6 Ways to Intensify a Low-Impact Workout
Hey Angels and Alphas,
Let’s face it – even though low-impact exercises have a ton of advantages, they are sometimes confused with “low-intensity” exercises and are therefore misinterpreted.
Low impact, however, does not always imply low intensity. Low impact simply means that your training won’t include any hopping or jumping movements.
Low-impact exercises are still excellent for gaining muscle and losing fat, and they also have the added advantage of reducing the risk of injury.
That’s why if you want to be getting more out of your low-impact sessions and you want to get that heart rate up, here are 6 ways you can do exactly that:
#1 Play around with your pace. Speed is what drives the intensity of a workout. If you’re doing more reps in less time, or more sets in less time, you’re guaranteed to rack up the intensity and boost up calorie burn. And slowing down reps works, too – try doing a push-up as slowly as you possibly can. This will also increase intensity on the muscles you’re working, so you can definitely play around and achieve a more optimal intensity that has you engaged yet in a safe range.
#2 Shorten your rest periods. Don’t let your heart rate drop between sets or rounds in order to increase it while performing a lower-impact workout. Simply taking shorter rest periods between activities may be sufficient. Another choice is to combine two strength-training exercises into supersets, rotating from one to the other as soon as your set of the first exercise is complete. You take a brief rest after that before starting over.
#3 Add intervals! If you really want to get your heart rate up and get those endorphins flowing, (yet you’re trying to stay away from all the bootcamp workouts with high-impact moves like burpees), you can create a similar effect by using a cardio machine or adding other types of cardio intervals in your workout. You can skyrocket your heart rate and perform efficient cardio while still maintaining low impact.
#4 Incorporate compound movements. Which simply means performing exercises that use more than one muscle group at a time. Compound movements strengthen your entire body, boost your heart rate, and increase the overall demand on your muscles while still maintaining low impact.
The best technique to boost training intensity, according to some experts, is to strengthen the mind-muscle connection. How does it function? You’ll get far more thoughtful and targeted work out of your training when you learn to use the muscles and muscle groups you wish to use rather than just briskly moving through the activity.
#5 Train on a different angle. We can work out in three different planes:
- Sagittal (forward and back)
- Frontal (side to side)
- Transverse (rotational)
According to experts, a lot of conventional movements are done on the sagittal plane. Experiment with changing up your motions by working in a side-to-side motion or even adding rotation to what you’re doing. A lunge is a sagittal exercise, but you can make it more difficult, train your core, and work in the transverse plane by adding a twist over the front leg.
Many traditional strength training exercises such as the bench press, the squat, and the deadlift are compound exercises, and they’re absolute must-s in the workout regime of anyone wishing to get stronger and healthier.
#6 Add a pause or a pulse to your exercise.
You don’t have to bounce around to make your muscles tired. Here’s a quick change to turn any high-impact exercise into a low impact one: experts advise adding a pulse or pause at the end of an exercise to lengthen the duration you are under tension and so improve the movement’s burn and intensity. Jumping lunges become dead-stop lunges with a complete halt at the bottom, while jumping squats become squats with a pulse at the bottom.
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