Note: martial arts were never about strength. They are about good technique, balance, leverage and knowledge of the weak points of the human body. If strength was what was important then why is it the old masters in Okinawan, China, Korea, ...etc., are all small men but have more effective technique than the younger stronger guys? The masters in Okinawa in the 80's can and do regularly put younger guys to shame.
...
As people have mentioned, body weights carry the risk of injury.
When used on ankles for running the additional impact passes in to your bones which can be detrimental over time.
When using them to punch and kick you are exerting extra force to stop the motion which can cause over extension of the tendons/muscles/joints etc.
I stopped using weighted equipment for training quite quickly and took to using them only during down time, such as on the weekend when I am just walking around the house doing normal low impact activities.
The result is the same as using small weights for tone and speed, but this is easily achieved without them using normal exercises specialised to do so.
When it comes to running/walking, I alternate using the lamp posts in the street. Sprint from one to the next, walk from one to the next, repeat. Basically small explosive exercise with a small recovery time, quite popular these days it seems)
It is really effective and is some damn good cardio. (Stretches and warm-ups blah blah)
From what I understand they can give you joint problems because the weights in motion intensifies the pull on the limbs and sudden stopping(due to hitting the pavement) of the weights can increase the amount of shock generated. In general I have been told to avoid them, and having spent a period of time "training" with them on the benefit is really minor. It does make it harder to move around, but you end up just decreasing the amount of activity. You get much better results just running few more laps.
Not really those are for walking.
20 year old female, I took a 6 month break from Martial Arts training, I am now looking to get back into it within the next 6 weeks. At the moment my training schedule is the Insanity 60 day work out, and I'm looking to do 90 minutes walking every morning and then ease in to my long distance running. My question is I'm planning to wear 5lb weights on each ankle for the walking part of things to at least strengthen my legs whilst burning some fat, would this have any negative impact on my knees? Thanks.
