Any science-fiction buff is aware of rising up on a high-gravity planet will make you one heck of an athlete right here on Earth. Sadly, we are able to’t but go to oppressively weighty worlds to coach, however that doesn’t cease runners from searching for out difficult environments—like high-altitude trails—to forge fitter our bodies and increase efficiency by adaptation.
As a fledgling runner and diehard sci-fi fan, one in every of my earliest coaching errors was to attempt simulating life on a high-gravity planet by working with ankle weights. Extra shameful than that admission is the truth that I assumed I used to be an absolute genius for trying it. Our numbers are few, however there’s a very skinny department of the working group that has both tried working with ankle weights or is considering it. For those who’re one of many uncommon runners considering of giving it a attempt, listed here are some causes to rethink.
The fantasy doesn’t stack as much as the fact
The attract of ankle weights isn’t simply concerning the promise of exponential development in leg power and working pace, however the fantasy wrapped round it. Earlier than setting out on my ill-fated ankle-weight check run a few years in the past, I imagined it being the beginning of two stable years of secretly sporting ankle weights on all my runs (I’d be doing all my coaching in billowy harem pants, I assume). I’d slowly however certainly develop quicker and stronger, to the purpose the place I’d be one of many quickest runners on the town, even whereas sporting the weights.
I additionally imagined the day I’d reveal my secret to a shocked world. I’d race a 100m warmth (in entrance of tens of 1000’s of spectators—it’s a fantasy, in any case), tying the quickest man on the town (who was additionally about to foreclose on the native orphanage—once more, fantasy). For the ultimate, I’d elevate the legs of my harem pants to disclose my leg weights to a sea of dropped jaws, solid off my weights as in the event that they had been shackles, embarrass the competitors with my unbelievable pace, win the race and save the orphans.
In actuality, I solely lasted one run with the leg weights—a 5K I bailed on midway by—and I haven’t run a 100m since Grade 6.
It messes along with your working type
Operating with useless weight round your ankles is a positive technique to throw a few heavy wrenches into your working mechanics. By focusing on the decrease leg muscle tissue and neglecting different muscle teams, working with ankle weights creates muscle imbalance. It additionally reduces working effectivity and makes it almost inconceivable to keep up respectable type. Once I tried it, I wasn’t working a lot as I used to be speed-stumbling, like an over-caffeinated Frankenstein’s monster.
You’ll damage your self and look dumb doing it
I’d like to say my ankle-weight working experiment ended after I skilled a sudden bout of dignity, but it surely was a rolled ankle that did me in. In hindsight, I’m grateful to have been stopped by an acute damage, fairly than undergo extra critical and power strains, sprains, tears or pulls I certainly would have inflicted on myself had I attempted sticking with my ankle-weight coaching plan.
