The reality is, all of us want slightly cardio in our lives. However the excellent news is, it doesn’t must look the way you would possibly assume: A low-impact cardio exercise may help you get all the advantages, which may be nice for folk who aren’t followers of conventional kinds like operating or plyometrics, or whose joints get slightly offended throughout them.

Cardio is all about difficult and strengthening your cardiovascular system (coronary heart and lungs), and it’s a obligatory a part of a motion routine if you wish to optimize your well being. However it doesn’t have to imply operating or leaping or no matter different high-impact, repetitive motion pops into your thoughts.

In case you’re nonetheless not bought, know this: Cardio additionally helps you raise higher, if power coaching is extra your jam, ACSM-certified private coach Asher Freeman, CPT, creator of the Nonnormative Physique Membership in Philadelphia, tells SELF. “Heavy lifts are like sprints, and we want good cardio health to get by way of them,” they clarify. “Moreover, cardiovascular health could make actions of each day dwelling simpler and enhance general well being.”

And in case your concern is the influence in your knees, ankles, or hips, we’re right here to reassure you that you would be able to, in actual fact, get your coronary heart pumping whereas additionally sparing your joints. “Biking, swimming, rowing, kettlebell flows, and utilizing an elliptical are widespread examples of low-impact cardio,” Freeman says. However good old style body weight workouts will also be extraordinarily efficient for high-intensity, low-impact cardio—in case you do a few easy but impactful issues first.

First: Go arduous and restrict relaxation. You possibly can add depth by doing extra work—say, performing an train for an extended time frame or including in additional reps to the identical length so that you’re shifting faster—and reducing the size of time between units or rounds, Freeman says.

Second: Give attention to compound workouts that have interaction a number of massive muscle teams without delay. For instance, take into consideration a curtsy lunge. In case you’re simply doing the lunge half—an incredible train in its personal proper—you’ll really feel your coronary heart fee enhance a bit. However in case you add in a facet kick on the high of the motion, you’ll discover that you just lose your breath a lot faster.

By specializing in low-impact cardio workouts, you’ll be able to put much less drive in your joints, which is a should for anybody with previous or present accidents, Freeman notes. Even when your knees and ankles carry out properly beneath stress, it’s a good suggestion to fluctuate up your exercises from time to time—each to maintain issues attention-grabbing, and to ensure your joints don’t get an excessive amount of repetitive stress (learn: drive from the identical movement over and again and again) and proceed to remain wholesome for the lengthy haul.

The exercise Freeman created beneath works your total physique—legs, glutes, abs, arms, shoulders, and sure, your cardiovascular system—with out placing a lot influence in your joints. “It’s best to by no means be coming into contact with the bottom with any extra drive than you do when strolling,” they clarify. “Nonetheless, you’re shifting your physique from the ground to standing in between workouts and performing full-body actions throughout every train with little to no relaxation, so your coronary heart has to work arduous.”