health & fitness
exercise lowdown
If high-paced movements don't motivate you to get moving, try a more relaxed angle with low-impact exercises. BY LAUREN KARP
Whether you would like to take up a form of exercise that fits your slow pace or you're recovering from shoulder surgery, low-impact exercise is for you. Examples of low-impact exercise are swimming, water aerobics, yoga, hiking, biking walking and weight training. Some of these exercises focus on specific parts of the body while others work your whole body. Each has a specific goal in mind.
Benefits of low-impact exercises include improving your cholesterol, reducing blood fats, blood pressure and the risk for injuries, says Laurie Tennant, KU health, sports and exercise science instructor. "A low-impact workout can be very beneficial just as long as the person is exercising within their target heart rate zone to improve their cardiorespiratory system," she says. When done correctly at your target heart rate, these exercises are also beneficial for weight loss.
Individuals with previous injuries find low or no-impact exercise is the way to go. It is gentle enough for individuals suffering from disk and joint disorders, knee disorders and hip and back pain. And it works well for people with
injuries because it increases mobility without stressing your joints. Geoff Farwell, trainer and instructor at the Lawrence Athletic Club, says those who have never worked out before should begin with a fast walk and slowly progress to a run to get a cardiovascular low-impact workout. Then they can continue to adjust their distance based on endurance, slowly progressing to a higher pace. Experts agree that if you've never worked out before, you would need to start with a low-impact workout program. And with every form of exercise, stretches should be included to improve flexibility.
It is important to be trained and physically fit before participating in higher-impact activities and to not to force your body to continue to do an exercise if it's uncomfortable, says Dennis Anthony, chiropractor at the Anthony Chiropractic Clinic, 3017 W. Sixth St. This can put stress on joints. Anthony says if most of his patients are involved in an exercise that's too high-impact they drop out or quit. He says that if a patient struggles with low-impact activities, he works with them to alter the class, such as eliminating certain exercises or taking a slower pace. He says he would rather see his patients do less exercise in the class than to stop the program all together.
If you feel you can't reach your goals with low-impact exercise, Tennant suggests doing activities such as jogging on a softer, even surface to decrease the impact on the body. Tennant says that high-impact workouts increase the risk for injury, which will only keep a person from exercising. In the long-term your body will thank you for choosing low over high-impact workouts.
Swimming
Swimming is a full body workout. All major muscle groups are engaged and you achieve a sense of balance in the water. Swimming is referred to as low-impact because your body is not receiving impact from gravity, where as in activities like running and basketball, your joints and muscles are constantly being pounded into the ground. Seth Huston, swimming coach at Rice University, says you can get a good workout with swimming. He says that
like any specialty activity, it's good to receive some formal instruction on your technique or even to join exercise programs to maximize your benefits.
Yoga
Yoga could be both, low- impact or high- impact and can increase strength and flexibility. Just like any activity when you add intensity, you change the amount of impact it has on your body.In yoga this would be done by jumping into and out of standing yoga poses.
Yoga improves body alignment, strength, flexibility, balance and stamina, says Jill Krebs of the Yoga Center of
Kit Lefter/Kansan
thursday, november 13, 2003
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