Ready to give your joints a break? Here are 12 low-impact moves you can do right at home with just a few pieces of equipment. 12 Low-Impact Exercises You Can Do at Home In fact, anyone can benefit from an isometric workout plan, including those who exercise regularly or hope to move on to more intense activities like HIIT, running or boxing.
“This way you get to stay active while still recovering and maximizing your energy output.”īefore trying a new workout, it’s always best to consult a coach, trainer or physician to come up with a plan that works for you, but “the gentle nature of low-impact exercises makes them a great option for those newer to working out,” Carlinsky and Sexton tell us. The Bonded by the Burn duo also find it beneficial to mix in a low-impact workout in between higher impact days to add balance to their routine. They’re also a great option for anyone recovering from an injury, depending on the type of injury and feedback from your doctor. What Are the Benefits of Low-Impact Exercises?Īside from strengthening the muscles around your joints, low-impact exercises can help build core strength and improve posture. In fact, low-impact training can help target those small stabilizing muscles that surround your joints to help increase your overall strength, flexibility and balance. They’ll still increase your heart rate and challenge your muscles (just with way less stress on the body). “Low-impact exercises are those that are gentler on the joints or can be performed in a fluid motion,” like walking, cycling, yoga or pilates.īut are lower-impact moves less effective than the high-impact stuff? Not necessarily. “Higher-impact exercises put a more intense level of impact on your joints and tend to involve some form of jumping or jolting.” So if you have cranky knees or weak ankles, anything involving explosive, plyometric movement (like jumping jacks) could do more harm than good by causing inflammation or even tearing in the tendons and ligaments. “When it comes to exercise, impact refers to the amount of force exerted on your bones and joints during physical activity,” Tracy Carlinsky and Lucy Sexton, co-founders of the digital fitness platform Bonded by the Burn tell us. If you love your runs or at-home HIIT workouts, it might be time to swap that three-mile jog for something a little lighter on the joints. A safe and productive workout routine is all about balance (we hear crunches pair nicely with Crunch Bars), but a high-intensity regimen is only as effective as it is sustainable.