Move over CrossFit, HIIT, and boot camp classes—a new workout style is stealing the spotlight. Terms like ‘pilates princess’ and ‘bad‑bitch walk’ have taken over social media, and honestly, it’s easy to see why. Despite their differences, activities like Yoga, walking, Pilates, and even swimming share one key quality: they’re low-impact exercises that pack a powerful punch.
To qualify as low impact, a workout has to be easy on the joints. Sprinting, for example, is a popular high-impact activity. When you think of sprinting, you might think of pounding your feet as fast as you can on the pavement. While this is great for building endurance and cardiovascular health, it can be tough on the joints.
An important caveat is that low impact doesn’t always equate to low intensity; You can still get your heart seriously pumping on the elliptical. That said, many beloved low-impact activities—like Pilates, Yoga, Barre, and walking—tend to lean toward the gentler side of the intensity spectrum (read: that does not mean ‘easy’).
Low-impact workouts offer unique benefits for women, supporting hormonal balance, joint health, pelvic floor strength, and bone density. Below, we break down the beauty of low-impact exercise and explain why it can be a great fit for women of all ages.
Why Are Low-Impact Workouts So Helpful?
To understand why low-impact exercise can be effective, it’s important to understand the role of the joints in the body. Your joints—made up of nerves, tendons, ligaments, and other physiological components—are part of the skeletal system. They connect bones and allow you to move.
Just existing puts pressure on your joints. Every pound of body weight puts around four to six pounds of pressure on your knee joint. For this reason, chronic conditions, like obesity, can contribute to conditions like osteoarthritis (4x more common in women), which gradually causes pain in the joints.
In general, exercise is a protective factor against joint pain. Physical exercise helps lubricate and strengthen the muscles around the joints. It increases blood flow and improves flexibility.
Yet, not all exercise is created equally. What works for one person, might not work for another.
Certain populations can benefit most from low-impact activities. These workouts can be especially suitable for people with chronic pain, from conditions like arthritis and athletic injuries. Research suggests that running or doing similar exercises on already injured joints can increase the risk of osteoarthritis.
But if you love classes like HIIT (or really any form of cardio), don’t despair. Accessible options like low-impact HIIT—obé has hundreds of on-demand options—as well as cardio workouts like Endurance, Boxing, Dance Cardio, Step Aerobics, and Bounce all get you sweaty without straining your joints.
So, What Are the Benefits of Low-Impact Workouts for Women?
There’s a reason ‘Pilates princess’ is trending. Research shows that women reap more benefits and protection against type 2 diabetes and heart disease from low to moderate-activity exercise, like walking or cycling, than men. There are many reasons for this.
For one, low-impact workouts can be easier on the body when you experience different hormonal fluctuations every month. Cycle-syncing is a valuable way to exercise in tune with your natural rhythms.
“Men benefit 24/7, 365 days out of the year, from both high- and low-impact workouts, with little to no repercussions (as long as they allow their body ample rest and recovery),” says obé instructor Katherine M. “Women benefit from low-impact workouts year-round, and high-impact workouts only some of the time, depending on where they are in their menstrual cycle.”
She recommends opting into low-impact workouts during the luteal phase, or days one to five of the menstrual cycle, to avoid pushing through workouts that might put too much stress on the system. “Being in tune with your cycle and listening to what your body needs as a woman truly cannot be overstated in its importance and relevance as we discuss physical and mental well-being,” she says.
Additionally, the way women’s bodies are designed makes them more susceptible to joint injuries than men. Women are more likely to experience osteoarthritis than men because of declines in estrogen post-menopause, which can lower bone density. Engaging in low-impact workouts puts way less pressure on the joints as you age—while still offering the valuable benefits of exercise and strength training.
READ: Pilates, Barre, Sculpt—What’s the Difference?
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, a lot of low-impact activities do focus on the mind-body connection, which is why they are especially valuable to add to your routine. Classes like Yoga and Pilates “require a mind-body focus unlike anything else,” says Katherine. And low-impact variations of higher-intensity workouts still deliver all the same benefits (caloric burn included) as their high-impact styles.
If you want to invest in low-impact activity and are unsure where to start, obé has plenty of workouts to choose from for any mood, level, or vibe. You can always filter the on-demand library by impact level, including no impact and low impact, which both yield thousands of options.
“Commit to 28 minutes per day; 10 minutes if you can’t do that; 5 minutes if you can’t do that,” Katherine says. “Just show up, and you’ll be so incredibly thankful you did.”t of time to get a workout in without over-stressing your body.
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