How to count walking with weights?

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redefiningmyself
redefiningmyself Posts: 476 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I recently started carrying hand weights while walking. It feels like its upping my cardio, plus, I get in a bit of weight work at the same time. But i have no idea how to count it in the exercise notes. Any recommendations?

Thanks!:wink:

Replies

  • frogmommy
    frogmommy Posts: 151 Member
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    How much weight are you carrying? While I don't know for certain, I would speculate that it is the extra calorie burn as if it were extra body weight. For example, if a 100 pound woman was carrying no weight for an hour, she would burn X calories. If that same 100 pound woman carried 10 pound weights in each hand for an hour, it would be a similar calorie burn as a 120 pound woman.

    With that said, I don't know if the extra calorie burn is worth trying to figure out and record, especially since it would be easy to overestimate the extra calories burned. But, as long as it is not stressing your joints, I imagine that carrying weights will help with toning.
  • redefiningmyself
    redefiningmyself Posts: 476 Member
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    I just started carrying 6 pounds (3 pounds each) But I do the arm motions - eg shoulders to over head, chest out -etc.
    I plan to move up to more. But I just started and I'm huffing a lot more even with these....
  • frogmommy
    frogmommy Posts: 151 Member
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    Hmmmm... Maybe something between aerobics (the arm motions) and walking? I am always worried that mfp overestimates calories burned, but it certainly sounds like you are doing more than just walking.
  • amscobra
    amscobra Posts: 73
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    I can't promise this will help at all, but i've recently started walking more outside while pushing a double stroller with my two youngest in it, and that alone is extra weight. My hubby found this site that adds it in. Maybe it might have something with weights in it for you. http://www.caloriecontrol.org/healthy-weight-tool-kit/lighten-up-and-get-moving
  • mamagooskie
    mamagooskie Posts: 2,964 Member
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    I think the best way would be to get a HRM and that way it will calculate exactly what you burn during your walks. Since not only is the lbs that weights are a factor but also what you are doing with them (arm lifts, bicep curls etc) or just hanging them at the sides etc.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Exaggerated arm swing, with or without weights, is the most significant factor for increasing the aerobic intensity of walking. Carrying small weights adds almost nothing-either cardiac or strength.

    Trying to do strength-type exercises while walking will not give you much return for your effort. Small weights are not enough resistance to increase strength, and doing random arm movements are more likely to slow you down.

    If you want to use weights while walking , stick to the big arm swing (hands to shoulder height). If you keep a steady pace it might add 10% to your calories.
  • jacksonalan
    jacksonalan Posts: 17
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    If it were me, I wouldn't try to figure it out. If it works to tone your arms, count it as an added benefit.

    I am very specific on recording what I consume, but I use the calories burned on my Omron pedometer for my walking entries. There may be some days where you just don't want to walk with hand and/or ankle weights. The recommendation of using a HRM that calculates calories may be your best route.
  • redefiningmyself
    redefiningmyself Posts: 476 Member
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    Thanks everyone. :)
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    I think the best way would be to get a HRM and that way it will calculate exactly what you burn during your walks. Since not only is the lbs that weights are a factor but also what you are doing with them (arm lifts, bicep curls etc) or just hanging them at the sides etc.

    The only problem with that is that arm work, especially overhead, tends to increase heart rate without a big increase in either oxygen uptake or calories. So an HRM will almost certainly overestimate calories if you are doing those types of movements (e.g. overhead presses).
  • JustAnotherBob
    JustAnotherBob Posts: 33
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    I think the best way would be to get a HRM and that way it will calculate exactly what you burn during your walks. Since not only is the lbs that weights are a factor but also what you are doing with them (arm lifts, bicep curls etc) or just hanging them at the sides etc.

    The only problem with that is that arm work, especially overhead, tends to increase heart rate without a big increase in either oxygen uptake or calories. So an HRM will almost certainly overestimate calories if you are doing those types of movements (e.g. overhead presses).

