[tater tash]

So, I started the other day walking with hand weights. I used them to give my arms a bit of a workout, because I hate sitting in the gym lifting. Well, I definitely feel like my biceps got a great work out and I had a really good walk on top of that (just because). But I went on a search engine to look up different arm 'workouts' I could do hoping I can find ways to give my triceps some action, but all that came up was "DONT WALK WITH WEIGHTS" "WEIGHTS WHILE WALKING IS A BAD IDEA" .. ETC.

Does anyone have an opinion about this? I'm not using the weights hoping that it would burn more calories in my cardio work out at all. I'm just using strictly for my arms.

Please let me know if I'm wasting my time or if anyone has suggestions or opinions, please post!

[nelie]

I don't know about walking with hand weights but walking with ankle weights is very bad which may be what you are hitting.

[ddc]

There is a program of walking with light hand weights called heavy hands walking.
I think that they recommend 1-2 lb weights.
Using anything heavier can be stressful on the joints.

[Ilene]

Here is another thread about Walking with hand weights
And this is what I had said about it...

Originally Posted by Ilene

I've always read that it's not good to walk with hand weights.

Here is an article explaining why and some alternatives...Alternatives For Walking With Hand Weights

Hope this helps

[tater tash]

Thanks Ilene! I think I'm going to look into something like the powerbelt! =]

[PhotoChick]

Walking with weights is not really going to build any muscle, if that's what you want to do. It'll build some to a point, but eventually you'll get to the point where you simply can't carry/lift weights heavy enough to do any good while you're walking. And you can't make the motions you'll need to make to get all over results, while you're walking.

Also you'll build imbalance by working one set of muscles and not the opposing group - like biceps/triceps, as you pointed out.

There are resistance type exercises that you can do that don't have you sitting at the gym lifting weights. You can do things like pushups, tricep dips, pullups, etc. You can also get a set of resistance bands and use those in lieu of barbells and so forth.

Hope that helps.

.