience.

For further thought on the benefit of good old fashioned hard work order my book Think and Grow Fit.

About the Author

Obese 45 years ago; state champion power lifter 1978; in better shape today at 62 than when on swim team in high school

http://blog.foreverfitness.info (subscribe for weekly fitness updates)

Author of "Think and Grow Fit" the no hype guide to getting fit and staying that way forever

http://www.foreverfitness.info  (6.00 ebook or 15.95 softcover from publisher I_Universe, Amazon or Barnes and Noble)

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