The Ankle Straps for Dumbbells are relatively new in the athletic world. The design idea behind them is simple – firmly attach a dumbbell to your foot. However, you can find a lot of strength, mobility, AND injury-prevention benefits behind the simple design.
Let’s dig into this exercise tool and see what it can do, the benefits it brings, and which exercises you can tackle besides hip flexors.
Table of Contents
What are Ankle Straps for Dumbbells?
The name is quite self-explanatory. It is a tool that helps you firmly attach a standard dumbbell to the bottom of your foot. This feature, no matter how confusing at first, opens a new way for hip-flexor training. By making your feet heavier, the biomechanics change quite a bit.
Securing the weight all the way under your feet brings a new twist to a few good-old exercises.
How to use the Ankle Straps?
Here’s how to do hip flexor raises with the ankle straps for dumbbells:
- Use the strap system to firmly attach both your foot and the dumbbell
- Stand on a slightly elevated surface with your other leg (this can be done on a flat one as well)
- Square your hips and brace your core
- Leading with your knee, raise your leg up toward your chest
- Hold for a brief moment
- Repeat
What exercises can you do with the ankle straps for dumbbells?
Now, hip flexor raises are the main event when it comes to ankle straps for dumbbells, no doubt about it. But, once you get a grip on how the strap works, you can also tackle:
- Hip Abductions
- Leg Curls
- Leg Extensions
- Ankle rotations
- Tibialis Raises
The Benefits of Using Ankle Straps
The biggest benefit of using ankle straps for dumbbells is the specific way they target hip flexors. You get to strengthen weak and tight hip flexors with just one dumbbell.
Additionally, with the straps, you get to do leg curls and extensions with free weight. This in turn targets the finer stabilizer muscles that hide under big muscle groups.
This way you get to do the exercises usually done on a machine (fixed path) in a new, free-weight way.
Lastly, you can develop ankle and tibialis strength with tib raises and ankle rotation.
And, as a bonus, the ankle strap weighs virtually nothing and can use a dumbbell of up to 45 kg, which is more than enough for even the most advanced athletes.
Ankle Straps for Dumbbells - The Conclusion
There’s rarely a piece of exercise equipment this versatile. The ankle straps for dumbbells put a new twist on some old exercises, making them free-weight and more challenging. If you’re looking for a way to bulletproof your knees, ankles, and hips – this is it.
Just remember to start slow and easy, since you will be activating a lot of muscles with each of the exercises we mentioned.
So, get yourself some ankle straps for dumbbells and start lifting with your legs. It sounds odd, but it’s worth the strength and mobility gains.
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