Low-Impact Exercises: Your Non-Negotiable for Joint Health — and Results

Looking for a workout that builds strength without leaving your joints sore and overworked? Low-impact exercises, like barre, might be exactly what you need. These workouts strike the perfect balance between power and stability, helping you grow stronger with every move.

If you’re ready to feel stronger without the strain, you’re in the right place. In this blog, we’ll share our top five low-impact exercises and what they can add to your workout. Let’s dive in!

First things first: What are low-impact exercises?

You’ve likely heard of them before, but what exactly separates low-impact exercises from ones that are considered high-impact? Here’s a simple way to think about it: Low-impact exercises have very little force on the body, like the name suggests. A classic example is walking, thanks to its fluid movement.

This is different from high-impact exercises like running or jumping, which involve force on the body each time your feet meet the ground.

3 joint-friendly benefits of low-impact workouts

Low-impact workouts like barre avoid harsh, abrupt contact, minimizing joint strain while also building muscle and stability. (In this case, you can have your cake and eat it, too!). 

Intrigued? Here are a few more benefits low-impact exercise can offer over time:

1. They help you build whole-body strength, improve fitness, and support healthy recovery between workouts — all without placing too much stress on the connective tissues around your joints.
   
2. They’re an effective way to build consistency and increase frequency with your resistance training routine. So, why is this? Simple: Because these movements are safe and sustainable for your body to do daily.
   
3. They’re key for injury prevention and valuable for longevity in your training (meaning you can do the workouts you love for years to come).

Now, let’s explore five of our all-time must-have low-impact exercises across all Bar Method class types.

Use these 5 exercises to level up your low-impact workout

1. Push-ups

Push-ups have a reputation for being difficult (and we won’t lie, they certainly can be!). They’re also one of the best total body exercises to build strength and endurance while raising the heart rate.

Whether you’re in the Bar Method studio or on the go, you can do them with no equipment since the exercise relies on body weight to build resistance. They’re also the perfect exercise to track your strength progression over time.

Form is key for getting the most out of each push-up, so use the tips below when practicing at home or in your next barre class.

How to:

• Place your hands under your shoulders or slightly wider and angle your fingertips slightly in. 
• To avoid straining your lower back, lift your hip bones up in line with the front of your ribcage, grip your glutes, tuck slightly, and press your shoulder blades away from one another.
• As you start to move, imagine your elbows are bending diagonally back toward your waist.
  

Bonus tip: To take the challenge up a notch (while also stretching your hamstrings), do these on the balls of your feet.

Depending on your teacher’s mood, you can see anywhere from 20-70 push-ups in a typical Bar Method class! (If that seems like a lot, don’t worry! Modifications are always an option, so you can do what feels right for your body.)

2. Diamond Thigh

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but diamond thigh is the real MVP. This exercise streamlines the sides of your body while building power and strength in your quads.

During this movement, the hips and feet are turned out while pressing the balls of the feet together, allowing you to leverage your strength to work at a challenging depth. The result? Engagement that increases the metabolic burn in the quadriceps.

Not to mention, getting through a full set of diamond thigh without stopping will make you feel like a total powerhouse.

How to:

• Stand next to your support and hold on lightly.
• Turn your feet out comfortably into a wide “V.”
• Raise to the balls of your feet, then soften your knees as you walk your heels inward until they touch in their lifted position. 
• Glance down to check that the turnout in your knees and feet match.
• Look straight ahead to align your neck and spine over your hips and heels.
• Grip your glutes lightly.

Bend your knees down an inch and up at varying tempos for one to two minutes.

3. Arabesque

You don’t need to be a ballerina to appreciate the power behind this weight-bearing seat exercise. It targets the gluteus medius, posture muscles, and the side of the waist — strengthening the standing quads, outer glutes, obliques, and calves in the process. It also engages the larger muscles in the mid to upper back, allowing for postural strengthening and control.

We’ll admit that seeing this beautiful movement for the first time might be a little intimidating, but with the tips below, you’ll look and feel great in arabesque.

There are two options for arabesque:

1. Work with your leg bent in half to challenge the hamstrings.
2. Work with your leg just slightly bent, which will create more weight for your glutes. 

Avoid straightening your working leg to protect your lower back, and be sure to give yourself a pull away stretch immediately after each leg to release your glutes and posture muscles. 

How to:

• Rest your hands on your support and stand an arm’s length away. 
• Place your feet in a wide V and soften your knees.
• Place your right foot on the floor behind you and maintain the turnout in your legs. 
• As you raise your right leg to hip height, lower your torso down to nearly horizontal. 
• Use the muscles under your shoulder blades to lift your head and upper torso.
• Lift your right hip slightly higher than your other hip.
• Square your ribs and shoulders toward your support to engage the muscles in your waist.
• Use the side of your glute to lift your leg at varying tempos for up to two minutes.

