Low-Intensity Fitness Workouts
Low Intensity Fitness Workouts –
LISS Training Tips & Advice :
You may notice as you age, that high-intensity workouts are harder on your body and leave you in some pain. Switching to low-intensity cardio workouts as you age is something to embrace and definitely to not feel guilty about. Staying fit is more about finding a form of exercise you enjoy enough to be consistent with ,than feeling like you should always “punish” your body with strenuous workouts. That’s where Low Intensity Fitness Workouts come in!
Everyone can benefit from low-intensity cardio workouts, no matter what stage of life they’re in. If you can get into a hardcore HIIT workout every day well done! however, you need to give your body a break whatever your age. You can’t put your body through the same rigorous workouts day in and day out—it will start to crave a different form of exercise.
Fitness a hundred different ways:
An indoor workout, a long walk with friends, a bike ride on a sunny day, or time spent on the elliptical trainer at a steady pace, are all great workouts that are less intense but will still burn calories, and help you stay fit.
So whether you’re dealing with the aches and pains of aging, recovering from an illness, or helping your muscles recover between more intense workouts, consider adding a low-intensity workout into your weekly routine.
What is Low-Intensity Exercise?
Low-Intensity Steady State (LISS) exercise calls for 30-60 minutes spent at the fat-burning rate of 60% of the maximal heart-rate effort. At this level of intensity, you can work out for longer periods of time and build endurance—not necessarily raw strength.
Think of a long walk or bike ride, using an elliptical trainer or rowing machine etc.
Consider LISS workouts to be the opposite of HIIT workouts. During HIIT, you set out to get your heart pumping and your body working hard. You are pushing yourself to the limit with short bursts of flat-out effort followed by brief periods of rest.
But with LISS workouts, you’re keeping your heart rate steady as you perform a less intense form of exercise—for at least 30 minutes.
Benefits of Low-Intensity Fitness Workouts
Yes, higher intensity workouts will typically burn more calories, but less intense forms of exercise do still burn calories and fat. We’re not claiming that a daily 30-minute walk will give you six-pack, but less-intense workouts do burn fat—especially when you spend longer doing them. Low-intensity cardio has tons of other great benefits, too!
Here are just a few:
- Helps fat burning and fat loss
- Helps cardiovascular function
- Improves muscular endurance — through a higher number of repetitions at a lower resistance
- Helps boost circulation
- Improves mood
- Is appropriate for every fitness level
- Is great for recovery – use the day after a particularly difficult workout
Many low-intensity cardio workouts can also be done, anytime, anywhere. From long walks to bike rides and everything in between, they’re low maintenance and often give you a chance to reconnect with nature and find some joy in what you’re doing.
LISS Burns Calories, Builds Endurance
Low-intensity exercise won’t necessarily build raw strength or turn you into a calorie-burning machine like a HIIT workout would—but it still burns calories, builds endurance, and benefits your body in a host of other ways.
We hope you’re starting to see that less intense forms of exercise are nothing to feel guilty about; on the contrary, it’s a great way to get a workout in if your body needs a break, or you simply can’t do a more intense workout due to your age, an injury, or even preference.
Indoor Walking – One of the Best Cardio Workouts
Have you done your steps in for the day?
How many steps a day should we take?
These are common questions we ask ourselves daily because we know how important it is to get our steps in and move our bodies!
After all, the professionals recommend that we all take at least 10,000 steps per day! In fact, walking 10,000 steps per day can cut your risk of dementia by 50%. And there is a way to accomplish these 10,000 steps – anytime, anywhere and you’ll have a whole lot of fun doing it !
Yes you really can, in the comfort of your own home! All you need is a pair of comfy walking shoes and some serious motivation.
What Do You Need to Know About Indoor Walking ?
Indoor walking is also known as stepping, and is the standard move for any indoor walking exercise. There is a lot more too!!
Here are some enjoyable and not too strenuous variations that can make indoor walking fun while simultaneously adding more steps to your count:
- Glute Squeezes
- Side Steps
- Grapevines
- Step Touches
- Front Kicks
- Knee Lifts
Remember – the more you move, and the more you lift up your feet, the greater the calory-burning intensity!
Best of all, while you move and sweat, your joints are hardly affected. So get moving now, and have some stepping fun along the way with these low-intensity cardio workouts.
The Hidden Benefits of Low-Intensity Workouts
We’ve talked at length about the physical benefits of low intensity workouts, but there’s another thing you should consider: the mental benefits. So often, we believe we must push our bodies to the limit. But the “ no pain, no gain” mentality isn’t always healthy.
A less intense workout every now is both physically restorative and mentally restorative too, helping your body in a form of movement that feels far more natural to you. Working out up to your limit every day can lead to burnout, it pays to slow things down a bit and load your body with a less intense form of movement.
You don’t need to feel guilty when “just taking a walk.”
LISS exercise can and should be a big part of your workout plan. A nice long walk, a bike ride in your neighborhood, an elliptical workout, paddle boarding, or a fun dance class that makes you happy are all excellent low-intensity options.
When it comes to consistent exercise, the most important thing is to find workouts that for you. No matter what stage of life you’re in, exercise doesn’t have to be intense to be beneficial.
Take less-intense workouts and you’ll come to appreciate that exercise is not a punishment, or something that has to leave you feeling numb the following day.
More Low-Intensity Cardio Workouts
Here are more great ways to get a low-intensity cardio workout —the possibilities are endless! Whether you’re reconnecting with the great outdoors or heading for the gym, here are some additional low-intensity helpers
- Step Aerobics
- Biking / Indoor Biking
- Indoor Walking (Treadmill)
- Elliptical Workouts
- Rowing Machine
- Stand-Up Paddle-Boarding
- Water Aerobics
- Home Gym
