This month’s blog is going to be about the random little items I learn or questions I am asked.
Recently, one of my clients asked me about ankle weights. She walks her kids to school, so she was wondering if the weights would help her maximize what she had to do anyway or if they were just a gimmick.
What I told her is this: there are better ways to get bang for your buck out of this daily activity. Here’s why.
Ankle weights are not very heavy. They won’t result in much strength improvement, but they will increase fatigue.
On the other hand, the idea of adding weight to the equation is not a bad one. She could consider rucking. Rucking is basically walking with weights on your back (as in rucksack). Throwing a dumbbell (or, hey, a bunch of books!) in a backpack for the walk will make the walk burn more calories and increase strength, endurance, and core strength. Rucking vests are also a thing, but personally I tend to try to use what’s on hand first before buying more stuff.
Another way to amp up that morning walk is to rope the kids in to some interval training. Kids often do this naturally when walking with (slow, boring) adults. They’ll run to the corner and wait for the adult to catch up. Making the walk an interval for the adult would be more like everybody running to the corner, walking safely across the street, walking briskly to the next corner (or skipping, or hopping, or whatever), walking safely across the street, running to the next corner, and so on.
A third way to add value to the morning walk is to use the wait times. Those traffic lights are things we all have to wait for. Might as well get in some squats or some lunges or some jacks. Maybe even some balance work. The kids might join in or they might just roll their eyes at how embarrassing parents can be. Either way, that’s a win.