4. Floor Zinger

Like push-ups, floor zinger is quick, effective, and easy to perform wherever you are working out. Floor zinger is truly a zinger, and that’s why we love it! It’s a type of seat-work that’s fast, effective, challenging, and shapes the glute muscles for confidence-boosting results you’ll notice. Next time you’re craving that zing, follow the steps below.

How to:

• Come onto your hands and knees. 
• Place your hands under your shoulders or slightly wider. Soften or straighten your arms. 
• Lift up your right leg, straighten it, and turn your knee out to the right. 
• Slide your leg out to the side several inches until you feel the side of your seat engage. 
• Shift your body weight in the same direction. Pull your ribcage up. 
• Bend your working knee an inch and stretch your leg to a straightened position.
• Bend and stretch. 

Continue for about 20 reps.

Want to take things up a notch? Stretch more quickly and extend your left arm forward. Finish with 20-30 reps of bending and stretching your working leg. Your abdominals, glutes, hamstrings, quads, and arms will thank you. (Yes, floor zinger works all of those areas of your body!)

5. Clam

It wouldn’t be a Bar Method class without some core work, so of course clam made this list. Clam creates a fast sizzle in the abdominals while increasing your heart rate, with a full range of motion as you curl forward and backward. Your abdominals have to work just as much to control the “out” motion as they do on the curling forward movement, keeping your body engaged the entire time.

How to:

• Lie down and cross your right thigh over your left.
• Draw your knees over your hips and let your feet dangle.
• Cross your hands over your chest and aim your elbows diagonally up and forward.
• Bend at your waist to curl your torso slowly forward and back down. 
• Move your thighs slightly inward as you curl up, then back over your hips as you lower. 
• Allow your head to come back down to the floor with each rep and keep your chin lifted.
• For extra support, you can place your opposite (left) hand behind your head and aim your elbow diagonally outward.

Perform for up to one minute, then change sides.

If you need more support for your neck, place your left hand behind your head. Hold at the top and curl in quickly toward your knees while you move your knees in a one-inch range of motion toward your elbows for the last 20-30 reps. Feeling the burn? Yeah, we thought so.

How to add low-impact exercises to your routine

Consistency is key to building strength, so making the commitment to show up to classes (or practicing these exercises at home regularly) is the most important way to see results over time. Taking classes four to five days per week will help improve familiarity with each exercise and begin to refine your form.

To maximize the benefits of barre and stay committed, we recommend varying the type of barre classes you choose (find a few of our favorites below). When combined, Bar Method class formats offer the benefits of strength training, cardiovascular conditioning, improved mobility, and greater flexibility — all through safe, effective, and sustainable low-impact exercise.

Three more bonus tips to help you get started: 

• Using a mirror when performing these exercises at home can help improve form and increase your mind-muscle connection.
• Focusing on proper alignment during classes will help ensure that the right muscles are activated. 
• Try not to get hung up on the number on your weights, your depth, or other arbitrary measures — those things will come with practice and time.

Which is better: Low-impact strength or low-impact cardio workouts?

We’re glad you asked! Low-impact workouts come in different forms, like strength and cardio, but barre does both. That means you don’t have to choose between the two. Classes like Bar Method Cardio and Bar Strength emphasize the specific types of controlled movements that match your goals, whether that includes light weights, body weight, or the barre itself.

At The Bar Method, we love variety. It’s the key to keeping your mind and body engaged through every movement. So naturally, we have more than a few go-to low-impact barre exercises, no matter which class type you take. To get an idea of the exercises you’ll see in class, check out a few of our favorite cardio and strength exercises below.

Low-impact cardio exercises (try these in Bar Method Cardio):

• Active fold over
• Simple plank jacks
• Simple diagonal lunges
• Active second to passe
• Active second position to diamond thigh
• Active tilted seat

Low-impact strength examples (try these in Bar Strength): 

• Weighted squats to overhead press
• Weighted side plank with row
• Kickstand RDL
• Weighted foldover deadlifts 

Curious about how these look and feel in action? Our top piece of advice is to try a class to experience each exercise firsthand — trust us, you’ll feel yourself getting stronger in real time! But in the meantime, we’ve got you covered with this barre terminology overview to help you become more familiar with the exercises behind barre’s low-impact health benefits.

How can someone lose weight with low-impact exercise?

For those with a weight loss goal, low-impact exercise can play a role in helping you reach it when combined with a proper nutrition plan. Low-impact exercises combine consistent calorie-burning movement with strength-building exercises to support metabolism. This allows the body to burn calories consistently, build lean muscles, and reduce the risk of injury, which can all add up to weight loss results.

Barre: Low-impact exercises + Major results

Barre’s low-impact exercises offer more than an effective workout — they’re a direct path toward strength, toning, stability, good posture, and confidence. And here’s the best part: These powerful results are sustainable for your body.

With a unique blend of cardio and strength, you have the freedom to explore different low-impact workout styles and class formats, achieving the balance and variety you desire. After all, we believe you absolutely can have it all.

Ready to experience the benefits of barre for yourself? Get answers to all your barre questions and start experiencing how low-impact exercises can transform your body while being kind to your joints!