So you want to get involved in aerobics but are unsure if your knees can take hours of running. How are you going to burn calories and improve your cardio? Thankfully, you have quite a few great options for low-impact cardio exercises and aerobics. This article will break down what low-impact aerobics are, some misconceptions, and how anyone can benefit by adding them into their program.
What Are Low-Impact Cardio Workouts
Low-impact cardio workouts are exercises that raise your heart rate and improve cardiovascular health without putting a lot of stress on your joints.
They serve as an alternative to other rigorous cardio styles, such as running and jump rope. While running is an awesome form of cardio, it has the potential to result in overuse injuries, especially in overweight and elderly populations.
They involve continuous, steady movement but avoid high-impact motions like jumping or pounding on hard surfaces. These workouts are ideal for people who want a safe, effective way to improve fitness—especially beginners, older adults, people recovering from injuries, or anyone with joint concerns.
In general, low cardio workouts should possess several characteristics, such as:¹
At Least One Foot Stays On The Ground. This ensures that a significant amount of force doesn’t come down on a single joint, as with running or jumping.
Smooth, Controlled Movements. Movements are controlled as quick changes can equally increase the force on a joint.
Low Joint Stress. As we’ve already mentioned, “low-impact” essentially means these exercises put low stress on the joints.
It Still Raises Heart Rate and Burns Calories. The exercise still needs to be able to increase your heart rate. Many people confuse low-impact with easy; this is not the case.
Top Benefits Of Low-Impact Cardio
So now, let’s go through some of the real benefits of engaging in low-impact cardio constantly.
Here are some of the top reasons you should use low-impact exercises in your rotation, even if you don’t need them.
1. Protects Your Joints
Running can place force on your knees equal to 3-8x your body weight every step!² To be clear, we are not saying running is bad for your joints. We are saying it can result in overuse injury in runners with poor levels of strength or those who already have issues.
Therefore, the most obvious benefit of low-impact cardio and aerobics is it’s easier on your body.
Low-impact cardio is gentle on knees, hips, and ankles, making it ideal for people with arthritis, past injuries, or joint pain. It helps you stay active and burn calories without risking wear and tear.
2. Improves Heart Health
We’ll mention this numerous times as its a large misunderstanding – low-impact cardio still raises your heart rate! As a result, it can help strengthen your heart and lungs, improve circulation, and reduce the risk of heart disease.
Do not confuse low-impact with low-intensity.
3. Supports Weight Management
As low-impact cardio can still be intense, you’re still going to burn calories. Therefore, low-impact cardio will still help burn fat, maintain weight, and keep your metabolism running smoothly.
This makes it a great form of exercise for aiding with weight loss or maintaining a healthy weight, especially when combined with good nutrition.
4. Can Act As Active Recovery
Low-impact exercises are great options to use to maximize recovery on off days.
On these days, you’ll need to keep the intensity down, but this form of training puts less shock on the muscles and joints. This allows you to get your heart rate up, pump fresh blood to your muscles, stay loose, and recover.
5. Everyone Needs Low-Impact Cardio Choices
One last point before we go further.
Even if you don’t think you need low-impact exercises, we encourage you to find some you like. They will allow you to increase the volume of your training while mitigating the risk of injury.
For example, if you’re doing cardio to burn calories, you could be held back by the risk of injury if running was your only form of cardio.
Instead, you can still run to hit your assigned daily or weekly miles. After, you can partake in low-impact exercise to continue training while saving your joints.
Best Types of Low-Impact Cardio
When you examine different forms of cardio, you notice that many are actually low-impact to varying degrees.
Here are our favorite forms of low-impact exercise.
1. Cycling
Let’s start with cycling, as it has a ton of benefits;
A low level of skill or learning is required.
Every gym has stationary bikes.
You can join spinning classes
Easy to modify intensity to increase the duration
Keep in mind that a cycle ergometer was the initial tool used for the Tabata protocol, as it allowed athletes to achieve ultra-high levels of intensity.³ In other words, these can be intense!
The main issue with cycling is knee problems from excessive cycling. However, this is generally caused by improper set-ups, primarily having the seat too low.
When your seat is too low, it causes excessive knee flexion and can put them in an odd position. When the pedal is in the bottom position, you want your midfoot to be on the pedal with your knee slightly bent.
Be sure to get help when setting up your bike.
Check out our picks for top folding bikes here!
2. Ellipticals
The elliptical is a class low-impact piece of cardio equipment.
It’s designed to mimic the motion of running, but rather than your foot coming off the ground, it never leaves the foot platform!
Further, it involves your upper body as well to give you a full body workout. It’s downside is that they can be bulky. However, if you have the room, check them out here!
3. Stairclimber
The stairclimber is low-impact BUT DEFINITELY NOT low-intensity!
