Other/Mixed Heavyhands walking

[pet']

Hello

I stumbled across this article about heavy hands walking and found it both interesting. Essentially, it is walking with a pair of very light db and "pumping" them as we walk. Did someone try this ?

The 1980s Walking Workout That Will Actually Get You in Shape

When the physician and psychiatrist Leonard Schwartz surveyed his life at middle-age, he was not particularly happy with the state of himself as a physical specimen. Decades of smoking, overwork, and living a sedentary lifestyle had left him with high blood pressure, chronic back pain, and a...

www.artofmanliness.com

Kind regards,

Pet'

 

[SUOMI-PUKU]

IIRC Dan John seems to, or at least used to, swear by it and do it all the time after a workout.

 

[North Coast Miller]

I thought longer term studies demonstrated some risk to shoulders, back and neck - or is that all theoretical?

I used to do dynamic tension (isometric) with a leash when walking or jogging with the dog.

 

[Steve W.]

I had the book and the hand weights back in the '80s, and I think I gave it a fair shot, but decided it wasn't for me.

To me, it didn't feel good or natural. You have to generate all the intensity of the exercise by maintaining the arm pump, which never felt like a natural part of my walking stride. It was an extra movement I had to constantly pay attention to in order to maintain it. It was like walking while having to hold a cup of water at head level and not spill it -- not in terms of the actual movement, but in terms of the attention it took, and how unnatural and annoying it was to maintain it.

For my sustained low intensity cardio, I use a NordicTrack cross country ski machine, which incorporates arm swings with resistance. But the resistance is all in the pulling direction and it feel much more part of the natural stride.

For upper body "cardio" I do a lot of continuous clubbell swinging. With a 15lb club I can do mills, reverse mills, and shield casts continuously, switching hands every 5 reps. So I'll do sessions of 10-20 minutes of each drill. I'm also starting to incorporate 20 clubs, but cumulative grip fatigue is currently my limiting factor in going heavier.

 

[rwleonard]

Decades ago I did HH runs that I found gave me a huge bang for my buck. I had a 3.2 mile loop with a few moderate hills, and I did various bounds, hops and sprints on the hills, then easy running with curl and presses on the flats. I used 3 or 5 pounders, depending on how I felt. Anything over 5 lbs messed up my running gait too much for my tastes back then.

I use Nordic walking poles and a ruck for my full body LED work now, but if you are looking for your favorite, full body LED modality HH walking, slow jogging, or running are worth a test drive.

 

[3letterslong]

I do it all the time with 5lbs weights as LISS. When I go back to martial arts I'll work up to 10lb weights. At one time my goal was 25lbs weights, but I never met it. Doing it for an hour with 10lbs gave me endless strength and endurance in boxing.

The key to making it work is putting the weights through a maximal range of motion... you're not just carrying them alongside you. That means putting them as high overhead and as low to the ground as you can go in your strides, using dips and extensions with your legs. Or as far in front of you and as far behind you as you can.

I do it indoors, though, because I probably look insane. I follow this video:



At my peak, I did this for the entire hour-long video alternating 10 and 25lbs dumbbells.

 

[John K]

Hello

I stumbled across this article about heavy hands walking and found it both interesting. Essentially, it is walking with a pair of very light db and "pumping" them as we walk. Did someone try this ?

The 1980s Walking Workout That Will Actually Get You in Shape

When the physician and psychiatrist Leonard Schwartz surveyed his life at middle-age, he was not particularly happy with the state of himself as a physical specimen. Decades of smoking, overwork, and living a sedentary lifestyle had left him with high blood pressure, chronic back pain, and a...

www.artofmanliness.com

Kind regards,

Pet'

My short thoughts: It takes something I like to do and makes it unenjoyable. I'd rather run or ruck.

 

[Norville Barnes]

I like it!

it’s simple, and you can control the level of intensity by how high you raise the weights. 3 pounds is plenty, five tires my arms fairly quickly. It looks a little silly, but what doesn’t?

 

[rwleonard]

Snatches and Clean & Jerks don't, just sayin.

 

[Starlord]

It looks like a gimmick that rightfully died.

