Low impact workout: what it means, a no-jump session and the cardio to go with it

"Low impact" gets used for anything gentle, which makes it sound like a lesser workout. It isn't one. It describes how your feet meet the ground, not how hard you work, and you can build a full week of strength and cardio around it without giving up much.

This page covers what the term means, with the forces that have actually been measured, a full-body session without a single jump, the cardio options and how hard to push them, how a week fits together, and what the trials measured for weight loss. If you'd rather jump, the jump rope workout and burpees are the other end of the scale.

What low impact means

A movement is low impact when there's no moment with both feet off the ground: no jumping, hopping or running. Walking, stepping, cycling, rowing, the elliptical and the stair climber are low impact; running, jump rope and jump squats aren't. The difference shows up in the force under your feet:

• Walking against jogging. In 75 adults without symptoms, the average load measured under the foot was about 112% of body weight walking on the ground, 175% jogging on a treadmill, 201% jogging on the ground, and 73% on an elliptical.¹
• Jump rope sits between them. In 22 healthy women aged 18 to 25, the vertical ground-reaction force on landing from a basic rope skip was lower than in running and higher than in walking.²
• Low-impact moves measured like walking. In 10 adults aged 19 to 29 who walked and did four aerobic-class movements on a force platform, peak vertical force in the low-impact moves was significantly less than in the high-impact ones, and no different from walking.³

None of these studies followed anyone over weeks, so this page makes no claim about what those forces do over time. What they show is the meaning of the word: low impact keeps the force under your feet at or below walking's, and below jogging's or jumping's.

A no-jump full-body workout

The authors of the American College of Sports Medicine's 2026 position stand consider pushing and pulling for the upper and lower body enough to reach the major muscle groups.⁴ None of those needs a jump. Five patterns, plus a step for the legs:

The session: two sets of each in the first two weeks, three after that, 8 to 20 reps (or 20 to 40 seconds on the plank), stopping each set with a few good reps left. Rest about a minute. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes and needs a floor, a chair, a step and a doorway. The bodyweight workout has the full progression for each pattern.

The week: two or three times, on days that aren't back to back. The World Health Organization's guideline for adults is muscle-strengthening activity that involves all major muscle groups on two or more days a week.⁵

Swapping out the jumps when a class or a video calls for them:

• Jump squat: a squat with a slow lowering and a fast stand, heels down.
• Burpee: the step-back burpee, one foot at a time, no jump at either end.
• Jumping jacks: step jacks, one foot out to the side and back, arms overhead.
• Mountain climbers: step each knee in slowly instead of switching in the air.
• High knees: marching in place, knees to hip height.

Low-impact cardio

Low impact isn't low effort. In 30 recreationally active men working hard and then at their maximum on seven machines, the treadmill used the most energy, followed by the stair climber, then the elliptical, then the bikes and the rower.⁶ And in 22 moderately active women training three days a week for 12 weeks at matched heart rates, aerobic fitness rose about as much on an elliptical or a stair climber as with treadmill running.⁷

How hard: the talk test

For steady cardio, pick a pace where you can still say a sentence or two out loud, but it isn't effortless. In 16 physically active volunteers, 30-minute runs paced only by the talk test, held at its last stage where they still passed ("last positive"), produced an intensity suited to training in healthy adults.⁸ The WHO describes moderate activity as usually a 5 or 6 on a 0-to-10 scale of effort.⁵ If you can't finish a sentence, slow down or lower the resistance; if you could sing, pick it up. Zone 2 cardio covers the heart-rate version.

A low-impact week

The WHO's guideline for adults is 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, or 75 to 150 vigorous, plus the two strength days above, and some activity is better than none.⁵

That's 150 moderate minutes and two strength days. Starting from nothing? Begin with the two strength sessions and two 20-minute walks, and add about ten minutes a week.

Low impact workout for weight loss

What the trials measured, not a promise. In 60 Japanese women with an average age of about 51, described as mildly obese, on a three-month weight-loss program of diet plus exercise, the group doing low-impact aerobic dance lost about 3.1 kg and the group jogging or cycling about 3.3 kg, with no significant difference between the groups.⁹ Both groups had the diet, so the trial found no difference by type of exercise; it doesn't show that the dance caused the loss. In five trials that followed adults with overweight or obesity for a year or more, programs that combined diet and activity lost about 6 kg more at 12 to 18 months than activity alone.¹⁰

So low-impact training is a fair way to spend energy, and the scale is still mostly about what you eat. Walking for fat loss and why you can't lose fat cover that side.

Common questions

Is walking a low impact workout?

Yes: one foot is always on the ground. In the study above, the load under the foot was about 112% of body weight walking, against 175% to 201% jogging.¹

Is low-impact cardio as good as running?

For aerobic fitness, it held up in the one 12-week trial above that compared them: the elliptical and the stair climber did about as well as treadmill running.⁷ The treadmill did use the most energy at the same effort in the seven-machine study.⁶

Can you build muscle with low impact training?

The strength session above is low impact, and every pattern in it gets harder as you add reps, slow the lowering, move to a harder version or pick up a weight. Progressive overload explains the order.

What if something hurts?

If you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, a doctor or a physical therapist should set the limits before you train; this page is general guidance for healthy adults.

If you'd rather have the week planned

A week on a page assumes your days look like everyone else's. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in the Trainerize app, built around the days and the equipment you actually have, and a weekly call looks at how the week went and sets the next one. Coaching for beginners explains how the first weeks work, and apply is the first step. Otherwise: tomorrow, do the no-jump session once and take a 20-minute walk.