LISS Cardio: A Joint-Friendly Workout With Great Health Benefits for Older Adults

Low-intensity steady-state exercise gives HIIT, high-intensity interval training, a run for its money — at a slower pace that makes sticking with it easier

Michael Schroeder,

AARP

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Published August 23, 2024

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No pain, no gain? Go hard or go home? More like slow and steady wins the race.

At least that’s the case for many — if not most — older adults looking for an exercise routine they’ll actually stick with to boost cardiovascular and overall health. Experts say low-intensity steady-state (LISS) cardio — which could be anything from brisk walking or biking to swimming — could be that answer for many age 50 and older. Plus, the more relaxed, steady approach typically sidesteps risks ranging from joint sprains, strains and bone fractures to exercise-induced heart attacks linked with jumping into higher-intensity activity.

“I think it’s fair to say that almost nobody gets a heart attack doing mall walking,” says Carl Foster, professor emeritus in exercise and sports science at the University Wisconsin-La Crosse. “But if you’re doing interval training on your kid’s track, there’s an appreciable risk — it’s not zero.”

Foster researched how steady-state physical activity compared with high-intensity interval training to increase individuals’ aerobic capacity. He found “the effects were remarkably similar.”

In other words, you don’t have to pound the pavement or jump onto boxes to stay in shape.

A review of research in the journal Sports found that people can be successful in changing their body composition, including reducing body fat, whether they go slow and steady or hard and fast — though they generally need to do more of the first to achieve the same results.

So how do you find the right exercise intensity and activities for you, and might LISS cardio be in that sweet spot? Here’s what you should consider.

What is LISS cardio?

LISS cardio is a type of aerobic exercise that’s done at a consistent, moderate pace, usually for 30 to 60 minutes. Physicians and exercise professionals consider this a great option for people 50 and up to meet physical activity guidelines that call for at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week. Older adults, especially those who have coronary artery disease, who’ve had a heart attack or stroke, or just about anyone keen to improve overall heart health, are likely to find that a gradual approach to moving from the couch to a treadmill or swimming laps in a pool is optimal.

“Start out easy,” advises Frederick Basilico, M.D., sports cardiologist and physician in chief for medicine at New England Baptist Hospital, who oversees nonsurgical care at the Boston-based hospital. Basilico, who sees a lot of cardiac patients, says that may mean starting with 10 to 20 minutes of activity at a time to eventually reaching 150 to 300 minutes of cardio per week. Apart from brisk walking, biking and swimming, LISS activities can include:

Water aerobics
Elliptical machine
Rowing machine — at a lower intensity
Yoga — if you get you can get your heart rate in the target range (see below)
Free weights — if you keep up the tempo to get your heart rate up

How hard and fast should you go?

The widely used “talk test” is an easy way to gauge exercise intensity. Can you speak aloud without difficulty while moving? If you’re constantly having to catch your breath to answer a question when exercising with a friend, that’s not LISS, says Maurice Williams, personal trainer and assistant professor of kinesiology at Freed Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee. Conversely, if you can carry on a conversation without having to stop or pause to catch your breath, that’s a way of determining it’s low-intensity.

That doesn’t work for swimming because you can’t speak underwater, of course. “But you probably also know when your breathing is under control when you’re swimming, and when you’re … running out of air,” says Foster, who is also a spokesperson for the National Academy of Sports Medicine. “So the logic is the same.”

For a slightly higher-tech way to check your intensity, experts say when you’re doing LISS cardio you want to get your heart rate up to about 50 to 65 percent of your maximum heart rate. (See box below for how to calculate this.)

Is LISS good for weight loss?

You don’t have to go full throttle to shed pounds.

You do have to work out longer with LISS — just as you do to meet physical activity guidelines — to burn the same number of calories as you would with high-intensity interval training, or HIIT.

But research finds those who meet exercise recommendations — whether slow and steady or fast and hard — lose weight at a comparable rate over the same period of weeks, months or longer. For example, one study of 38 sedentary and overweight men and postmenopausal women published in the journal Physiological Reports found that whether they exercised vigorously or just walked on the treadmill, both groups lost the same amount of weight over a three-week period. Both groups also saw other benefits ranging from fat loss to improved metabolic health.

Of course, finding just the right exercise for you will only go so far if you don’t also make dietary changes. “One thing I tell my clients is if you really want to get a jump on your weight loss … get your nutrition in order first,” Williams says.

The reason LISS works for weight loss is that it burns calories. “It just may take a little longer to burn the [same] amount of calories compared to high intensity,” Williams says. But “you’re still going to get improvement in aerobic conditioning and in your muscular conditioning as well … and it’s safer.”

LISS gives brain and mental health boost

Low-intensity steady-state cardio can put within your reach most of the health benefits that higher-intensity physical activities promise.

That includes not only physical benefits — from protecting against heart attacks to improving bone health (though for the latter HIIT does appear to have an edge), with less risk of breaks and strains. LISS can also improve brain and mental health, from delaying symptoms of dementia to improving mood and reducing the risk of depression and anxiety, as a study published in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews found.

“One interesting finding was that low and moderate-intensity physical activity showed the most significant protective effects against depression,” Lee Smith, epidemiologist and professor of public health in the school of psychology and sports science at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England, wrote in an email.

For Smith and other experts, the main takeaway isn’t that LISS is superior to other forms of exercise. Rather, it’s all about finding whatever type of physical activity a person will enjoy or tolerate enough to get moving and stay active, so they can access the myriad related health benefits.

“It really is about shifting a predominantly sedentary population,” Smith emphasized, “from spending the majority of their day … sitting to light-intensity physical activity.”

Calculating Heart Rate Range for LISS Exercise

For a slightly higher-tech way to check your intensity, experts say when you’re doing LISS cardio you want to get your heart rate up to about 50 to 65 percent of your maximum heart rate.

Method 1

Subtract your age from 220 to get your maximum heart rate (so if you’re 55, your maximum would be 165 beats per minute).
Then multiply that by 0.50 and 0.65 (which, for that 55-year-old, comes to about 83 to 107 beats per minute). That gives you the range for LISS.

At least that’s the simplified, slightly antiquated way to do it, Williams says.

Method 2

To get an even more accurate number, Williams suggests a slightly more complex math problem that requires knowing your resting heart rate. (See below for how to measure it.)

Subtract your age from 220.
Then subtract your resting heart rate from that number.
Multiply the resulting number by 0.50 and 0.65.
Add your resting heart rate back in to each of those numbers. With this second formula, the low and high range is going to be a little higher and more accurate, Williams says.

Measuring resting heart rate

A normal resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute. To measure, choose a time when you haven’t exercised or exerted yourself for several hours.

To determine your resting heart rate, the American Heart Association recommends:

Take the pads/tips of your index finger and middle finger and press them gently against the side of your neck (just under your jawline). Or press on the inside of your wrist, on the artery of either arm.
Use a stopwatch to count the number of beats you feel for 60 seconds, or count the beats for 30 seconds and multiply by 2.
Smartwatches give reasonable estimates as well, according to Jorge Romero, a cardiologist with Mass General Brigham hospital in Boston.

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Michael Schroeder is a freelance health writer and editor who's covered everything from chronic disease and mental health to medication side effects. His stories have been published in a range of print and digital publications, including Time, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, and Psychology Today.