Many better alternatives, some of them already mentioned. Rucking, running, Ski-Erg, snatches, farmers carry etc.

 

[Norville Barnes]

Dan John included this in his weekly email - some thoughts here:

The 1980s Walking Workout That Will Actually Get You in Shape

When the physician and psychiatrist Leonard Schwartz surveyed his life at middle-age, he was not particularly happy with the state of himself as a physical specimen. Decades of smoking, overwork, and living a sedentary lifestyle had left him with high blood pressure, chronic back pain, and a...

www.artofmanliness.com

 

[Kev]

Marty Gallagher featured it in “the purposeful primitive”. That’s another book I own that someone’s blagged. Anyway it’s no just holding dumbbells there’s a lot of weird set moves your meant to do in public while you run/walk. I’ve never seen anyone do it but there are pics of the guy who came up with it in his 50s after being a chain smoking donut muncher (literally 50 a day and a box of donuts for lunch and he was a doctor) and Pavel referenced him in the Russian Kettlebell challenge. Len Schwarz I think.

 

[Kev]

Steve Jeks book lists the reps some of these Basque lifters achieved in 10 minutes (not unlike GS and some hardstyle tests) and the numbers and weights used are frankly inhuman. I’m going to get my nerd glasses out now because the following interests me. We now know that the original Europeans got invaded and largely wiped out by a tribe called the Yamnaya but there where enclaves that didn’t get outcompeted or wiped out in this very ancient mass migration/genocide and one of these populations was the Basques. In fact everyone from Romans, Moors and fascists have had a hell of a time trying to mess with the Basques. Hardy ancient peoples. I think Sardinia is another enclave of these original Europeans (think Franco Columbo).

 

[Antti]

Marty Gallagher featured it in “the purposeful primitive”. That’s another book I own that someone’s blagged. Anyway it’s no just holding dumbbells there’s a lot of weird set moves your meant to do in public while you run/walk. I’ve never seen anyone do it but there are pics of the guy who came up with it in his 50s after being a chain smoking donut muncher (literally 50 a day and a box of donuts for lunch and he was a doctor) and Pavel referenced him in the Russian Kettlebell challenge. Len Schwarz I think.

I immediately thought of Marty Gallagher after I read the title. I think he's still a big fan and has written an article or two on the subject. I'm not sure if there's anything new in them that isn't covered in the Purposeful Primitive.

Marty has really been around the block and I value his thoughts and experience a lot so I wouldn't dismiss the heavy hands practice. Never tried it myself, though.

 

[Kev]

Steve Jeks book lists the reps some of these Basque lifters achieved in 10 minutes (not unlike GS and some hardstyle tests) and the numbers and weights used are frankly inhuman. I’m going to get my nerd glasses out now because the following interests me. We now know that the original Europeans got invaded and largely wiped out by a tribe called the Yamnaya but there where enclaves that didn’t get outcompeted or wiped out in this very ancient mass migration/genocide and one of these populations was the Basques. In fact everyone from Romans, Moors and fascists have had a hell of a time trying to mess with the Basques. Hardy ancient peoples. I think Sardinia is another enclave of these original Europeans (think Franco Columbo).

I’m a pure plum. I posted this in the wrong thread. Sorry folks. Senior moment.

 

[Kev]

I immediately thought of Marty Gallagher after I read the title. I think he's still a big fan and has written an article or two on the subject. I'm not sure if there's anything new in them that isn't covered in the Purposeful Primitive.

Marty has really been around the block and I value his thoughts and experience a lot so I wouldn't dismiss the heavy hands practice. Never tried it myself, though.

I think it’s the 4 limbs working that Len Schwarz believed made this superior to running which he apparently “found lacking”. I’ve no idea. I’ve only just took up running and I’m probably a state doing that without also doing a proscribed load of moves out in the streets of Glasgow. You get crap here for the most innocent things and you grow up conscientious of getting crap and the fact you’ve probably doled it out too lol so I wouldn’t be doing it.

 

[Jeff Roark]

It works great for me. I also use it as my upper body warmup. John McKean suggested it to me and I've done it ever since. Here is a video I did awhile back on HH exercises that I use. Not sure if I shared it here or not.