The pros and cons of running with a sandbag

Many athletes perform weight-bearing exercises during their normal physical training. For example, some people carry two dumbbells in their hands during jogging training, or tie two sandbags to their left and right calves while running, trying to improve their training results by increasing the exercise load. Many people think that tying sandbags on the calves while running can effectively improve running ability. But another group of people think that weight-bearing exercises are not advisable because they can cause irreversible damage to the human body.

1. Benefits of running with a sandbag

Many runners improve their performance very quickly at the beginning, but then reach a bottleneck and their performance cannot be improved for a long time. They will then adopt this method of training. After a period of time, when they take off the sandbags, their legs will feel as light as a feather and they will feel like they are flying, and their running performance will naturally improve. Running with sandbags tied to your calves will burn more calories, speed up your heart rate, increase the body's oxygen consumption, increase leg muscle strength, and enhance endurance, aerobic capacity, and explosive power. The bones of people who exercise regularly can be stimulated by hard force and have better bone quality. Weight-bearing exercise can stimulate bones, facilitate the influx of calcium, and delay the loss of bone calcium.

2. Disadvantages of running with a sandbag

The training method of running with sandbags tied to the legs is actually a relatively old method. It is not very scientific and can cause great damage to our body. First of all, the increase in leg weight will cause the knee joint to bear a greater burden than usual. In this case, our knee injuries will be greater, and it is easy to make the calves thicker and cause knee strain. Secondly, after taking off the sandbags, the muscles' habit of pushing off the ground can easily cause deformation of the movement. Tying sandbags on the legs will change the distribution of the body's center of gravity, which is not conducive to maintaining the correct running posture and will increase the risk of injury. Again, the pressure of the sandbag on the legs is not conducive to blood circulation in the legs. Long-term pressure of the sandbag on the leg muscles can easily cause muscle deformation.

3. The correct way to tie the sandbag leggings

There are two types. One is sand leggings, which are wider and tied around the calves. Be sure to wear socks or bandages, otherwise it will move around. The other type is narrower and is specifically tied around the ankle joint, that is, the ankle.

4. Precautions for tying sandbags on legs

The purpose of tying sandbags on your legs is to exercise your body. You only tie them when you need them and take them off when you are done. The weight of the sandbag should be something you can bear and not be a burden. If you experience ankle pain, you should stop bearing the weight immediately and go to a regular hospital for examination if necessary to rule out the possibility of other sports injuries. For teenagers, if they want to use sandbags for exercise, it is best to do so while walking or jogging. They should avoid using sandbags when playing basketball, football, or other intense confrontational sports.