I don’t get it, can any of you fitness buffs tell me why someone would jog while carrying 3lb dumbells in each hand? I’ve seen this phenomina a couple of times over the years and always wondered.
Perhaps it gives partly the same benefits as X-country skiing? (Or standing in uphill riding instead of sitting)? When involving muscles in the arms, the heart rate rises without extra stress on leg muscles.
All of the studies I have seen show that this is a complete waste. If you want to run…run, if you want to lift…lift. If you want to combine the two then do a higher rep circuit with one minute of cardio in between each exercise. Running with weights does nothing to help achieve a higher level of fitness.
Not sure but I’m wondering if it could be for the same reason swimmers shave extra close before a big meet or (one of the reasons) runners use running flats in races. When you train with “drag” in swimming or with training shoes in running and then get into your race “form”, you “feel” faster/lighter/faster feet etc. It could be they just want to train with some extra resistance so that in a race, they’ll feel unencumbered and lighter. Hope this makes sense. Good Luck!
Its not much use for long distance runners. But its very useful for short distance / sprinters. A lot of their power comes from the arm motion in a sprint. (kind of like how you use the legs AND arms to pull while sprinting on a bicycle).
Call it specific weight-training for sprint-runners.
I’ve always associated that with more “recreational” joggers who also want to get a little more upper body tone along with their run. I don’t really see how it would help someone training for a triathlon/5K etc.
I’ve used a rucksack loaded with sand during trail runs in the past. I can’t offer any empirical evidence to support the value of such workouts but I can say that it does offer a psychological edge like swimming with a drag suit or cycling with heavy training wheels.
I would not recommend this running on hard surfaces however, but for trails I think it’s not too bad.
Usually when I see those three pound dumbells it’s a middleaged lady with headphones speedwalking, so I don’t think that it’s a training secret of the elite.