Weight vests / ankle weights / ect.

[Krio88]

I've been looking into purchasing weighted vests and / or ankle weights for use in running and to wear while training. Any place to look for good quality ones? Also, are there any serious health risks involved? One more: Is there such a thing as weighted clothing? I think I've heard of it somewhere, but maybe I'm wrong.

Thanks for the help,
Kevin Anderson

[Dojorat]

Greetins Kevin,

I would think long and hard before attaching extra weight to my ankles and going for a run. Unless I'm mistaken, the additional leverage can have some seriously negative effects on your knee joints and ligature.

As far as weighted clothing...
Buy the heaviest double weave Judogi you can find (one of those two sided/colored jobs which feel like two gis sewn together). Then, go jump in the lake (or pool or river or some other convenient body of water). Water weighs 2 lb per quart and a cotton gi soaks up a lot of water that you can then carry around well distributed.

Cheers,

[Steve Williams]

As Joe said there is a great risk to the knee joints when wearing ankle weights.

BUT when I was younger (late teens) I used to wear ankle weights to run, used to run about 3 or 4 miles 4 or 5 times a week with no problems at all.
Guess I was lucky, maybe it depends on your age and your physical condition (i.e. any previous injuries).

[Wong]

You can try these places on the net I found:

http://www.allprotraining.com
http://www.nefitco.com/ankle.html

See Yeah

[Steve Williams]

Try this link
http://www.webworld.co.uk/playwell/store.htm
Then enter the store and link to the "fitness equipment" section.
They are a UK company who ship worldwide and have the ankle weights and the weight vest you talked about.

[Krio88]

Thanks everyone for your help. I bought the ankle weights and can say they're great for training. I'm still deciding on the vest, $100 bucks seems a bit pricey to me.