Low Impact Cardio Workouts Let You Boost Your Heart Rate Without Achey Joints

• Updated on: 2024-09-09
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YOU PAY ATTENTION to the impact your

cardio-focused sweat session has on your mood (hopefully positive) and your energy levels. For some people, going for a jog is the highlight of their day.

But do you ever think about the impact your cardio routine has on your joints? If you don’t have arthritis, a pre-existing knee or hip injury, or other chronic injuries, you probably don't. But strength and conditioning specialists have a note of caution for pavement pounders in regard to your long-term health and fitness goals. Low impact cardio training, which doesn't put as much onus on your joints, can be a more joint-safe alternative to high impact cardio training, which does stress your joints. This is true for all populations, no matter if you are healthy, or suffer from an ailment like arthritis.

Let's break down exactly why low impact cardio can be especially beneficial for your fitness plan, and exactly how to incorporate it into your training to maximize both your cardiovascular capacity and overall health and well-being.

Broadly speaking, cardio—shorthand for cardiovascular exercise, also often referred to as aerobic training—is any type of exercise that raises your heart rate for an extended period of time. Low impact cardio is a category of exercise that gets your heart rate up specifically in a joint-friendly way, explains Jake Harcoff, C.S.C.S., head coach and owner of AIM Athletic. Unlike high impact cardio,“low impact cardio does not place excessive or harmful amounts of stress on the body,” he says.

As a general rule, “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 pedal or platform), that’s a high impact exercise. So, while swimming, biking, and rowing are considered low impact activities, plyometric jumping, running, and jumping jacks are high impact activities.

To be clear: low impact does not equal low intensity. Impact refers to how much stress the exercise places on your joints, while intensity refers to how difficult an exercise is. “A high intensity workout is a workout you can't talk while doing, while a low intensity workout is a workout you can carry a conversation through,” says exercise physiologist Pete McCall, M.S., C.S.C.S., C.P.T., host of the All About Fitness Podcast. Despite common misconceptions, a workout can be both low impact and high intensity, he says. Case in point: Assault bike, SkiErg, or rowing machine sprints. No one is going to claim those are low-effort activities.

Cardiovascular training—again any training that elevates your heart rate—is very good for your health.

“Your heart is a muscle,” explains McCall. “Any time you get your heart rate up for a prolonged period of time, you’re training your heart to bump nutrient- and oxygen- rich blood throughout your body more efficiently,” he says. Cardiovascular training has also been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, reduce blood pressure, improve blood cholesterol levels, and support blood sugar management, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Regular cardiovascular exercise may even improve erectile function and boost libido. It has even been linked to a greater lifespan, according to Harcoff. “Incorporating activities that increase your heart rate as you age can help you live longer and more independently,” he says.

Low impact cardiovascular exercises, specifically, allow people with pre-existing joint injuries, arthritis, and chronic pain to reap all the benefits of cardiovascular training, without putting their bodies at risk, says Harcoff. Actually, most people who are (currently) completely healthy and able-bodied can benefit from prioritizing low impact cardio over high impact cardio, he says.

At the end of the day, “the best form of cardio is the one that you can do consistently, and regularly, while generating high output 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 entire life, he says.

If you previously thought cardio was synonymous with pavement pounding jogs (one of the most high impact activities there is), you’ve probably wondering exactly which cardio exercises there are besides running. The answer: Plenty.

There’s a reason road warriors often dive into the deep end when healing an injury: Swimming really is one the best ways to spike your heart rate without putting additional wear and tear on your joints, according to McCall. “The buoyancy of the water helps relieve your joints of any pressure” he explains.

Exactly how you incorporate the pool into your routine will depend how comfortable and competent you are in the water. Ideally, your swim workouts will last for up to 30 minutes, says McCall. “The current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that individuals get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week, which comes out to about 30 minutes per day.”

Fact: Strength training can jack your heart rate up as well as any so-called ‘traditional’ cardiovascular exercise. “You can even get a low impact cardiovascular workout while resistance training so long as you increase reps, decrease rest, or increase speed,” says Harcoff.

Need proof? Try cutting down the rest periods during your strength training workouts, waiting for only 30 seconds to a minute between sets, or introduce circuit training concepts to your lifts. Just make sure that you're able to recover properly (so don't try this with heavy compound movements, for example) so that you're not compromising your performance or safety.

A machine deserving of its intimidating name, the Assault bike (or air bike) effectively works all the muscles in your body without doing your joints dirty. “The Assault bike has handles, which means your arms and legs are working at the same time—which means your heart has to work hard to pump oxygen all over the body,” says McCall.

There are a number of metrics you can focus in on while you’re riding, he says: Distance, time, calories burned, RPM, and watts, to name just a few. “One day you might try to ride as far as you can in 20 minutes, while another you might sprint 20 calories as fast as you can 4 times, resting as needed between rounds.”

The love-child of indoor rowing machine and a stand-up Nordic workout, the SkiErg allows you to mimic the motion of skiing the slopes right from the comfort (read: warmth) of your gym. Can’t visualize it? You stand on the platform of the machine with your feet hips-width, then simultaneously hinge your hips while pulling the handles down with your back and arms, explains McCall.

“The SkiErg is a great piece of equipment for interval sprints,” he says. “Consider sprinting 100 meters every 2 minutes for 10 minutes, or doing a Tabata on it.”

Time to haul the Concept2 or Hydrow out from the corner of your gym and onto the main floor. “The rowing machine works every muscle in your body head-to-toe, without placing undue stress on your knees,” according to McCall.

His suggestion: Take a class at a rowing studio or CrossFit gym so that you can learn how to row, row, row your machine with good form. Or, ask a personal trainer for some form tips. Then, practice rowing at a steady pace for 2,000 meters. As you get more proficient, you can up your distance, eventually cranking out half-marathon distance at a time.

Box step-downs aren’t the lowest impact exercise in the world… but they are lowerimpact than rebounding box step-ups, or rebounding box jump overs. That’s why if you don't have any injuries and you want to keep it that way, but are attending a bootcamp or CrossFit class that programs box jump movements, Harcoff recommends stepping down.

“You can lower the impact of any jumping exercise by jumping up onto something and stepping down rather than jumping up and then jumping back to the floor,” he explains. “The effect of gravity is less when you jump onto something then when you jump off of it, so you want to remove the more impactful portion of the movement.”

If you're a runner, you've probably had a hard time making it through this article. No one is saying that you need to stop road running right away—that would be unrealistic—but there are friendlier options for your joints. “Running in and of itself is a high impact form of cardio, so coming up with a lower impact variation can be a challenging task,” says Harcoff. Luckily, it’s impossible. One option that helps lower the impact slightly is to switch to a softer running surface, he says. You can shift your sprint workouts to turf, and track surfaces are a bit more forgiving than pavement.

While turf and track running aren't the ideal picks for everyone trying to add lower impact cardio into their routine, they can be a decent swap for those that feel like being a ‘runner’ is an inherent part of their identity.