Rec's?

I want to start carrying little weights in my hands ( I guess these are
called dumbbells or free weights?)when I walk in the afternoons, any
suggestions on the best ones and what weight to start out with? I have
some that I use here at home after I bike but they are like 6lbs each
and way to heavy for carrying when walking.
Suggestions on weight brand and where to shop for them please?

Susan
260/219/160

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2weeks 2days 17:33hours of being smoke-free, 677 cigs not smoked,
$125.25 saved, 2day 8:25hours of my life saved

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 22:34:01 -0500, "Susan Jones-Anderson"
wrote:

I want to start carrying little weights in my hands ( I guess these are
called dumbbells or free weights?)when I walk in the afternoons, any
suggestions on the best ones and what weight to start out with? I have
some that I use here at home after I bike but they are like 6lbs each
and way to heavy for carrying when walking.
Suggestions on weight brand and where to shop for them please?

I have heard that it isn't a good idea to carry weights when walking.
I did a quick web search to see if I could see anything on this and
found the following: http://www.thewalkingsite.com/walkingfaq.html --
see the second question. (This looks like a good site on walking, by
the way.) I've also heard that carrying weights can either throw off
the normal arm swing that accompanies vigorous walking or cause
joint/ligament injuries to elbows or shoulders as a result of that
motion.

If your objective in this is to exercise your upper body, it might be
better to just do some separate exercise with weights. The weights
you could carry while walking wouldn't do much to build upper body
muscle, anyway, as they'd be too light.

If you want to add weight just to increase the difficulty of the walk,
you might be safer considering a backpack or some pockets into which
you place some weights. For this purpose, round weight plates might
be more practical than dumbbells. You can find both of these at a
sporting goods store or probably the sporting goods section of a store
like Sears.

Chris

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 22:34:01 -0500, "Susan Jones-Anderson"
wrote:

I want to start carrying little weights in my hands ( I guess these are
called dumbbells or free weights?)when I walk in the afternoons, any
suggestions on the best ones and what weight to start out with? I have
some that I use here at home after I bike but they are like 6lbs each
and way to heavy for carrying when walking.
Suggestions on weight brand and where to shop for them please?

Susan
260/219/160

---
2weeks 2days 17:33hours of being smoke-free, 677 cigs not smoked,
$125.25 saved, 2day 8:25hours of my life saved




As the 2 other posters have pointed out - its really not great to walk
with weights. So, the question is - for what purpose do you want to
use the weights while walking?

If you use little 1lb weights or even 5lb weights you are really just
getting increased cardio activity. But you aren't benefiting from
muscle growth like you would if you did true resistence training.

Back a few years ago BF bought me some gell pack wrist weights. I
believe they were weider brand little 1lb neoprene/gel filled wrist
weights. They sit in a box under my desk. This past year for X-mas
he bought me some 1lb gloves. I had him return those, as I didn't
care to have something like that.

Here's a couple things to do as alternatives. Consider investing in
some 10, 15 and 20 lb dumbells (or in a set w/ interchangible weights
that can get you up to 25lbs - $50 at walmart). Spend 15 mins
doing upper body workouts w/ those weights, bent rows, bench press,
pulldowns, flys and delts, and then go for your walk. This will
anerobicly workout your upper body (weight resistence training - build
muscle, burn fat). Then the walk for cardio.

You only need to do that routine 2 to 3 times a week. On other days
you could use the same weights to do lunges, squats, deadlifts and
crunches and walk.

Spend 15 mins w/ the weights and 20 - 30 mins walking and you've got a
great workout. Be sure to stretch before and after. Less than 1 hr
you've got a good workout.

The only time I use weights with cardio now is if I'm using the
recumbent bike and want to get more out of the cardio session. Since
I'm in a sitting position to begin with, I can grab some light weights
and pump my arms, or do overhead lifts or flys, etc - just to work out
harder. But it doesn't build muscle.

This is not a good idea since you risk injury to joints etc. I did this
years ago until I had problems with my hip and arms. If you want to add more
weight use a weighted belt. This keeps the weights to the center of gravity
on your body. It adds resistance but no injury.
Roxan
"Susan Jones-Anderson" wrote in message
...
I want to start carrying little weights in my hands ( I guess these are
called dumbbells or free weights?)when I walk in the afternoons, any
suggestions on the best ones and what weight to start out with? I have
some that I use here at home after I bike but they are like 6lbs each
and way to heavy for carrying when walking.
Suggestions on weight brand and where to shop for them please?

Susan
260/219/160

---
2weeks 2days 17:33hours of being smoke-free, 677 cigs not smoked,
$125.25 saved, 2day 8:25hours of my life saved