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Can a heart-pounding cardio workout be easy on your body? It could be if you choose the right activity. Learn what workouts lead to less wear and tear on your joints in this podcast featuring exercise physiologist Katie Lawton.

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What Qualifies as Low-Impact Cardio? with Katie Lawton, MEd

Podcast Transcript

John Horton:

Hey there, and welcome to another Health Essentials Podcast. I'm John Horton, your host.

The term “low-impact cardio” sounds like a misnomer. We're talking about heart-pounding exercise after all. Can you really do that in a way that's easy on your body? The answer is “yes.” In doing so, it may be more beneficial for you in the long term than always pushing ahead with high-impact activities.

So, what exactly qualifies as low-impact cardio? We're going to sweat out those details today with exercise physiologist Katie Lawton. She's one of the many experts at Cleveland Clinic who join us weekly on the podcast at Talk Health.

Now, let's get started on a fitness conversation that promises to be, well, impactful. Welcome back to the podcast, Katie. I think this is what's known as doing repeat sets in the exercise world.

Katie Lawton:

Well, thanks for having me back, John.

John Horton:

Well, we've got you here with us today to talk about low-impact cardio. So, for those who aren't familiar, what exactly is that?

Katie Lawton:

It's cardiovascular exercise that just involves movements that are easier on the joints.

John Horton:

OK, and cardio is the heart thumping, the boom, boom, boom, boom, where you're really working it hard?

Katie Lawton:

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to scare people too much, but even moderate intensity would be considered cardiovascular exercise as well. It doesn't have to be anything high intensity unless you choose to do high intensity, but yeah, it's something that's going to get your heart rate up to at least a moderate intensity.

John Horton:

All right. We can slow down that boom, boom, boom, boom a little bit, I think is what you're telling me. So let's talk about the importance of doing cardio. I know everything you hear is that you need at least, I think it's 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity cardio. Why is that so essential for our health?

Katie Lawton:

It is cardiovascular disease prevention. The American Heart Association came up with 150 minutes primarily because they found that if you can maintain that, you can reduce your chance of cardiovascular disease by 30%.

John Horton:

Wow. Those are pretty good odds if you put a little work in.

Katie Lawton:

Correct, right. Again, the consistency piece is a big factor into that. So if you're doing here and there, it doesn't impact your health nearly as much. But if you're consistent with it, yeah, you'll see some major changes. Cholesterol, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure — those are the general things that the cardiovascular exercise will impact.

John Horton:

Well, and I think we all forget, I mean, your heart is a muscle, so when you force it to work a little harder doing these cardio exercises, it gets stronger.

Katie Lawton:

Making it stronger, but it's also pushing the blood through your system. So it's also helping with the vascular system as much, too. So that's where, again, the blood pressure comes into play as well.

John Horton:

All right. So, clearly, we want to do cardio, and it sounds like low impact is going to be a lot easier on all the other parts of your body — your joints, your ankles, your knees — all those things.

Katie Lawton:

Correct.

John Horton:

But I want to make sure to emphasize here, low impact should not be confused with being easy. Correct?

Katie Lawton:

Correct. Anything is easy if you want to make it easy, and it's how hard you generally push yourself. So there are a lot of low-impact options that really can have a big effect on your cardiovascular system, really ramping up your heart rate if you really want it to. Or if you wanted to take it easier, essentially as far as the pace goes, you can slow down, which will make it a little easier on your heart and lungs. Just because it's low impact doesn't mean it's easier to do.

John Horton:

So you're still going to be huffing and puffing if you go at it pretty hard.

Katie Lawton:

If you push yourself enough, yeah.

John Horton:

Katie, that makes a lot of sense. Let's talk about what exercises fall into the low-impact cardio realm.

Katie Lawton:

Swimming, biking, there's the rower. A SkiErg™ is another really good one. There's the VersaClimber™.

John Horton:

So what is the SkiErg? You sent me that and I'm like, "This looks like a typo." Yeah, it's “ski” and E-R-G. What is that?

Katie Lawton:

It mimics cross-country skiing. OK, so, they are, I would say … I guess you can call it ropes with handles on it. You're in a standing position and you're using your arms and your whole body to go into that cross-country ski position as if you had poles in your hands as well. If you've ever tried it, it'll get your heart rate up for sure.

