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 looking for out difficult environments—like high-altitude trails—to forge fitter our bodies and enhance efficiency via adaptation.
As a fledgling runner and diehard sci-fi fan, considered one of my earliest coaching errors was to strive simulating life on a high-gravity planet by operating 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 operating group that has both tried operating with ankle weights or is considering it. When you’re one of many uncommon runners considering of giving it a strive, 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 progress in leg energy and operating pace, however the fantasy wrapped round it. Earlier than setting out on my ill-fated ankle-weight take a look at run a few years in the past, I imagined it being the beginning of two strong years of secretly carrying 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 carrying the weights.
I additionally imagined the day I might 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 carry 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 via—and I haven’t run a 100m since Grade 6.
It messes together with your operating type
Working with useless weight round your ankles is a positive option to throw a few heavy wrenches into your operating mechanics. By focusing on the decrease leg muscle mass and neglecting different muscle teams, operating with ankle weights creates muscle imbalance. It additionally reduces operating effectivity and makes it practically not possible to take care of respectable type. After I tried it, I wasn’t operating a lot as I used to be speed-stumbling, like an over-caffeinated Frankenstein’s monster.
You’ll harm your self and look dumb doing it
I’d like to say my ankle-weight operating 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 harm, slightly than endure extra severe and persistent strains, sprains, tears or pulls I certainly would have inflicted on myself had I attempted sticking with my ankle-weight coaching plan.