The stairclimber is an awesome cardio exercise that simultaneously gives your muscles a legit workout. In fact, it’s main drawback is it can be too demanding for some people, especially for longer durations.
Regardless, climbing stairs for 30 minutes will prove that low-impact exercises are no joke.
4. Swimming
We love swimming. It’s a great full-body workout that basically negates any impact on your joints. You still need to be mindful of overuse injuries, primarily on your shoulder. Regardless, it’s a great choice.
The main drawback is that you need a certain level of skill and endurance. Most people use the freestyle stroke, which is a great stroke. However, it does take time to become efficient.
Further, it will take some training before you can swim 30+ minutes straight. However, we recommend you put in the effort if you find it interesting.
Keep in mind you can also use other methods besides freestyle. This includes using;
Kickboards
Webbed gloves
Breaststroke
Combat stroke or side stroke
5. Deep Water Walking
We don’t see this one discussed often. It’s a shame as we think it’s one of the hardest forms of training on this list yet also has the lowest impact.
All you need to do is get in water that’s ideally around waist deep – it doesn’t need to be perfect and can be a bit deeper or shallower.
Regardless, all you do from there is walk briskly. It sounds easy, but the water acts as resistance and gets your heart pumping fast. If you don’t find it hard, just try to go faster, and you’ll feel it.
The main issue is that you need a large body of water to perform this, so if you don’t live near a beach, you’d have to buy an underwater treadmill, which is crazy expensive.
You can do these in the pool if they’re not too deep.
6. Rucking
Rucking is a fairly new form of low-impact cardio. It’s derived from the military and involves wearing a weighted pack and going for a hike. That’s it!
Now, this can definitely be more challenging than it sounds. Ideally, you can do this outside on trails, meaning you’ll be walking up some hills. However, you can also do this on flat ground or even on a treadmill.
7. Walking Hills Or Incline Treadmill
We really like these two options as the impact is on the same level as walking. However, due to the incline, you can still increase the intensity high enough to have you sucking air.
This provides the best of both worlds: low-impact and intense!
If you have time, go to the gym, set a treadmill to an incline, and walk while you watch your favorite TV show or listen to a podcast.
Or, buy one for your home gym, so you’re never missing out.
Either way, you’ll quickly realize how demanding this exercise can be.
8. Low-Impact Aerobics
Low-impact aerobics was all the rage in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. However, aerobic classes have fallen slightly out of favor, but that doesn’t mean they should! In fact, these aerobic classes make one of the best choices for low-impact cardio at home!
Regardless, they still remain great options for certain populations. Now, we’re including all types of aerobic classes here, including;
Aerobic exercise
Dance exercise (i.e. Zumba)
Boxercise or other fight-based aerobics
One of the main benefits is these take part in a class form, which provides;
Motivation
Social community
Guidance
More importantly, they can increase your heart rate and be fun! Some people find continuous exercise boring, so aerobic classes are a much more appealing choice.
Plus, some classes can help you develop skills and give you motivation. These can include dance-based and fight-based classes.
Optimizing Low-Impact Aerobic And Cardio
Due to the false association of low impact with low intensity, some people may not get the benefits they could. The primary issue that holds people back from benefiting from using low-impact exercise is simply not training hard enough.
Again, low impact DOES NOT mean low intensity.
This was noted during research into low-impact aerobic dancing. Researchers found that dancing could elicit improvements in cardiovascular health. Further, when done at low-intensity, low-impact aerobics burns about 4 calories a minute. However, when performed at high intensity, dancing burned 10-11 calories per minute.⁴
Therefore, when you partake in low-impact exercises, be sure to perform them with proper levels of intensity.
Low Impact Cardio And Aerobics: Final Say
It’s time to redefine low-impact cardio! All of the above options are great forms of training that can benefit any trainee while saving stress on your joints. However, they can all deliver an intense and challenging workout to improve your cardio health, burn calories, and improve your overall general fitness.
References
Said M, Lamya N, Olfa N, Hamda M. Effects of high-impact aerobics vs. low-impact aerobics and strength training in overweight and obese women. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2017;57(3):278-288. doi:10.23736/S0022-4707.16.05857-X https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2694281/
Alentorn-Geli E, Samuelsson K, Musahl V, Green CL, Bhandari M, Karlsson J. The Association of Recreational and Competitive Running With Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2017;47(6):373-390. doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.7137 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28504066/
Tabata I. Tabata training: one of the most energetically effective high-intensity intermittent training methods. J Physiol Sci. 2019;69(4):559-572. doi:10.1007/s12576-019-00676-7 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31004287/
Williford HN, Scharff-Olson M, Blessing DL. The physiological effects of aerobic dance. A review. Sports Med. 1989;8(6):335-345. doi:10.2165/00007256-198908060-00003 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2694281/
