What are LISS Workouts?

Graphic of a woman walking, swmming, and man biking to show low intensity steady state training

You may know about HIIT workouts and their benefits, but do you know what LISS workouts are? It’s another form of training that you might not even realize has a name or amazing benefits. Keep reading to understand how LISS can make a profound impact on your fitness journey

LISS

LISS stands for low intensity steady state training. This means that you do a low exertion exercise for a longer period of time. Most people imagine workouts to be explosive with short bursts of movement followed by rest periods. LISS workouts are different from that expectation and can be just as effective if you perform them properly. Some examples of LISS workouts are walking, swimming, cycling, and hiking. To get the full benefits you should perform these exercises for 30-45 minutes.

Benefits:

Low Impact

Low intensity refers to the fact that you won’t be gasping for breath during an LISS workout. They are exercises that keep your heart rate steady instead of intensely rising and falling. They’re low impact which means that it’s much easier on your joints and you will have a shorter recovery period after your workouts. You will still feel hot and tired after LISS workouts, but you won’t need to do any fast or intense movements to see the effects of LISS.

Quick Recovery

As I mentioned above, LISS workouts shorten your recovery time. When you lift weights or do a HIIT workout, you usually need a day or more to recover from that exercise. After you do a LISS workout you may be tired but not drained of energy. The most advantageous workout schedule is putting LISS workouts after your really tough workouts to help keep your body moving. You don’t have to exert all your energy to have a great workout.

Effective at Burning Fat

LISS workouts have been proven to be effective at burning fat. When performing any type of metabolic process, such as burning fat, you need oxygen. When breaking down fat, oxygen helps break down these molecules, then carbon dioxide is transported by the blood out through your lungs. During LISS workouts you have more oxygen available to help with these processes. It helps metabolize fat, which high intensity workouts cannot do. You will be able to slowly chisel off fat if you incorporate LISS into your workout routine.

There are a lot of benefits of LISS workouts, as well as HIIT workouts, so to create the most effective schedule try to combine the two! Switching up the type of workouts you do weekly can keep your body at its peak performance because it will have to adapt to the different challenges of each workout.

Person walking, swimming, and riding a bike to show they are doing LISS workouts