Sophie Pacek
Exercise Physiologist, Healthy Connections
With the COVID-19 restrictions easing (and the presence of some beautiful winter weather!), my partner and I have started outdoor rock climbing again. For the last few months, my exercise has consisted of a morning stretch routine, running and in-home HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts including weights. Getting back on the rock reminded me that I had not been doing much low to medium impact exercise. Climbing allows for a high cardiovascular and muscle workout whilst avoiding high impact forces present in the activities I had been doing. This was a great reminder that it is important to have the right combination of exercise impacts to ensure your muscles and bones remain strong and you avoid being too harsh on your body which may result in injury.
Last week’s blog was all about impact (read it here), and today we are going to build upon what I wrote about and put it into action! Below is a summary:
- I first talked about two common bone-related conditions that are often confused with each other – osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. These conditions are very different in nature so depending on what condition an individual has determines what level of exercise impact is safe and beneficial for them (Hunter & Eckstein, 2009)
- Impact refers to the intensity of force felt when coming into contact with something – high impact activities like running and jumping produce greater force/impact than low impact activities like walking and cycling (Kelley, Kelley & Kohrt, 2013)
- Exercise can have no, low or high levels of impact – ALL HAVE THEIR BENEFITS
- In general, medium-to-high impact activities are recommended for individuals with lowered bone mineral density (including osteoporosis) whilst low impact activities are recommended for those with osteoarthritis (Hunter & Eckstein, 2009; Beck et al., 2017)
- Choose the level of impact appropriate for you taking into consideration your exercise and health goals, current health conditions, pain levels, level of fitness and exercise preferences
- Talk to an exercise physiologist at Healthy Connections about what level/s of impact are safe and effective for you
Exercise time!
As promised, today’s blog is less reading and more doing! Let’s try two workouts – one is low impact, the other is high impact. Each consists of 8 exercises with 40 seconds of work and 20-30 seconds of rest. Shorter rest will produce an aerobic response (e.g. get your heart rate and breathing up to improve your fitness). However, feel free to have longer rest and focus on technique. Aim to complete 2-4 rounds of these exercises (I have only performed one round).
Please remember: listen to your body and if you are unsure whether high impact is safe for you, have fun with the low impact workout! Talk to one of the Healthy Connections staff if you have any questions.
Low impact workout
High impact workout
Public announcement: We are open!
As some of you may be aware, it is with great pleasure that I can announce that Healthy Connections (Kuran Street) is resuming services as of Monday 8th June. Please note that there are a few changes in place to adhere to government regulations and ensure all of us remain safe and healthy while you exercise.
As always, stay safe, wash your hands, keep moving and I will see you at Healthy Connections soon!
Sophie
- Beck, B. R., Daly, R. M., Singh, M. A. F., & Taaffe, D. R. (2017). Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA) position statement on exercise prescription for the prevention and management of osteoporosis. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 20(5), 438-445. doi: 10.1016/j.jsams.2016.10.001
- Hunter, D. J., & Eckstein, F. (2009). Exercise and osteoarthritis. Journal of Anatomy, 214(2), 197-207. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2008.01013.x
- Kelley, G. A., Kelley, K. S., & Kohrt, W. M. (2013). Exercise and bone mineral density in premenopausal women: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. International Journal of Endocrinology, 2013, Article ID 741639. doi: 10.1155/2013/741639