Starting your day with a beneficial session of exercise significantly boosts your mental, physical, and emotional health. It stimulates your metabolism, aids in burning calories, and sets the foundation for maintaining healthy habits throughout the day. If you’re looking to amp up your morning workout regimen, we present five excellent low-impact exercises designed for weight loss to help you achieve your fitness goals below
Walking is an excellent, low-impact physical activity to do first thing in the morning if you want to slim down.
“Simply lace up your shoes and put one foot in front of the other,” Gatlin instructs. “Adding in some hills on the treadmill or outside can increase your burn as well. Anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes (or more) can lift your heart rate and kickstart your energy for the day.”
Indoor Cycling
Another productive way to improve your cardio? Indoor cycling!
“Indoor cycling is one of the most effective low-impact exercises for weight loss, especially in the mornings. It gets your metabolism going,” says ISSA CPT and CycleBar instructor Emma Belluomo. “I would recommend 30-45 minutes to get your heart rate up, get a good sweat going, and reach your weight loss goals.”
Belluomo also suggests incorporating interval work by increasing the speed or resistance. This will keep your heart rate up and the ride interesting.
Tired of walking to lose weight? Try these 4 low-impact workouts to burn fat
Barre
If you haven’t tried barre before, get ready to be addicted. If you’re looking for a fun, low-impact way to meet your weight loss goals, try a 30- to 60-minute barre workout in the morning.
“Barre uniquely blends ballet-inspired movements, yoga and Pilates for a high-intensity but low-impact workout,” explains Michelle Ditto, vice president of training and technique for Pure Barre. “Along with weight management, barre strengthens muscles and improves flexibility, boosts endurance, increases range of motion and improves balance and posture.”
Dynamic Strength Exercises
Performing a circuit of a few dynamic strength exercises can boost your metabolism while sculpting lean muscle, both of which support weight loss.
Steve Stonehouse, NASM-CPT and director of education for Body Fit Training, suggests including exercises like squat to overhead press, pushup to renegade row, and deadlift to upright row into your morning fitness routine.
“[These] exercises recruit lots of major muscles and add up to a full-body workout,” Stonehouse tells us.
