Impact and intensity are two terms that are often mistakenly interchanged within the fitness industry. While impact and intensity may sound similar, the words have very different meanings. While impact describes the amount of force the body must endure, intensity refers to the level of difficulty (i.e., your exertion or the amount of power you are producing).
Unfortunately, health and fitness professionals often inadvertently create a cause-and-effect relationship between these two words, leading many to believe that if their workouts don’t include impact, their intensity will suffer and they won’t achieve results. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s time we uncouple these words for good and enhance our coaching to help participants find appropriate intensities using variable impact.
While high-impact moves such as lunge jumps, box jumps, burpees and even running are quick ways to turn up the intensity, are they necessary? The answer is that it depends. Impact does, of course, have its place. In fact, some studies suggest the right amount of impact can increase bone density. And depending on the impact moves you include, the body can learn the critical skill of deceleration, enhance coordinated movement and develop sport-specific skills. But depending on your client’s conditioning level or the volume of high(er) impact training he or she does, the impact may result in acute aches and pains or discomfort over time.
It’s entirely possible to engage in a high(er)-intensity workout without high-impact options. This is great news for those of us that want to participate in tough cardio workouts, improve cardiorespiratory fitness and burn a few extra calories, but can’t (or don’t care to) endure joint-jarring jumping for one reason or another.
With this in mind, consider offering the following options as intensity modifiers instead of always suggesting impact as the natural way to increase intensity…
View steps on American Council of Exercise
