You likely understand that wrist weights can help you get fitter but the best ways to do this may be unclear. The workouts below offer some inspiration.
The first thing to note is that if you want wrist weights to work, you want to use the right weight.
For resistance training exercises where the goal is growing and strengthening muscles, you want to use a weight where you can do the exercise about 6 to 15 times in a row before getting too tired to continue.
You can also go lighter than that but that would make the movements focus on training muscle endurance.
For the cardiovascular exercises, a general recommendation is up to 2 pounds (0.91 kg) and potentially even 3 pounds (1.4 kg). Exercise beginners want to start with light wrist weights or even just their body weight.
It becomes clear that adjustable wrist weights can be a good choice over models that only offer 1 level of resistance.
Lastly, the movements in the workouts will be explained quickly but for more in depth walkthroughs and demonstration videos, you want to check out the wrist weight exercises article.
1. Compound wrist weight workout
Compound movements are resistance training exercises that focus on multiple muscles at the same time. These can save you time and engage your muscles in a more “natural” ratio.
Shoulder presses are an exercise where you push your hands with wrist weights up and lower them again. Keep your upper arms pointing forward enough.
Squats involve lowering your hips by going through your knees as far as comfortable. Keep your spine more or less straight. You may also need to add other resistance besides wrist weights to make the movement challenging enough.
To do a bent-over row, you tilt your upper body forward and raise your hands to your body and back. Again keep your spine more or less straight.
Lastly, there are floor or bench presses where you pull your shoulder blades back and down, lie down on a comfortable surface, and push the wrist weights up and lower them against your chest.
Keep your upper arms at 45-degree angles to your sides.
You can combine these exercises in the following wrist weight compound workout:
- 15 forward arm circles that start small and gradually become bigger as you do bodyweight squats to warm up
- 15 backward arm circles with squats in a similar way to warm up
- 12 wrist weight shoulder presses
- 2 minutes of rest
- Repeat 2 to 4 sets of these shoulder presses with rest
- 12 wrist weight squats
- 2 minutes of rest
- Repeat 2 to 4 sets of these squats with rest
- 12 wrist weight bent-over rows
- 2 minutes of rest
- Repeat 2 to 4 sets of these bent-over rows with rest
- 12 wrist weight floor/bench presses
- 2 minutes of rest
- Repeat 2 to 4 sets of these bench presses with rest
The goal here is to use wrist weights where you can barely complete all of the sets in your workout for the specific exercises you do.
If you can do 12 repetitions in all sets, it is likely time to choose a heavier wrist weight. Not being able to hit 12 repetitions for all sets is a good sign you are using a weight that is challenging enough.
For people who keep these principles in mind and apply them, wrist weights can build muscle.
2. HIIT cardiovascular wrist weight workout
One of the advantages of wrist weights is that you can use them for different types of workouts. This type of fitness equipment can also be used for cardiovascular workouts.
The example workout below is high-intensity interval training (HIIT). This may sound scary but keep in mind that your high intensity should not be the same speed as an athlete.
You just want to push yourself harder than usual to safe extents. That being said, if you are new to working out, you want to do the wrist weight exercises used with just your body weight at a light pace and build up from there.
These movement sessions will often offer similar benefits as just wearing wrist weights all day but in a shorter amount of time.
Next, the workout below involves switching up between short durations of intense exercise and rest periods. Exactly what movements you want to do depends on personal preference.
Some examples of intense exercises you can use include high knees, jumping jacks (or step jacks), punches, and squats with shoulder presses. Examples of rest period movements include jogging in place, marching, or walking.
- 2 minutes of jogging in place, marching, or walking to warm up
- 30 seconds of an intenser exercise
- 90 seconds of jogging in place, marching, or walking
- Keep alternating between these 30-second and 90-second intervals about 8-14 times.
- 2 minutes of jogging in place, marching, or walking to cool down
If you are not a fan of HIIT workouts you can also simply do steady-state cardio workouts.
These involve doing the movements above at a medium pace for an extended period of time. You can switch up the exact exercises you do throughout the workout to keep things interesting.
3. Isolation wrist weight workout
Lastly, there are also wrist weight exercises for working specific muscles. You can use these to tone specific areas of your arms or upper body. Wrist weights can be just as good as dumbbells in these and potentially even better.
This is because arm isolation exercises are typically done with lighter weights and some people find wrist weights more comfortable than holding a dumbbell.
Bicep curls are an exercise where you stand up straight, keep your upper arms by your sides, and fold your arms at the elbows as far as comfortable.
In overhead tricep extensions, you point your upper arms upward, lower your wrist weights behind your head by folding your arms at the elbows, and stretch your arms again.
Next, bent-over rear delt raises include tilting your upper body forward while keeping your spine straight and raising your slightly less than stretched arms sideways and outward until they are in about one line.
Lastly, shrugs simply involve standing up straight, raising your shoulders as far as comfortable, and lowering them again.
- 15 forward arm circles that start small and gradually become bigger to warm up
- 15 backward arm circles in a similar way to warm up
- 12 wrist weight bicep curls
- 2 minutes of rest
- Repeat 2 to 4 sets of these bicep curls with rest
- 12 wrist weight overhead tricep extensions
- 2 minutes of rest
- Repeat 2 to 4 sets of these overhead tricep extensions with rest
- 12 wrist weight bent-over rear delt raises
- 2 minutes of rest
- Repeat 2 to 4 sets of these bent-over rear delt raises with rest
- 12 wrist weight shrugs
- 2 minutes of rest
- Repeat 2 to 4 sets of these shrugs with rest
When it comes to what weights to use, the same principles as the compound wrist weight workout apply. The main differences are that you focus on more specific and other muscles.
There are other isolation exercises besides the ones used above. If you have any other muscles you want to work on, you can use different movements too.
