Heavy Hands is a way of walking with light hand weights and using your arms on purpose. You walk at a normal pace and pump, lift and punch with a small weight in each hand. Your legs do what they always do, and your arms, shoulders and upper back join in. It turns an ordinary walk into a whole-body workout, it needs almost no equipment, and you can do it out the front door.
We wrote about it years ago and people still search for it, so here is an updated guide: where it came from, how to do it, how heavy the weights should be and a simple first week.
Where Heavy Hands came from
Heavy Hands was developed by Dr. Leonard Schwartz, a Pittsburgh psychiatrist who took up running in the late 1960s after reading Kenneth Cooper's book Aerobics. When an injury kept him from running, he started walking with hand-held weights and pumping his arms, and spent years refining the movements. His book, Heavyhands: The Ultimate Exercise System, came out in 1982 and made the idea popular. The core of it has not changed: use your arms and legs together, keep moving and keep the weights light.
What a Heavy Hands walk looks like
You hold a weight in each hand with a relaxed grip and walk briskly. Instead of letting your arms hang, you move them through a pattern in time with your steps. The classic one is the pump: as you step, one fist rises to about shoulder height while the other drops to your hip, then they switch. Once that feels natural you can mix in others.
- Pump. Alternate arms, fist to shoulder height, elbow bent. This is the base movement.
- Front raise. Lift both arms straight out in front to shoulder height, lower them, and repeat every few steps.
- Punch. Alternate short forward punches at chest height.
- Overhead press. Press one arm overhead, lower it, then the other. Keep it slow and controlled.
- Side raise. Lift both arms out to the side to shoulder height, then lower them.
A good session moves between patterns every minute or two, so no single muscle group gets tired before the rest of you.
How heavy should the weights be?
Lighter than you think. One pound in each hand is the right place to start for most people, even people who lift. The work comes from moving the weight hundreds of times through a full range, not from the load. Move up to two or three pounds once you can walk for 30 minutes with steady, controlled arm movement and no shoulder or elbow soreness the next day. Very fit people and athletes sometimes go heavier, but the gain from more weight is small compared with the gain from a bigger, faster arm swing.
Use weights you hold, not wrist or ankle weights. Ankle weights change the way you walk, and wrist weights pull on the joint at the end of every swing. Any pair of light dumbbells with a comfortable grip will do. Padded or strapped handles help if your hands tire.
A simple first week
- Day 1, 3 and 5: walk 20 minutes. Spend the first 5 minutes walking normally with the weights in your hands. Pump for the next 10 minutes, switching to front raises or punches whenever your shoulders start to feel it. Walk the last 5 minutes easy.
- Day 2 and 4: a normal walk with no weights.
- Weekend: rest, or an easy walk.
Add five minutes a week until you reach 30 to 45 minutes, three to five times a week. When that is comfortable, make the arm movements bigger before you make the weights heavier.
Common mistakes
- Squeezing the handles. A tight grip tires your forearms and is not the point. Hold the weights just firmly enough not to drop them.
- Swinging with momentum. Control the weight on the way up and on the way down. If you are flinging it, it is too heavy.
- Going too heavy too soon. This is the usual cause of sore shoulders and elbows. Stay at one pound longer than feels necessary.
- Slowing your walk. Keep your normal brisk pace. If the arm work makes you shuffle, use a smaller pattern.
Why people stick with it
It is simple. There is nothing to set up and nowhere to drive. A pair of light weights fits in a desk drawer or a suitcase, so you can walk at lunch or on a work trip. It also makes a walk more interesting, because you are changing what your arms do every few minutes, and a workout you look forward to is a workout you keep doing.
Check with your doctor first if
You have high blood pressure or a heart condition, a shoulder, elbow or wrist injury, or you are pregnant. Working your arms overhead raises your heart rate and blood pressure more than walking alone, so it is worth a conversation before you start.
What to eat around it
Nothing special is needed for a 30 minute walk. If you are walking to stay strong as you get older, protein matters more than anything you eat right before. A shake of whey protein isolate afterwards is an easy way to get 23 grams of it, and adding a scoop of Greenergy® gets your greens in at the same time.
Heavy Hands questions
Is Heavy Hands good for beginners?
Yes, if you start light. One pound in each hand and 20 minutes of walking is a sensible first week for most people.
How heavy should Heavy Hands weights be?
Start at one pound per hand. Move to two or three pounds only when 30 minutes of controlled arm movement leaves you with no joint soreness.
Can I use regular dumbbells?
Yes. Any light dumbbell with a comfortable grip works. Avoid wrist and ankle weights.
How often should I do it?
Three to five times a week, 30 to 45 minutes, once you have built up to it.
Who invented Heavy Hands?
Dr. Leonard Schwartz, a Pittsburgh psychiatrist, who described the system in his 1982 book Heavyhands: The Ultimate Exercise System.
