Low weights for cardio

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I know most of the posters here advocate for heavier weight lifting but I'm currently looking at adding lighter weights to my cardio work out. As a skater I use a lateral slideboard in winter (or whenever else I can't get out for a regular long distance skate). The movement on a slide board is very intense, so my legs and core benefit hugely from a 30 minute or so session on it. But my arms don't get a lot out of it. Last night I grabbed a couple of tins from the kitchen to hold while pumping them and I can definitely feel the benefit in my biceps today. Not a lot but a little bit and definitely more than from holding nothing. I'm recovering from a sprained thumb though and that is aching bit from holding the width of a tin. (I also can't do the push-ups I'd normally add to my work out as they'd absolutely destroy my thumb.)

I'm very tempted to buy a set of light dumbells to use on the board. Something heavier than the (500g) tins obviously. And working my way up. I know there is a consensus that light weights are pointless and I get that just "pumping" a couple of KG isn't going to do much if anything for you. But my arms are pretty lean and muscular just from the action of long distance skating and balancing during figure skating. So adding small weights to a short but intense cardio session would surely benefit my arms (and maybe my pectoral muscles?) more than not holding them?

I'm hoping to do a cross-country (with poles) skate marathon in 10 months, so want to keep my arms and chest in decent condition when not using poles.

Could you try weighted gloves instead then you wouldn't need to grip anything

You can get weighted armbands too, they go round your wrists. I have seen them quite cheap in tkmaxx.

I don't have a problem gripping something as narrow as a dumbell, it was just keeping my thumb stretched around a food tin for half an hour that was the problem. Once I'm holding my thumb in it's fine. It's very close to healed now but I've set it back before so am very protective of it now.

Weighted gloves do look good. I prefer those to something on my wrist. Skaters wrists tend to be vulnerable at the best of times so weighting them would seem counter intuitive. But I've gone out and picked up a light set from Argos. So far I've mainly just used the 1.1kg set while on the board, though I did a few minutes with the 2.3kg pair. The 4.5kg weights actually do make the area at the base of my thumb achey, so I may avoid those completely for a few weeks.

I did find it interesting though, that when I lay on my back holding the heavier set up, how very thoroughly my mid-lower core was engaged. I hadn't really expected that. But it has made me more interested in possibly exploring heavier weights once my thumb is fully healed.

A light set of dumbells that is. I also like the dumbells as I can set them down and pick them up without pausing when I want to.

I'm mainly just curious as to how effective such light dumbells will be. My arms and shoulders definitely feel worked out from holding them. I just wonder how long before I adapt completely to them and they don't provide any real benefit?

I think it varies. I lift weights and start low, get form sorted, then build up gradually. Are you doing bicep curls with them or just holding them?

Holding them while I pump my arms. Skating alone has lead to my arms being very toned and surprisingly muscular. But I'll skate for 2+ hours. I can't maintain much more than 30 minutes on the board because it's seriously intensive. That 30 minutes is pretty equivalent to a long skate for my legs but I don't think my arms get much out of it.

They just don't feel engaged in anything like the same way. When I'm skating every movement I make with my whole body feels purposeful. It's part of the process. On the board, I'm just pumping my arms for the sake of it. They don't feel like an essential part of the movement just something that I'm moving about for the sake of it. With even the small weights, that changes and my arms just feel more engaged. So I'm going to keep it up with them but take my time about working up to the higher weights.

I think it'd also depend on the way you used dumbells. In my Pump class,with a knowledgeable istructir who coaches us, not just yells at us, she often points out that we need to keep the muscles in tension - so we do bicep curls with a quite small range of movement, but at the middle of the full range ie from straight down to bent up to shoulders IYSWIM. doing small fast bicep curl reps in the middle of that range - so around waist to lower rib height - really keeps the muscle under tension, thus encouraging exhaustion of the muscle, thus encouraging it to grow stronger.