John Horton:

And then, I think you had mentioned, too, the VersaClimber, and I know we did an entire episode on how climbing workouts are so good. That's just one where you run these machines and you're almost “Spidermanning” a little bit, right?

Katie Lawton:

And actually, it's considered a zero-impact cardiovascular exercise because there is no pounding on it. You're actually using your hands and your legs to actually do the movement as well.

John Horton:

So Katie, you had mentioned cycling, swimming and rowing, which I know are three huge areas that people do a lot of. What are the big benefits that you get out of that and how are they so low impact?

Katie Lawton:

It's just not as much pounding. So the way that, especially the rower, generally works is, again, you're using your arms and your legs in a pulling motion. You're not in an upright position as you're also doing it. So it's more of a push-pull type of movement. The cycling, again, you're going with your feet in a pedaling motion. So your feet aren't really touching the ground. So there isn't that rebound effect that happens when you do any type of running.

John Horton:

Yeah, it sounds like with all these, it's just that gravity is not our friend when it comes to doing these cardio exercises.

Katie Lawton:

Correct. Yeah. I mean swimming is also another really, again, probably more zero-impact type of cardiovascular exercise. It's something, though, that most people don't always prefer to do because they don't really like to swim. They don't want to get wet. But really, if you have someone that has really bad back pain or really bad knee arthritis or hip arthritis, they feel a little bit more comfortable when they do get in the water and start moving around.

John Horton:

I know ellipticals always seem to end up on this list, too. What are the benefits of hitting that?

Katie Lawton:

Yeah, same thing, everything else. It does mimic essentially running without having your feet leaving the ground as well. Again, it also has the option to use your hands if you needed to do that as well.

John Horton:

Now, what about just walking and hiking fall into the low-impact category, just because it's a little bit of a slower pace and less of that pounding?

Katie Lawton:

Correct. Walking is still really good. The only, I wouldn't say downside to doing the walking versus some of the other ones is if you wanted to try to increase your heart rate, you can only walk so fast. If you do want to truly get into some of the higher intensities, you do have to start getting into the running. Whereas some of the rowers, the SkiErg or the VersaClimber, the swimming, we can really increase the intensity a little bit more and get our heart rate up even more without having to have any of the impact of going into the running.

John Horton:

Well, so much of that, it sounds like it's just not being on your feet. As you know, I run, and every time I see a video of what your ankle looks like when you hit the pavement, it makes me wonder why I do it at all. I mean, it looks painful. I take it the key then to the low impact is to avoid that.

Katie Lawton:

Yeah, but don't forget, though, there are some benefits to doing impact-type movements as well, right? We're looking at bone density as being a product of that and it's really good for our bone density. So don't think that all high-impact type movements are bad for us as well. It's also really good for our tendons as long as you're running with the correct running form, but it's not always bad either to do high-impact type movements either.

But no, it's not something that I would tell someone to do as they're starting out getting into the exercise. So sometimes the lower impact, when we're first starting out, is better to especially increase our cardiovascular performance, but also getting into some of that movement a little bit more, as well with a lower impact on some of those areas.

John Horton:

Yeah. So, you had mentioned, like you said, if you're just starting out, choosing a more low-impact activity might be beneficial.

What other groups would benefit from going a little more low impact as opposed to a higher-impact cardio exercise?

Katie Lawton:

Generally, anyone with arthritis, especially within the foot and ankle, the knees, the hips, the back, those would be my general population that I would tend to stick with more lower-impact type of movements. Anyone that has sometimes even some balance issues or balance concerns, sometimes, those will be another factor into doing more of the lower-impact type movements. Certain diseases require us to do more lower impact because our body doesn't like the reaction that it has after doing something at a higher impact. We have an adverse effect when we do things at a higher impact. So the lower impact is sometimes a little bit better for those individuals as well.

John Horton:

Yeah, it seems like I would imagine recovering from injury, too. I mean, we've all seen the athletes who are on IR and they're on the sidelines there, pedaling that bike, things like that.

