The perks of low-impact exercise are just as wide-ranging as the activities that comprise the low-impact exercise category. Let’s take a peek at a few of the potential health benefits:
Greater Heart Health
Low-impact aerobic activities like walking offer comparable heart-health benefits to high-impact counterparts like running. In fact, when researchers analyzed 33,060 runners and 15,045 walkers (ages 18 to 80), they found similar reductions in risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and possibly heart disease over a six-year follow-up. That is, provided the walking was moderate-intensity. The findings were published in May 2013 in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.
Lower Risk for Diabetes
Many low-impact exercises can lower your risk of getting type 2 diabetes.
Walking, for example, may decrease your diabetes risk better than medications when paired with a healthy diet. A National Institutes of Health study involving 3,234 people at risk for type 2 diabetes found that those who combined diet changes with 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise — usually walking — over the course of the five-year trial period reduced their diabetes risk by 58 percent. Meanwhile, those who took preventively metformin, a medication that helps control blood glucose (sugar), lowered their risk by 31 percent. A 15-year follow-up study reveals that about 55 percent of the lifestyle group had developed diabetes, compared with 56 percent of the metformin group, and 62 percent of the placebo group.
And in people with type 2 diabetes, strength training can play a role in managing blood sugar levels, per a meta-analysis of eight studies published in June 2017 in Diabetes Therapy. This may lower your risk of diabetes-related complications.
Improved Joint Health
Low-impact activities offer people with joint issues the opportunity to exercise with less discomfort and pain. Moreover, the movement associated with low-impact exercise may help lubricate stiff, achy joints and deliver blood and nutrients, thereby improving joint health and function, per the Arthritis Foundation.
Swimming and cycling, for example, may both help reduce joint pain and stiffness in people with osteoarthritis (a “wear and tear” joint disease). In one study, 48 middle-aged and older adults with osteoarthritis participated in either a 12-week swimming or cycling program (45 minutes three days per week), with both groups reporting significant improvements in joint pain and stiffness and quality of life.
However, given the study’s small sample size, it’s difficult to apply the findings to larger populations.
Stronger Bones
Building bone requires weight-bearing exercises, which means specific low-impact activities — namely, cycling and swimming — aren’t ideal, Milton says. But other low-impact exercises are incredibly effective. “Strength training is one of the best things you can do for bone density,” Milton says.
In one study involving 101 postmenopausal women with low bone mass, those who participated in a high-intensity strength training program for 30 minutes twice a week for eight months saw significant improvements in bone density.
Greater Brain Health
Low-impact exercises like walking can maintain and boost brain health, which may help prevent dementia, or the loss of thought, memory, and reasoning. In a study published in 2022 in JAMA Neurology, researchers analyzed health and activity information gathered from more than 78,000 healthy UK adults over a seven-year period. They discovered that those who walked about 9,800 steps per day (about five miles) were 51 percent less likely to develop dementia than those who walked fewer than 3,800 steps per day.
