Additional weight in training takes on the role of an accelerator of burning fat and working out muscle groups, in case you want to reduce the overall time to achieve results and increase your endurance as efficiently as possible. One of the most effective exercises with weights is walking and running.
Running with extra weight
Running with weights refers to the use of additional weight when making regular runs. The load can be held in the hands, or attached to one of the parts of the body, depending on your physical characteristics and the tasks assigned to you.
The main goal of such a run is to accelerate fat burning processes and actively work out the muscles on the legs. After several weeks of regular training, you will be able to notice a beautiful relief of the legs and tightened hips, however, this process is associated with a serious load on the knee joints and spine, which must be taken into account for people with a fragile musculoskeletal system and those who have diseases in this area or recently had an injury. Then the combination of running, which is already distinguished by a strong shock load, with the use of weighting agents is unacceptable!
Running with extra weight – это отличная возможность развить скорость. The relevance of this task is obvious for beginners and professional athletes, as well as for dancers. Together with the speed, the general concentration also develops, the reaction to the actions taking place around improves. In addition, such training quickly develops endurance, increasing the body’s resistance to physical stress and infectious diseases.
But high efficiency also requires increased attention to personal safety. In no case should you engage in weight-bearing running if:
you have recent knee and spinal injuries;
joint diseases;
if your body is weakened by illness;
if you are in a difficult emotional state, physically exhausted;
during menstruation;
during pregnancy!
Running with extra weight хорошо сочетать с диетой, включающей большое количество клетчатки и молочного белка. Such a diet helps to quickly remove toxins, lactic acid, and form an attractive body relief.
Unlike running, walking is more gentle. The load on the joints is significantly reduced. Besides, you have there is more opportunity to control the intensity and speed of the step.
Walking with weights can be carried out over long distances, while running, in most cases, is strictly limited to relatively small sections of the route. By adjusting the weight used, you can use weighting agents even in everyday life. For example, while working in the garden or cleaning around the house. This option is well suited for those who are sorely lacking time for a full workout, jog or even exercise!
This type of walking involves a gradual increase in heart rate with increased sweating. The duration of the route and the gradually increasing load allows you to start the process of fat burning and maintain it for a long time after the end of the workout. Also, the endurance of the body is systematically improved, the lungs develop.
Walking with weights is suitable for people with an initial level of fitness who are faced with problems such as shortness of breath when climbing stairs, running, and even a normal step. In addition, such walking can be used as one of the effective means of strengthening the muscular corset. To do this, weights should be used alternately and not overload the back. For example, one day you can walk with a weight in your hands, another day with a weight on your belt, and so on.
Walking with weights is also not recommended for pregnant women, people with osteoporosis and pronounced diseases of the musculoskeletal system. In some cases, before the implementation of such training, it is worth consulting with a doctor.
Safety rules, training stages
1. To engage in running or walking with weights, it is important to have at least an initial level of physical fitness. This means that you periodically exercise, at least once a month attend some kind of training, actively relax, or are engaged in physical work during the day. If you are not a supporter of sports, you are more often in a stationary state, you have not even done warm-up exercises for a long time, but you want to change everything, then you need to start with daily walks without additional weight for established distances. Only when you can complete a certain segment in a relatively fast time without shortness of breath and in good health, you can switch to easy running and include in your workouts intensives for the development of muscles and endurance.
2. Before starting training, be sure to exclude all possible contraindications! Remember that working with additional weight can lead to a deterioration in your condition. The joints of the knees and spine are especially affected during such exercises. With the wrong weight and duration of training, pain is often possible, which is complained of by both novice athletes and people with quite a lot of sports experience. As an analogue of running with weights, you can use running with additional resistance, the role of which is played by a sports parachute or water, when exercising in the pool.
3. Gradual increase in load. You can use additional weight only when you freely run or pass the same distance without it. Next, you need to start with a minimum load. Literally, with 0.5 kg evenly distributed on both sides of the body. As you increase your endurance performance, you can add weight – up to 1, 1.5, 2 kg and so on. Experienced athletes recommend adhering to an interval of three weeks between increasing the weight used in training.
4. Each weight is individual! Do not try to repeat after someone, do not overload yourself, sensitively perceive the reaction of your body to the load used and adjust it in accordance with your capabilities. Add weight when you feel like you can hold more without serious physical effort, only then the training will be really effective and safe.
5. Don’t forget about rest. Running and walking with weights is a pretty serious load on the whole body. It uses all the resources of your body, so it needs recovery to get the result for which you are working so hard. For this reason, after each week of training, you need up to a week of rest. If you are already well physically developed, the rest period can be reduced, but should be at least three days. During the rest, you can give preference to stretching, yoga, meditation, breathing exercises. They will help relieve tension from the muscles and stabilize the metabolism.
Weight Equipment
For walking and running with weights, special weights are used. Depending on how you build your workouts, you may need:
bracelets on wrists or lower legs;
belt;
special backpack;
vest;
small dumbbells that are comfortable to hold in your hands;
barbell or neck from it.
Bracelets, a belt, a backpack and a vest suggest a convenient weight correction due to special weights and the presence of a large number of pockets for weight distribution on selected shells. A barbell or bar is used at short distances up to one kilometer.
If you can’t afford to buy special equipment, you can use a normal backpack filled with books, or you can sew a thick fabric belt and fill it with sand. The main rule that you must follow in this case is convenience. The load should not hang out much, rub or fall off you.