Can Aerobic Exercises be Bad for Your Joints?

Aerobic exercise is incredibly important for your health. It keeps, your heart, mind and muscles all in the best possible shape to keep you fighting fit and able to power through your days. No matter what your age or fitness levels are, you should always make sure that you’re making time in your day to keep yourself fit and do some good aerobic exercise!

Even when you find something you love doing, for your fitness or for fun, it’s still important to watch out for yourself while you’re doing it. Aerobic exercise is no different. Any exercise can be detrimental if you do too much of it, and this isn’t an exception. Your joints are not something that you want to have issues with at any point in life, and exercise can keep them in the best possible shape, or cause you problems if you don’t understand it.

There are a lot of different aspects to keep in mind when you’re thinking about what is going to take its toll on your joints, though. It’s not all just about what you’re doing to them, but how often you’re doing it, how you’re treating your joints outside of your exercise, and everything in between. Here are some of the most important factors.

Different impacts

Every different exercise has a different impact on your body. It depends entirely on what it is that you’re going to be doing, the speed of what you’re doing, and even how much you weigh! Exercises like running and jumping movements, for example, cause you to use your joints as shock absorbers. Your knees, in particular, take the brunt of the force that you’re putting on yourself, and over time, you can wear down your joints. This can cause you a whole range of different issues on its own!

Repetitive Strain

Now, going for regular runs doesn’t mean that you are going to do damage; that is absolutely not what we are saying. Running too hard, too often though? That’s where you’ll have problems. Repetitive strain injury is usually the most common short-term injury on your joints or ligaments for overactive people, and that’s just a part of life that has to be dealt with on its own. Long term, however, is a different game. If you’re putting all of this pressure on your joints every day without rest, recovery, or corrective actions like taking supplements or relaxing exercises, then you are going to face much more severe issues. like those under the runner’s knee category. Take time out to rest. Regularly.

Apparatus & Equipment

One of the best ways that you can use to keep yourself safer during your aerobic exercise is to use the correct equipment. Make sure that you are using the right shoes for your training. No matter what you’re doing, there will be a shoe designed for it. Different motions put pressure on different places, and these shoes usually are designed with a sole or padding to ensure that pressure that you are putting on your body is moved mostly through that first. This massively reduces it and means that you’re doing the least possible damage! Buy the shoes!

Types of Aerobic Exercise

If you are concerned about your joint health, it can be useful to know which exercises are good, and which exercises you need to take more precautions during to keep in shape both long and short term. If you have any pre-existing joint issues, this information can be vital too!

LIE

Starting with low impact, they don’t all have to be low intensity either. There are ways to still do highly vigorous exercise without any joint impact if you know your stuff so that whether you’re starting out or just tackling joint issues, you know what you’re doing.

Walking is a fantastic way to get exercise for a prolonged time that can also be convenient and enjoyable too. If you’re wanting to keep things relaxed and low impact walking is the way to go, and with the right amount, you can get good fitness results from it! On the flip side to this, swimming is one of the best full body workouts that you can do. The weightlessness of your body in the water mixed with the resistance it offers means that you do wonders for your entire body.

Most cardio exercise equipment is also very low impact such as cross-trainers and exercise bikes, but they can be slightly more intensive than some of the simpler exercises. This makes them a lot more dependent on your fitness levels and capability for a good and sustainable workout, so experiment and see what you prefer!

HIE

High impact exercises are typically a lot more efficient, and they are much better for helping you to build up muscle, stamina and performance. If you are in the right shape to do so and you have the equipment for it, it’s worth doing.

As we said throughout, running is without a doubt one of the best forms of aerobic exercise you can do due to it being functional and moving your whole body. If you have bad technique though, you can put even more pressure on the wrong places than you usually would. Do your homework. Aerobics classes too may incorporate high impact exercises like box jumping, star jumps, burpees, or anything else that really gets you moving. Tailor your workouts to suit you, mix things up, and protect yourself at all times.

Overall, as long as you stay safe and use the right equipment, you should be okay. Give yourself any needed self-care and allow your body to repair itself after a workout, and just find what it is that you enjoy. See a physical therapist or your GP if you have more concerns.

Before beginning any exercise or nutrition program, consult your physician, doctor or other professional. This is especially important for individuals over the age of 35 or persons with pre-existing health problems. Exercise.co.uk assumes no responsibility for personal injury or property damage sustained using our advice.

If you experience dizziness, nausea, chest pain, or any other abnormal symptoms, stop the workout at once and consult a physician or doctor immediately.