Katie Lawton:

Yeah, thanks for mentioning that because I forgot about that one. But yes, anybody who is recovering from an injury or something that you want to use if you are training from a marathon and you want to consider cross-training. We'll see some runners also doing maybe some biking intermittently in between or maybe trying to do some swimming because we don't want to impact our joints as much. So we want to protect them, but we also want to get that cardiovascular benefit as well. So that's another reason why we would probably do something a little bit more lower impact as well.

John Horton:

I mean, can you get the same cardio effect doing the low impact as the high impact?

Katie Lawton:

Yeah. Again, depending on what you're using and how hard you push yourself, I think that's always going to be the indicator. Some of these, like the rower, the SkiErg, the VersaClimber, you probably only would see people using those for shorter periods of time, versus the walking or maybe even the elliptical, because they require so much more movement in them that your heart rate's going to go through the roof when you do those types of pieces of equipment.

John Horton:

So it sounds like it's high intensity, but low impact is what you're aiming for in some of those.

Katie Lawton:

Yeah. Again, yeah, depending on what your goal is, but depending on what machine you generally pick and again, how hard you push yourself.

John Horton:

Yeah, I'll tell you, after hearing all the benefits of low-impact cardio, it makes me wonder why I'm spending so much time running and going the high-impact route. But you did say there are benefits to doing the high impact, right?

Katie Lawton:

Yeah. Like I said, it is actually really good for our muscles and tendons. That contract-relax is really good to actually preserve some of that. Now, granted, there is the point where you can do too much of it, and then also for bone density, that is actually one of the things that they recommend people with osteoporosis to do is to incorporate more jumping-type movements because it regenerates the bones a little bit better.

John Horton:

And jumping would be more of the high impact because you have that come at landing and everything like that, it's a little more jarring.

Katie Lawton:

Correct.

John Horton:

All right. What's the bright blend then if you're going to look to mesh high-impact, low-impact activities? It seems like trying to do both is probably a good way to go about setting up an exercise routine.

Katie Lawton:

Yeah, I'm always big on making sure that we're getting a variety of everything and that we're not always doing one piece of equipment all the time because we do want to making sure that we have good bone density, that we have good cardiovascular system, that we have good strength, that we have all the things that we want to be able to do to be able to have regular good quality of life. So in order to do that, we have to have a very versatile type of workout program.

John Horton:

How much of an effect does age have on that? I know, speaking for myself, I'm starting to look around at races and there are not as many people older than me there. I know I see a lot of them on the trail and a lot of them are pedaling their way up and down now. Is that something, as you age a little bit, you need to reconsider how you're dividing up your cardio workout?

Katie Lawton:

So I don't actually put age as an indicator for any type of exercise. It's based on your ability level. So for someone, again, like you, who's been running for long periods of time, I don't know if you have any injuries going on at this point.

John Horton:

I'm always injured. Yeah, that's what I tell my wife. I got something hurting always.

Katie Lawton:

Well, I mean then that would be a good reason to maybe alternate some of the workouts with lower impact and higher impact, but then maybe we need to talk about your strength program as well. So that's a whole other conversation.

John Horton:

There is that. So, yeah, there are some things … right now, I just get enough the KT tape and I just put it all over the place.

Katie Lawton:

We'll duct it up.

John Horton:

We'll duct tape, I'm good to go. I go right back out there.

So it sounds like then it just really is a good game plan to try to get some of this low-impact cardio in. I know I've been trying to bike a little more, do that because you do feel better after doing it. You can get a nice long ride in or something like that and maybe not feel as beat up as if you did a long run.

Katie Lawton:

Yeah. Again, I think that just comes with a variety. No, I don't think most of us should be running five, six, seven days a week. So, on those alternating days, it's always good to throw in those lower-impact type activities.

I also think running gait has a really big impact on it as well. They've done a lot of research to say there are some people that still run into their 80s, and I'm not saying there are no injuries, but they probably have some aches and pains, but it doesn't always create arthritis. But I think the running gait and the running form is actually what negate some of that for some people, and having good form, just as if you were doing any weightlifting or doing any other type of exercise, that we want to make sure that we're doing it correctly.

John Horton:

Yeah. Now, we went through some of the cardio things, low-impact cardio activities you could do. We touched on some of the big ones. I think we left a couple of them off that I had written down. How effective is shadowboxing? I was surprised to see that on the list.

