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Moving 600 gm/21 oz of weights attached to your leg can’t be strength training. Well it is and let me explain why, with a little help from a derivative of Newton’s Second Law – Force = mass x acceleration. Stick with me, it will make sense!

A major focus for many of us is developing the force capability or strength of ourselves and/or others, whether it be for injury prevention or performance. Traditionally we do this by placing large loads on bars (external forces) and large internal forces from the muscles are needed to lift the bar. This training method has a mass focus and as a result movement velocity and acceleration are small, (see formula in image) as it is impossible to lift a heavy load fast.

However, what some of us forget is that there is an alternative to developing high force capability and that is accentuating the acceleration component of the formula, by lifting light loads very quickly. The athlete in the picture on the right has 600 grams of wearable resistance on each thigh, not a lot some say, but start moving that quickly, as in sprint drills, and you are producing a lot of force/torque (rotational forces) at the hips. You can’t argue with physics. That is why wearable resistance works. Make sense?

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