Why running with ankle weights is seductive (but dumb)

Any science-fiction buff knows growing up on a high-gravity planet will make you one heck of an athlete here on Earth. Sadly, we can’t yet visit oppressively weighty worlds to train, but that doesn’t stop runners from seeking out challenging environments—like high-altitude trails—to forge fitter bodies and boost performance through adaptation.

As a fledgling runner and diehard sci-fi fan, one of my earliest training mistakes was to try simulating life on a high-gravity planet by running with ankle weights. More shameful than that admission is the fact that I thought I was an absolute genius for attempting it. Our numbers are few, but there is a very thin branch of the running community that has either tried running with ankle weights or is contemplating it. If you’re one of the rare runners thinking of giving it a try, here are some reasons to reconsider.

The fantasy doesn’t stack up to the reality

The allure of ankle weights isn’t just about the promise of exponential growth in leg strength and running speed, but the fantasy wrapped around it. Before setting out on my ill-fated ankle-weight test run many years ago, I imagined it being the start of two solid years of secretly wearing ankle weights on all my runs (I’d be doing all my training in billowy harem pants, I guess). I’d slowly but surely grow faster and stronger, to the point where I’d be one of the fastest runners in town, even while wearing the weights.

I also imagined the day I would reveal my secret to a shocked world. I’d race a 100m heat (in front of tens of thousands of spectators—it’s a fantasy, after all),  tying the fastest guy in town (who was also about to foreclose on the local orphanage—again, fantasy). For the final, I’d lift the legs of my harem pants to reveal my leg weights to a sea of dropped jaws, cast off my weights as if they were shackles, embarrass the competition with my incredible speed, win the race and save the orphans.

In reality, I only lasted one run with the leg weights—a 5K I bailed on halfway through—and I haven’t run a 100m since Grade 6.

It messes with your running form

Running with dead weight around your ankles is a sure way to throw a couple of heavy wrenches into your running mechanics. By targeting the lower leg muscles and neglecting other muscle groups, running with ankle weights creates muscle imbalance. It also reduces running efficiency and makes it nearly impossible to maintain decent form. When I tried it, I wasn’t running so much as I was speed-stumbling, like an over-caffeinated Frankenstein’s monster.

You’ll hurt yourself and look dumb doing it

I’d love to say my ankle-weight running experiment ended after I experienced a sudden bout of dignity, but it was a rolled ankle that did me in. In hindsight, I’m thankful to have been stopped by an acute injury, rather than suffer more serious and chronic strains, sprains, tears or pulls I surely would have inflicted on myself had I tried sticking with my ankle-weight training plan.

posted Friday September 1st
by Paul Baswick