With mindfulness and healthy living trends on the rise among Gen Z, more people than ever are looking to low-impact exercises to integrate into their daily routines. Following high-impact, muscle-straining, fat-burning exercise routines are great and all, but truthfully, many people just lack the time and energy required to dedicate to such extreme methods of mindful living.
Anyone worth their salt in fitness knows that low-impact exercises can be just as effective as high-impact exercises if done consistently. If you hate going to the gym and having intense workout routines slapped in your face every time you try following a fitness blog, you’re not alone. Read on to discover all the amazing benefits that low-impact exercises can have on your life!
Benefits of Low-Impact Exercises
Healthy living and mindfulness are on the rise, meaning everyone’s looking for an efficient way to add exercise to their daily routines.
Despite what many popular influencers and body-building bloggers might have you believe, you don’t have to dedicate yourself to an intense, soul-crushing workout routine to get healthy. Low-impact exercises can be every bit as effective as high-impact exercises if done consistently!
Believing that you need to push yourself to the very brink of exhaustion every time you workout is a common misconception among wanna-be fitness enthusiasts; and scrolling through hundreds of videos of intense, sweat-drenched workout sessions on Instagram and TikTok doesn’t help. Never try to replicate what you see on social media, because more often than not, it’s all a lie or an exaggeration to get likes, follows, and customers.
In reality, low-impact exercises are a perfectly healthy way to stay in shape, and can even be healthier than many high-impact exercises for some individuals.
Here are many of the amazing benefits of low-impact exercises:
Manageable and Accessible to Everyone
As I mentioned before, not everyone can dedicate large portions of their time, money, energy, or sanity to high-intensity workout routines. Intense, high-impact exercises just aren’t manageable or accessible for everyone, and that’s what makes the acknowledgment of low-impact exercises so important.
Whether you’re working a crazy, ball-busting job, wheelchair-bound, elderly, disabled, or just plain exhausted from the everyday stresses of life, there’s a low-impact exercise for you that can be seamlessly integrated into your daily routine. Healthy living doesn’t have to be hard!
Furthermore, not everyone has the energy levels to maintain a highly intense workout routine several times a week. However, nearly everyone has the energy and time to dedicate to a few, non-strenuous activities at the beginning or end of each day. A short walk in the morning or some yoga before bed is a fantastic way to integrate exercise into your daily routine!
Reduced Risk of Injury
Not only are low-impact exercises easier to manage, but they’re also a lot safer! According to the 2016 National Health Statistics Reports, a survey spanning from 2011 to 2014 concluded that “an average annual estimate of 8.6 million sports- and recreation-related injury episodes was reported“, a truly staggering statistic that’d be enough to steer anyone away from high-intensity workouts and extreme sports.
“But those people were probably playing really dangerous sports or something!” you might say, but listen to this: according to the same survey, “general exercise was the most frequently mentioned activity associated with sports- and recreation-related injuries“, meaning these weren’t professional athletes or daredevils trying to live on the edge; they were just normal people trying to maximize their exercise routines.
As you might imagine, low-impact exercises have an extremely reduced risk of injury, making them the ideal choice for the elderly, children, pregnant people, those who are disabled, or those who just like to play it safe.
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Sustainable Long-Term Routine
As I mentioned earlier, not everyone has the energy levels needed to maintain a full exercise routine several times a week. In a long-term survey published by Christina Gough on Statista, only 20.1% of Americans engaged in daily sports or high-activity exercises in 2022. That’s less than a quarter of the population!
Unfortunately, one of the primary reasons that people don’t engage in daily exercises is because platforms like social media and TV stations are always pushing the “intense workout routine” agenda, which can make low-impact exercises feel pointless.
This “all-or-nothing” mindset is the reason why so many people fall short of their fitness goals; they believe that anything less intense than a 3-hour run or pre-planned workout regimen is unproductive.
Dedicating all of your energy to a full-on, intense workout routine isn’t for everyone, and it certainly isn’t the most sustainable solution to maintaining a consistent exercise routine. In the long term, daily, low-impact exercises are the way to go!
Improved Cardiovascular Health
As I’m sure many of you are already aware, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and it has been for quite some time. More people in America die from cardiovascular illnesses yearly than from all known cancers combined!
Heart disease is a scary concept for many Americans, but there are ways to prevent it. Incorporating low-impact, non-strenuous exercises into your daily routine could drastically reduce your risk of heart disease; even more so than high-impact exercises!
Leisurely (and often enjoyable) exercises like walking, swimming, and even yoga can significantly improve your blood circulation and strengthen your heart without subjecting it to excessive stress. Long-term, consistently engaging in low-impact cardio or similar exercises can help lower your blood pressure, improve your cholesterol levels, and immensely reduce your risk of heart disease. Just a few minutes a day could make a life-or-death difference in your life!
And that’s it! We hope you enjoyed reading through our list of low-impact exercise benefits. These were only the most significant ones that we found; there are tons of reasons why low impact is the way to go for fitness!
For more wellness tips, check out our guide to “Resetting Your Healthy Internal Rhythms Through Earthing“!
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