Ankle Weights - Good or Bad?

Ankle weights have their good and bad attributes. It is understandable and reasonable to use added resistance in the form of ankle weights to help in athletic training and rehabilitation. Ankle weights are best suited for adding resistance to an exercise regime, such as during calisthenics, leg lifts, and various stationary exercises that focus on individual muscle groups.

Where exercisers can run into trouble is when they wear ankle weights during aerobic activities, such as walking, running and aerobics class. They can create a strain on the joints and cause injury to the ligaments and tendons in the leg. Improper use of ankle weights during aerobic exercise can result in acute and chronic overuse injuries such as tendinitis. Since women tend to have slimmer and more flexible ankles, adding ankle weights to aerobic exercise increases the risk of sprained ankles or worse, torn ligaments.

Aerobic dance classes use open chain movements. This means that your foot is in a “free” position, and thus subject to shearing forces. The ACL or anterior cruciate ligament is very sensitive to these shearing forces. Therefore, adding weight may likely cause a tear.

A new leg weight has been designed by Ayaz Virji, MD, called Body Togs. These weighted sleeves are designed to be “anatomically correct”, distributing the added weight around the major muscle groups in the same way the body is used to feeling weight. When you examine your own lower leg muscles, you will feel the gastrocnemius and soleus, fleshy muscles of the calf. The leg Body Togs have the added weights sewn into place in similar anatomical structure, wrapping around the leg, very much like the placement of the major muscle groups in the lower leg, adding extra weight only where the leg is accustomed to experiencing weight.

If you look at the bones of the lower leg, particularly the tibia, notice that the front ridge of the bone actually feels rather sharp, almost like a spine. This is an area where a lot of ligaments insert and you are not supposed to have excessive weight distributed there. In the design of the Body Tog for legs, there are no additional weights applied in this area. The area just below the knee is called the tibia tuberosity and is the attachment point of the patellar tendon. This area is susceptible to injury and is protected by the Body Togs’ design, with a band of extra padding. No weights are placed in this area, which further protect it from injury.

Body Togs are designed to wear under your clothing during regular activities of daily living including exercise. They enhance muscle toning and fitness while at the same time they increase calorie and fat burning. This helps you to stay fit and helps your muscles stay more toned and defined. BodyTogs do this in a very easy way by just putting them on, almost like a sock, you basically forget about them. Wear them everyday under your clothing. No one will know you are wearing them.

Body Togs benefit many people, from the competitive athlete who wants to shave off that second in their 100 meter run or the new mother who wants to take off some weight after giving birth. By wearing Body Togs she will burn more calories and tone her muscles again. Even the working professional who during their day to day life doesn’t have as much time to hit the gym as much as they want can benefit from the enhanced calorie burning and muscle toning by wearing the weighted sleeves everyday under their clothing. No one will know they are wearing them.

Basically, BodyTogs are made for a far reaching group of people who want to safely add the extra calorie burn and muscle toning to their daily life in addition to eating an appropriate diet. They enhance calorie burn, performance and muscle tone without causing any undue strain on the body as ankle weights can.

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