Low-Impact vs High-Impact Workouts

March 17, 2015

Don’t let the terms fool you. The word ‘Impact’ doesn’t translate to effectiveness, but to the kind of pressure endured by your muscles and joints, and the duration of intervals between each workout.

Low impact and high impact exercises are both just as effective, but serve very different purposes; much like the diets for strength training versus cardio training do.

Your choice of getting in a workout may involve running, swimming, yoga, cross-fit, zumba, or whatever else, but every form of exercise has its own pros and cons, and targets muscle tone and fat loss in its own unique manner. We help you understand the difference between low-impact and high-impact exercises, so that you can determine how you should be sweating it out.

Low-Impact Exercise
Contrary to popular belief, this form of exercise is not at all easy. It involves physical activity set across a longer time-frame, which will leave you in a puddle of sweat consistently. The main characteristic of the workout is that the exercises are tuned to stress your body a lot lesser, but make up for the intensity by keeping your muscles engaged for a longer duration. The elliptical trainer, power mill climber, cycling, walking, swimming, yoga and rowing, all fit into this category. Low-impact exercises are best-suited for people who are older or are beginners, have injuries or joint pain, or are pregnant.

High-Impact Exercise
Aimed at giving you a great burn in little time by minimizing the intervals and amplifying the pressure, the exercises in this category will make you burn insane amount of calories, but it is not for newbies or the faint-hearted. High-impact workouts bring with them an increased risk of injury and require for the person to be already in fighting fit form in order to tackle the intensity, head-on. Expect workout programs like plyometrics, HIIT, cross-fit and boot-camps in your training session.

Ideally, for a weight-loss workout routine to be most effective, a combination of both forms of exercise should be moderated, keeping in mind the person’s current level of fitness.