Effectiveness of ankle weights
📌There may be reasons to prescribe this exercise, and the main one is cultural here in Brazil. Everyone tries to train their glutes, whether on a machine…with ankle weights…or on the Smith machine!! It’s all over the internet and in magazines. Imagine showing up at the gym and doing away with the exercise everyone talks about.
📌Another reason that might lead to this choice is, for example, a health issue that prevents someone from doing other, more effective exercises.
“So, did I waste my time?” Yes… you did. There are better… MUCH BETTER exercises…such as deep squats, Smith machine lunges, leg presses, deadlifts…etc. Remember, there are no good or bad exercises; there are professionals who do or don’t know how to use them!
One more thing
A few physiological “truths”: muscle isn’t modeling clay, and the idea that “this” shapes your body is one of the biggest myths in the fitness world!
So, are ankle weights effective?
I always come back to the same point. Trendy exercises may work for certain people, but that doesn’t mean they’re a good fit for your workout.
The key is this: always focus on compound exercises, because they’re safe and are sure to deliver what you’re looking for.
What we know is that these exercises are biomechanically more effective when performed through a full range of motion (depending on the client’s flexibility).
If you really want to work your glutes and have no restrictions, these exercises should be part of your daily routine. So forget about doing quad exercises with ankle weights.
The most popular gluteus maximus exercises with ankle weights are quadruped kickbacks, which stimulate only 30% of the glute muscles. Of course, quadruped kickbacks do provide a stimulus, but you can’t use much weight, and the body often ends up wasting energy.
When the other leg performs the exercise, the spine can be injured because excessive rotation overloads the muscles in the lower back.
Often, the lower back and gluteus medius become fatigued before the gluteus maximus, leading to overtraining.
