Egg Weights Review: Weighted Exercise like Over-Easy Eggs

Weighted Calisthenics becomes ever so much easier with Egg Weights. Carry them with you, hold on to them, fight imagined opponents with them; the list of options for using the Egg Weights goes on. They do very little on their own, but they can augment practically any exercise you do. They are easy to use and suitable for just about anyone, any age and any level of fitness. For this extensive review, we’ve done many of the staple exercises which ordinarily need some kind of makeshift solution. So? What are Egg Weights and how can you implement them into your workout? We’ll tell you everything you need to know about these eggcentric training implements.

What Are Egg Weights?

In an eggshell, the Egg Weights are weights you hold in your hands while your do workouts. There is more to this, of course. The weights get their name because of their (kind of) egg-like shape. This makes them more ergonomic and just easier to close your hands around. They come in different weights from 1lbs up to 5lbs and are all fitted with a rubber cover and finger hole for added grip and comfort.

Despite their different weights, their size varies very little to none. By making use of denser and denser metal alloys, the weight can be increased but the Egg Weights themself can be kept relatively uniform in size and shape. They won’t tell us what the alloys exactly are, but the lighter ones are most likely stainless steel. The heavier ones are speculated to be tungsten or stainless steel with a lead or tungsten insert. This is all speculation and, quite frankly, beside the point.

Whatever the alloys happen to be, you have a great range of options for workout weights while all remaining hand-sized. Whether you’re just holding them while hiking (substituting those boomeresque walking sticks) or you’re shadow boxing to increase your punching speed, they beat holding onto dumbbells by a large margin.

Egg Weights Review 

We received our Egg Weights for reviewing in good order. Shipping was free because we ordered for more than $80.- (we ordered the Fitness Bundle). You get a lifetime guarantee on the metal and a 1-year guarantee on the rubber housing. That’s a lot confidence they’re putting in their product, so a promising start right there.

We weighed them and as far as our kitchen scale was concerned, they all weighed according to their specifications. The metal looked smooth and polished without any defects. They’re obviously not very complex devices, being solid metal or perhaps at best with another type of metal as a core. The real magic is the alloying process; getting the alloy just right for the specified weight while not deviating any from the total volume. That way all Egg Weights are more or less the exact same dimensions. 

The rubber sleeve felt soft and comfortable. The finger ring is a one-size-fits-all which should provide enough retention for just about anyone. Don’t expect a perfectly snug fit unless you just happen to have that perfectly matched finger thickness. But the finger ring does mean you don’t even have to really hold them. They’re just there, as part of your hand.

They reminded some of us of a grenade, including the checkered pattern of the rubber sleeves. Indeed, the lightest 1.0lbs version has almost the same weight and dimension as the grenades used in the military. Perhaps that’s where the inspiration for them came from?

Egg Weights for Boxing 

The first thing which comes to our mind, is to use the Egg Weights for shadow boxing. Although not technically Calisthenics, boxing leaning more towards to explosive power and stamina, much of the physical flexibility is nonetheless the same. 

The aim of shadow boxing with Egg Weights is to make your fists heavier. This will make it harder to throw fast punches. Consequently, when you then lose the weights, your punches will fly faster. By adding the weights, you go a step beyond the notion of “you fight like you train and you train like you fight.” You’re now training harder than you fight, making the fight itself easier than the training.

The traditional implement would be a dumbbell held in your fists. However, these weights have one substantial, game-changing advantage over the dumbbells. With dumbbells, most of the weight is on either side of your wrist. Any twisting of your wrist will be impacted by the momentum generated by those weights through centrifugal force. This can be very straining on your wrists and can cause injury to the tendons in your wrist.

With Egg Weights, that weight is situated more centrally, causing much less centrifugal force when you turn your wrist. Your wrists don’t tire nearly as quickly and there is much less concern for injury. We opted to use 4.0lbs Knockout set for our shadow boxing. They seemed the perfect weight for this.

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Egg Weights for Running

Walking, jogging, sprinting, it can all be done with the Egg Weights held in your hands. Your aim here is to increase your calory burn and enhance your stamina. By moving your hands up and down with every stride you make, you increase the energy expenditure by 30%. It doesn’t take a lot of extra weight held in your hands before you really start noticing the difference. Remember, with every step or stride you’re almost doing a bicep curl as well as moving the shoulders. 

Except, any given stroll in the park or lap around the track can easily see you lifting these things hundreds of times over. This not only improves the rate at which you burn calories, it also trains your muscles’ twitch rate and fast muscle movements; increasing flexibility and the strength with which you can make fast movements.

We used the 1lbs and 1.5lbs for jogging. They also sell weights specifically made for jogging, with a more ergonomic shape and an indentation to place your thumb on top. You hold these like you hold Nordic Walking sticks.

Egg Weights in Calisthenics

What use are Egg Weights in Calisthenics? We’re a Calisthenics blog after all and our dear readers will probably have guessed some of it. Much of Calisthenics relies on you lifting, pushing or pulling your own bodyweight. You can’t do that if your hands are filled by weights. This is why Calisthenics practitioners make use of other methods to add weights to their bodies like Weighed Vests or Dip Belts.

The thing is, most Weighted Calisthenics focusses on either your core or your legs. There are almost no options, outside of using dumbbells (which have their drawbacks, mainly for your wrists) when it comes to your arms and shoulders. Sure, you can implement body-building techniques into your routine but those too have their drawbacks. Calisthenics is much more movement oriented. You don’t just want to bulk up muscle. So, what if you bench-press an x amount of weight in a static environment? 

