ankle weights... what weight???

[weird2twiggy]

hiya. well, i wanna get more toned, and stuff, but not get bulky. so i was thinking about wearing ankle weights, you know, when i'm at work or school and stuff. so that i burn off more calories and, ho pefully, tone my legs a little more.

i bout five pound ones (2.5 on each leg), and then i asked my p.e. coach about them, and he said that those wont do much. that i should get ten pound ones (5 on each leg) and i asked if that would bulk me up and he said that it wont. but it will be significant enough to burn off more calories and tone legs... so do YOU think that's a good idea? i dotn want to get bulky.

I already bought them and everything, so i suppose i'll find out soon if i'm getting the results that i want or not. but i'd like to get other peoples opinions too.

Thank you. :)

[Erin]

When you lift weights, your goal is to lift an appropriate amount of weight so that when you do your last repetition, you achieve muscle failure--meaning you've completely taxed your muscle to the point that it can't continue to perform without a rest period. I don't think ankle weights are going to do much for you, because if you can walk comfortably with them on for any length of time, they're not giving your legs a real workout (and if you can't, you shouldn't be trying to lug them around at work or school).

A more effective beginner's plan would be for you to do several sets of lower-body exercises at home--think squat, lunge, kneeling butt blaster, quad press, side-lying leg lift, inner thigh lift, calf raise--that require no equipment because you're leveraging your own body weight. Don't worry about getting huge muscles (I'm assuming you're female); it's almost impossible for women to do so based on our physiology. To really bulk up, you would have to lift herculean amounts of weight that only allow for a few reps per set.

Since you just want to tone up, you should plan on performing at least three sets of exercises per muscle group with 8 to 15 reps per set (again, with your last rep being a challenge). Also, I strongly recommend you look into working out the other major muscle groups as well. Exercising only one half of your body is a bad idea; you could end up with imbalance and injuries. Take care to plan your workouts so that each muscle group gets at least a day in between to recover. If you still want to use breaks at work or school to exercise, climbing stairs would be a great leg workout.

Good luck!

[weird2twiggy]

thank you. :)