Katie Lawton:

Yeah, it's not something you would generally see. I would probably see that with somebody who's probably working with a personal trainer, that they're trying to mix things up a little bit. I think, as shadowboxing, as like the Tae Bo™ of today as well, which was always really popular to do, and some people really do like to do more of the martial arts aspect of it as well. You can also look at maybe even using some battle ropes, which again, you're only going to be able to use for a short period of time. Maybe you throw it in between some other types of exercises you're doing within the weight room, but that's where you're going to get those really heavy ropes and you're going to alternate them between your hands. It makes them waves with the rope. That's also going to be something else that's going to increase your heart rate as well.

John Horton:

Yeah, see, I always thought of those as more of a strength workout, but I guess-

Katie Lawton:

…you're also tired. Yeah.

John Horton:

Well, you can see where you get out of breath because it does look like a workout doing it.

Katie Lawton:

Yeah, especially if you have somebody that's generally, again, has more of the lower extremity type of arthritis or pain. That's where we would probably use a little bit more of the upper-body type of work as well.

John Horton:

What about calisthenics? I mean, for people who don't have equipment or things like that, it seems like body weight activities are always a good way to get a workout in. Is there some low-impact cardio there?

Katie Lawton:

There's modified versions of a burpee or modified versions of a mountain climber that you can do. There's modified versions for jumping jacks where, with the jumping jacks, you're going to step your feet out versus jumping from side to side and you're still going to wave your hands over your head. A modified burpee, there's different variations to that one. I know people love burpees, so I'm sure they're excited to try some modified versions of some burpees as well.

John Horton:

Favorite exercise. Yeah, people line up to do it.

Katie Lawton:

I'm going to have people calling me up, “How do I do a modified burpee?”

John Horton:

Well, how do you? Let's walk through that. What is the best way if you're going to do a modified burpee? Because I know a lot of people try to avoid the regular ones. Maybe the modified one sounds a little better. So, how would we do a modified burpee?

Katie Lawton:

So, the modified burpee, you're either going to probably need a bench or a chair, a couch or something like that where you're actually going to place your hands onto that and then you're going to step your feet back and then step your feet forward again. Then, you can raise your hands over your head before you go back down, putting your hands up onto the chair or the bench, or you can do it onto the ground still. If you're still comfortable getting it on and off the ground, you're not going to kick your feet back and forward. You're just going to slowly walk your feet back, slowly walk your feet forward, and then you're going to stand up on up.

John Horton:

Plus, you're right by the couch for when you're done.

Katie Lawton:

When you're done with one of them, yes.

John Horton:

An added perk.

So I think we've covered all the bases here, Katie. So, anything else to add when people are thinking about adding some low-impact cardio to their routine?

Katie Lawton:

I always tell people to try different things. I do think that different pieces of equipment, some people are going to love. Other pieces of equipment, some people are going to absolutely hate. So I think you've mentioned before, maybe swimming wasn't necessarily your favorite, if I remember correctly. I don't know if I'm right or not.

John Horton:

It is not.

Katie Lawton:

But we're still always going to draw toward the things that we like to do. So especially if there's a piece of equipment that you don't mind using or really actually like to use, you will still make the time to do it. So if it's something you absolutely hate doing, I wouldn't even consider using it on a regular basis, but you have to try it to see if you're going to like it or not.

John Horton:

Well, and it sounds like the key with anything is if you're doing something, you're better off than doing nothing.

Katie Lawton:

So much. Yes.

John Horton:

Yeah. Staying active is the key to everything health from what we've heard with every talk we've ever had with you.

Katie Lawton:

Every time.

John Horton:

Well, Katie, thanks again for coming in and doing your part to keep us all moving a little bit more and I can't wait to have you in again.

Katie Lawton:

All right. Thanks, John.

John Horton:

Low-impact workouts like cycling, swimming and rowing offer many of the health benefits you want from cardio exercise without excess wear and tear on your body. Building them in your exercise routine may be the secret to lasting fitness.

If you liked what you heard today, please hit the subscribe button and leave a comment to share your thoughts. Until next time, be well.

Speaker 3:

Thank you for listening to Health Essentials, brought to you by Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Children's. To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or visit clevelandclinic.org/hepodcast. This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to replace the advice of your own physician.

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