    Mind if I disagree or at least question your answer? (I wear an Polar HRM when exercising) If you increase the heart rate (and therefore respiration) one must presume that the oxygen intake must increase ... and if the heart rate increases then one must also presume that calories burned will increase. I would agree if the poster was discussing sitting exercises (overhead presses, lat pulls, etc) but they were refering to arm exercises while walking. I wear ankle weights and wrist weights while walking and definately feel that they add to the workout. While sitting at the machines and doing just arm or leg work, my heart rate only increase by about 15% ... while walking without weights I easily double my resting heart rate ... and while adding ankle and leg weights I add another 10-15 beats/min. Plus it really feels good when I take the darn things off! Note that I do not recommend heavy weights as they can stress the ankles and wrists (I use 5 lbs). My walking partner uses walking sticks instead of weights and is trying to convert me. To each their own.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    I think the best way would be to get a HRM and that way it will calculate exactly what you burn during your walks. Since not only is the lbs that weights are a factor but also what you are doing with them (arm lifts, bicep curls etc) or just hanging them at the sides etc.

    The only problem with that is that arm work, especially overhead, tends to increase heart rate without a big increase in either oxygen uptake or calories. So an HRM will almost certainly overestimate calories if you are doing those types of movements (e.g. overhead presses).

    Mind if I disagree or at least question your answer? (I wear an Polar HRM when exercising) If you increase the heart rate (and therefore respiration) one must presume that the oxygen intake must increase ... and if the heart rate increases then one must also presume that calories burned will increase. I would agree if the poster was discussing sitting exercises (overhead presses, lat pulls, etc) but they were refering to arm exercises while walking. I wear ankle weights and wrist weights while walking and definately feel that they add to the workout. While sitting at the machines and doing just arm or leg work, my heart rate only increase by about 15% ... while walking without weights I easily double my resting heart rate ... and while adding ankle and leg weights I add another 10-15 beats/min. Plus it really feels good when I take the darn things off! Note that I do not recommend heavy weights as they can stress the ankles and wrists (I use 5 lbs). My walking partner uses walking sticks instead of weights and is trying to convert me. To each their own.

    It's not a topic to be agreed or disagreed with--it's exercise physiology 101. The basic science on this topic is 50-60 years old. Arm work increases heart rate WITHOUT a concomitant increase in either oxygen uptake or calories expended. Since an HRM estimates calories strictly on the basis of the normal relationship between heart rate and oxygen uptake, any activity that distorts this relationship--in this case arm work--will cause the HRM to overestimate calories expended--sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot.

    The research on the effects of walking with hand and ankle weights is also definitive and was done 25 years ago, during the "heavyhands" era of exercise.
  • dnn8350
    dnn8350 Posts: 2
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    In actual fact the competent research done during the Heavyhands era at the University of Pittsburgh demonstrated that, correctly performed, combined arm and leg work does indeed consume considerable extra oxygen and burn many extra calories compared to the same leg work alone. When analysed in detail, the "contradictory" researched is revealed to have involved only carrying the extra weights, as opposed to employing them in vigorous coordinated movement. Furthermore, both the ability to perform, and the physiological response to, this type of exercise is highly susceptible to training, as with any other exercise modality, so it is to be expected that experienced exercisers would develop greatly enhanced ability both to consume oxygen and burn calories during workouts of this type.

    Speaking personally, though I have not participated in lab tests, I am in a position, after many years experience, to compare my own levels of perceived effort, heart-rate, rates of respiration and sweat production, and overall work performed whilst walking with various-sized hand-weights, as compared with running, hillwalking, skiing and other strenuous activities which I also do. All I can say is that if performing continuous rapid tempo arm movements with 10 pound weights whilst striding on varied terrain, many of the movements to full overhead stretch, for an hour at a time (sometimes longer) isn't real oxygen-consuming work, I don't know what is! I would add that after 25 years+ of this sort of thing my tendon and joint health and mobility, in my sixties, are excellent, and my resting and maximum heart-rates are both exemplary, as is my BP.

    David Nyman

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