OK, can we talk? Here is part 1 of the Spynergy no-nonsense glossary to de-mystify fitness terms thrown around by the press, doctors, personal trainers and other so-called experts. These are a basic concepts you should know —- translated into straight talk. Today it is the idea of low impact exercise.
“Low-Impact” Does that term mean anything to you right now? If not, it will soon.
First, let’s discuss high-impact activities (virtually ANYTHING involving running). Here’s an image: think of a 120 to 180 pound bone-in rib roast that is picked up and dropped on to cement or asphault……thousands of times. No, make that hundreds of thousands of times. Visualize what that sudden impact does to the soft fleshy tissues that hold that rib roast together. Hmmmmm. That’s high impact. Now picture a different bone-in rib roast placed on a playground swingset and swung back and forth thousands of times. That’s low impact.
Which piece of meat do you think has suffered less trauma?
For most people (granted, there are a few freak-of-nature exceptions) there is a limit to the amount of ground-pounding that your ankles, knees and hips can take. The goal is to NOT reach that limit in your lifetime because it would be nice to walk comfortably during your last few years on earth.
Since aerobic exercise is good for you (a topic for another day, but trust us, it’s true), a good strategy is to get as much of it as possible, or practical……. from low impact activity: cycling, rowing, swimming – to name a few. Not all your activity need be low impact, but a lot of it should be. Example: a fanatic runner who runs 4 times a week, and replaces two of those sessions with a low impact activity (note: it could be anything, but spin would be our preference), will theoretically extend the “life” of his or her joints by 50%.
Summary: low-impact exercise minimizes wear and tear on your body while still giving you the aerobic and other benefits. This is a reality that becomes more and more important with age. Make sense? Love to hear your comments.
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