The four best low-impact sports to lose weight (without crushing your joints)

Saying goodbye to extra kilos is a complicated task, not only because it requires perseverance, but also because not all sports are equally kind to our body. For this reason, if you want to lose weight without suffering, we have four good news for you.

What sports to practice to lose weight without harming yourself

There are many people who have lost a sports habit and gained weight at the same time, losing that routine not only has to do with our relationship with the scale, but recovering any of them will require an extra effort or load. It is not a trivial issue, since we can develop early osteoarthritis because the joint surface does not support this extra weight, especially in the knees (the largest joint in the body, and one of the most subject to sudden changes), hips and ankles. , also multiplying the effort with certain sports patterns such as running .

For this reason, before considering running or doing certain high-impact exercises, bet on these low-impact exercises so as not to weigh down your joints and gradually lose weight. In any case, having these characteristics does not mean that they do not have any joint wear, something 100% when we do a sport, especially the more we practice it or the more intense it is, including lifting weights, another classic low-impact exercise, perfect for burn calories and gain muscle.

1. Swimming

Beyond the topic of 'being the most complete exercise', the reality is that its great advantage is that it has low joint wear, especially in the lower body, in addition to promoting muscle development and flexibility. All this blessed by being floating, which reduces those direct impacts of our weight on the joints.

2. Walk

Every time we put our foot down in a running stride, we load our knee with the equivalent of four times our weight, while walking would barely be twice our weight. Obviously, the calorie burn is much lower, but this does not mean that you cannot walk at a good pace, but that you limit the power of the impact in each step, and you can even do it on a treadmill.

For this reason, one of the best exercises to lose weight and promote muscle tone is power walking (which is not only indicated for older people or women), since the cadence of the rhythm will allow you to lower those calories (around 200kcal for each half hour of exercise at about 7 kilometers per hour), which is quite a positive figure for those looking for a better relationship with the scale.

3. Cycling

Whether it's outdoors , indoor cycles or simply on a stationary bike, getting on them and pedaling is a good way of not overloading your joints, mainly knees and ankles, although you should pay attention to the way you pedal (never tucking your knees in, but should go straight, parallel to the box) so your hips don't suffer from an unnatural movement.

Once again, we are faced with a magnificent cardiovascular exercise, suitable for all ages and physical conditions with less joint load than running , but which will allow you to burn about 400kcal per hour if you have a relatively good rhythm. In any case, remember that it is important to warm up, stretch and be cautious with sports because the bicycle, although it does not demand the same from the knees and hips as going for a run, also demands constant joint movement.

4- Rowing

It has been years since it was necessary to have a river, a canoe and a paddle to enjoy rowing, nor its virtues, because the rowing machines that have appeared in the last 20 years are an ideal exercise to burn calories and not expose to our joints more than necessary.

In the end, we are talking about another low-impact exercise, so you can introduce us to the sport step by step, being aware that we will not burn the same calories with it as with other types of sports. In any case, an hour of rowing at an easy level will burn about 420kcal, which is a good figure considering that most of the exercise will be done by the upper body.