PAY ATTENTION on impact your cardio focused sweat session it has on your mood (hopefully positive) and your energy levels. For some people, going for a run is the highlight of their day.
But have you ever thought about the impact your cardio routine has on your joints? If you don’t have arthritis, a preexisting knee or hip injury, or other chronic injuries, you probably don’t. But strength and conditioning specialists do have a note of caution for pavement hitters regarding their long-term health and fitness goals. Low-impact cardio training, which doesn’t put as much load on your joints, may be a safer alternative for your joints than high-impact cardio training, which puts stress on your joints. This is true for all populations, regardless of whether you are healthy or suffering from an ailment such as arthritis.
Let’s take a look at exactly why low-impact cardio can be especially beneficial to your fitness plan and exactly how to incorporate it into your training to maximize both your cardiovascular fitness and your overall health and wellness.
What is low impact cardio?
Generally speaking, cardio: Short for cardiovascular exercise, also known as aerobic training— is any type of exercise that increases your heart rate for a prolonged period of time. Low-impact cardio is a category of exercise that specifically gets your heart rate up in a joint-friendly way, explains Jake Harcoff, CSCShead coach and owner athletic goal. Unlike high-impact cardio, “low-impact cardio doesn’t put excessive or damaging amounts of stress on the body,” he says.
As a general rule of thumb, “if your feet stay in contact with the pedal or the ground the entire time, it’s low impact,” he says. Meanwhile, if your feet leave the ground (or the pedal or the platform), that’s a high-impact exercise. So while swimming, biking, and rowing are considered low-impact activities, plyometric jumps, running, and jumping jacks are all high-impact activities.
To be clear: low impact does not equal low intensity. Impact refers to how much stress the exercise puts on your joints, while intensity refers to how hard an exercise is. “A high-intensity workout is a workout you can’t talk about while you’re doing it, while a low-intensity workout is a workout you can have a conversation about,” says the exercise physiologist. Peter McCallMS, CSCS, CPT, headquarters of the All About Fitness Podcast. Despite common misconceptions, a workout can be low-impact Y high intensity, he says. Case in point: Assault bike, SkiErg, or rowing machine sprints. No one is going to claim that these are low-effort activities.
The benefits of low-impact cardio
Cardio training, again any training that gets your heart rate up, is very good for your health.
“Your heart is a muscle,” explains McCall. “Any time you increase your heart rate for an extended period of time, you’re training your heart to pump nutrient- and oxygen-rich blood throughout your body more efficiently,” he says. Cardiovascular training has also been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, lower blood pressure, improve blood cholesterol levels and support blood sugar control, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Regular cardiovascular exercise can even improve erectile function Y increase libido. has even been bound to longer life expectancy, according to Harcoff. “Incorporating activities that get your heart rate up as you age can help you live longer and more independently,” he says.
Low-impact cardio, specifically, allows people with pre-existing joint injuries, arthritis and chronic pain to reap all the benefits of cardio training, without putting their bodies at risk, says Harcoff. In reality, most people who are (currently) completely healthy and able to benefit from prioritizing low-impact cardio over high-impact cardio, she says.
At the end of the day, “the best form of cardio is the one you can do consistently and regularly, while generating high performance and minimal stress on the body,” says Harcoff. Because low-impact cardio puts minimal stress on your body, it’s optimal for anyone who wants to say healthy enough to move pain-free throughout their lives, he says.
The best types of low-impact cardio
If you used to think that cardio was synonymous with pavement jogging (one of the highest-impact activities out there), you’re probably wondering exactly what cardio exercises exist besides running. The answer: A lot.
Swimming
There’s a reason road warriors often dive deep when healing from injury: actually swimming. it is one of the best ways to get your heart rate up without putting more stress on your joints, according to McCall. “The buoyancy of the water helps to relieve the joints of any pressure,” he explains.
Exactly how you incorporate the pool into your routine will depend on how comfortable and competent you feel in the water. Ideally, your swim workouts will last up to 30 minutes, says McCall. “The current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that people get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week, which works out to about 30 minutes a day.”
strength training
Reality: strength training can increase your heart rate as well as any so-called ‘traditional’ cardiovascular exercise. “You can even do low-impact cardio while resistance training, as long as you increase reps, decrease rest, or increase speed,” says Harcoff.
Do you need proof? Try reduce rest periods during your strength training workouts, wait just 30 seconds to a minute between sets, or enter circuit training concepts to their elevators. Just make sure you can recover properly (so don’t try this with heavy compound movementsfor example) so you don’t compromise performance or security.
assault bike
A machine that deserves its intimidating name, the Assault bike (or air bike) effectively works all the muscles in your body without dirtying your joints. “The Assault bike has handles, which means your arms and legs work at the same time, which means your heart has to work hard to pump oxygen throughout your body,” says McCall.
There are a number of metrics you can focus on while riding, it says: distance, time, calories burned, RPM and watts to name just a few. “One day you might try to walk as far as you can in 20 minutes, while another day you might speed 20 calories as fast as you can 4 times, resting as needed between rounds.”
skierg
The beloved child of the indoor rowing machine and a standing Nordic workout, the SkiErg lets you mimic the motion of skiing down the slopes from the comfort (read: warmth) of your gym. Can’t you see it? You stand on the platform of the machine with your feet hip-width apart, then rotate your hips simultaneously while pulling down on the handles with your back and arms, McCall explains.
“The SkiErg is a great piece of equipment for interval racing,” he says. “Consider running 100 meters every 2 minutes for 10 minutes, or doing a Tabata in that.”
indoor rowing machine
It’s time to get the Concept2 or Hydrow out of the corner of your gym onto the main floor. “The rowing machine works every muscle in your body from head to toe, without putting undue stress on your knees,” according to McCall.
His suggestion: Take a class at a rowing studio or CrossFit gym so you can learn to row, row, row your machine with good form. Or ask a personal trainer for some fitness tips. Then practice rowing at a steady pace for 2,000 meters. As you become more proficient, you can increase your distance, eventually achieving a half-marathon distance at a time.
cash drawdowns
Cash reductions are not lowits T impact exercise in the world… but they are lowAhem impact than rebound box step-ups or rebound box jumps. So if you’re injury-free and want to keep it that way, but you’re attending a bootcamp or CrossFit class that schedules box jump moves, Harcoff recommends you give it up.
“You can reduce the impact of any jumping exercise by jumping on something and going down instead of jumping up and then back down,” he explains. “The effect of gravity is less when you jump on something than when you jump off of it, so you have to remove the most impactful part of the movement.”
Running on grass or track
If you’re a runner, you’ve probably had a hard time reading this article. No one is saying you should stop road running right away, that would be unrealistic, but there are more friendly options for your joints. “Running itself is a high-impact form of cardio, so finding a lower-impact variation can be a challenging task,” says Harcoff. Fortunately, it is impossible. One option that helps slightly reduce shock is to switch to a softer running surface, he says. You can switch your speed workouts to grass, and the track surfaces are a bit more forgiving than pavement.
While turf and track running aren’t the ideal choice for everyone trying to add low-impact cardio to their routine, they can be a decent trade-off for those who feel that being a “runner” is an inherent part of their identity.
Gabrielle Kassel (she/her) is a sex and fitness journalist committed to helping people feel their best in their bodies. In addition to Men’s Health, her work has appeared in publications such as Shape, Cosmopolitan, Well + Good, Health, Self, Women’s Health, Greatist, and more. In her spare time, Gabrielle can be found training CrossFit, reviewing pleasure products, walking her border collie, or recording episodes of the podcast she co-hosts called bad in bed. Follow her on Instagram @gabriellekassel.