Jogging is a great moment to use your Egg Weighs. For us, that means moving up to the 4.0lbs set and in the future most likely the larger 5.0 set. That way, we can add Weighted Calisthenics to our arms and shoulders as well as our core and legs. A second option is to use them during your warm-up. Many stretching and limb-moving exercises during warm-up leave your hands free. We recommend doing this towards the end, when your body is already stretched and warmed up sufficiently to avoid injury.

Egg Weights Exercises

There are many exercises to which you can simply add your Egg Weights; walking, jogging, boxing, stretching, and so on. One area which we mustn’t dismiss is Yoga. It’s almost like Yoga was made with these weights in mind and as we know, Yoga and Calisthenics go hand in hand. To give you an indication of what’s possible with these nifty weights, we’ve taken a selection of a popular exercises to show you.

Side Planks

Start in a normal Plank position, then transition into a Side Plank while holding the Egg Weights and extend the free arm all the way up above you. Doing regular Side Planks is already an exercise of strong shoulder and core control. The added weight gives this exercise an extra dimension and a bit harder to do.

Horse Stance Jabs

Maintain a Horse Stance while performing slow, straight jabs until failure. Easy to perform technically but seriously underrated, normal Horse Stance and jabs are super effective for creating powerful thighs, glutes and core muscles, the Egg Weights add to this almost naturally.

9 Running Routines with Your Egg Weights

The Egg Weights Website has 9 great running routines which you can combine with your weights. They are more aerobic instead of Calisthenics centered, but they are an excellent complement to your strength training.

Other Exercises to Combine with Egg Weights

• Squats + Shoulder Push Out
• Squats + Uppercut (with waist rotation)
• Lunge + shoulder push out
• Jumping Lunges + shoulder push out
• Hollow Body Hold with raised arms
• Hollow Body Hold Crunches
• Hollow Body Hold Crunches + Shoulder Push Out
• Shadow Boxing
• Jumping Jacks

Benefits of Using Egg Weights

Weighted Calisthenics works for a reason. Weightlifting works for a reason. Your muscles are designed to do what engineers call “useful work”, that is to say to displace mass. In fact, without regular use of your muscles, they will deteriorate. Using weights to stay in shape is not limited to just body-building, it is essential to maintain sufficient lean muscle mass. That’s one benefit of using Egg Weights you can’t ignore. Other benefits are:

• They are easy to use and versatile
• Comfortable to hold and train with
• Portable and compact (unlike dumbbells)
• Don’t strain your wrists like dumbbells will
• Better core activation
• Better arm and shoulder activation 
• Better movement and posture while jogging
• Enhanced calory burn
• Enhanced stamina build-up

They are also 100% made in the Land of the Free and come with a life-time guarantee on the metal.

Other Products from Egg Weights

Not part of this review but still worth mentioning are a number of other Egg Weights products. They are related enough to the products we reviewed to be included into this article.

Running Pods

We briefly mentioned these above already. Running Pods are essentially the same as Egg Weights but with a more ergonomically shaped form and a dimple on top where you place your thumb. You grip them more like conventional Nordic Walking sticks and they are meant as replacements for those. They add more weight than simple fiberglass sticks and can be used not just for walking but for jogging and running as well. The normal versions are perfectly serviceable to this end as well, but if you’re planning to primarily be doing jogging or hiking with these, going for a purpose-build Running Pod is a good idea.

Egg Weights Adjustable Dumbbells a.k.a. Torque Force

Torque Force are the Egg Weights Adjustable Dumbbells. The weights on the end of the grip can be removed and exchanged for different sizes and weights. That’s a pretty nifty thing to have but there’s more and here is where it gets really interesting. The way the weights interface with the grips is the same way how pulleys interface with weights on gym equipment. This gives a whole new dimension to training those jabs, haymakers and uppercuts.

Alternatives to Egg Weights

Here are four alternatives to using Egg Weights.

Weighted Gloves

Weighted Gloves act very similarly to Egg Weights in that they add easy to hold weights to your hands. Their biggest advantage is that they require even less effort to hold on too and you can sort of use your hands normally. For some, this feels more natural and less of a distraction. Their drawback is that they’ll trap warmth and all that sweat has nowhere to go.

Dumbbells

The most obvious choice after Egg Weights is to use (light weight) dumbbells. These serve the exact same function and can be used to almost the same effect. They are less comfortable on the wrists since the weight sticking out on either side will cause centrifugal force to be put on your wrists everything you rotate them.

DIY Egg Weights

You can make your handheld weights, with quite a similar appearance and function as the real thing. Collect 1 pound of pennies (that’s 150 pennies in total) and divide them into two piles of ½lbs (so 75 each). Put each pile into a plastic bag and squish them in your hand palm to the desired shape. Wrap this roughly egg-shaped package in one or two layers of duct tape and you have yourself DIY Egg Weights. These will be quite serviceable, although the tape attracts sweat.

Wrist Weights

In the same line as Weighted Gloves, Wrist Weights add weight to your forearm. Their main advantage is that they leave your hands free to be used as you please. Their drawbacks are that some of their weight rests directly on or near to your wrists and that we fail to see the point. If your hands are free to use, it means you’ll be lifting weights (your own body or otherwise). In that case, there are better ways to weigh down your body like with a Weighted Vest or just add another disk?