25 Cardio Workout Exercises You Can Do At Home Or At Gym
Cardiovascular exercises are intense types of exercises that increase your rate of heartbeat and breathing. When you perform cardio, your big muscles of legs, arms, and hips are engaged, which requires a significant amount of energy. As a result, your heartbeat quickens and you begin to breathe rapidly.
These cardio workouts offer numerous health benefits and you don't require a whole lot of equipment to perform them. You can do them anywhere. We have listed 25 common cardio workout exercises you can do at your home or gym.
1. Boxing Squat
Boxing squatting is an easy exercise and can be done anywhere. To start with this workout, sit down and back into a squat position. Repeat this a few times as a warm-up and as you return to the stand-up position, extend your right hand in a punching position. And as you go down, pull back your hand in a normal position.
Similarly, as you return to the squat position again, bring forth your left hand in the punching position and pull back as you get down in the squat position.
2. Side Lunge
Widen your feet to the same length as your hip to begin the Side Lunges. You can keep your hands in a Namaste position. Move your right foot to the right, bending your knee and taking a side lunge position. Make sure you keep your left leg straight.
After that, return to the original position, pushing the ground with the right leg. Similarly, move your left leg to the left bending the knee, and take the side lunge position. Repeat the process.
3. Jumping Jacks
Start by standing in your original position with no gap between your legs and arms by your sides. Bend your knees and push off the ground like a jump. As you jump, widen your legs as long as 1 m, swing your both hands, and make a clap over your head.
Likewise, bend your knees and make a jump with that position, and as you land, bring back your legs and hand to the original position. Repeat the process.
4. Jump Squats
Start with your feet hip-distance apart, lowering into a squat position, bending your knees and arms beside your hips. As you do this, make sure to keep your back straight. After that, jump straight up in the air by swinging your arms overhead and making a clap.
Similarly, make a jump again pushing the ground in that position. As you land, bring back your arms to the original position beside your hips and upper body in a squat position.
5. Lateral Shuffles
Maintain your hip distance the same as your hip length. Bring your body into a squat position, bending your knees. Move your right leg wide apart keeping the left leg at the original position and maintaining the squat position.
Bring back your right leg into its original position and similarly move your left leg wide apart to the left keeping your right foot at the same position. Bring back your left leg into its original position and repeat the process.
6. Forward And Backward Jumps
Start with maintaining a hip-width stance between your feet. Bend your knees, taking a squat-like position. Keep your hands beside your hips without touching them. Angle your body like you're about to jump forward.
After that, jump forward in the air pushing through the ground, throwing arms up in the air for momentum. Maintain the squat position while you land and keep your hands beside the hips. Likewise, jump backward by pushing the ground and throwing arms up in the air. Maintain the squat position again. Repeat the process.
7. Rocket Jumps
Similar to the previous exercise, it is also equally fun. Start with feet distance of hip-length. After that, bring down your body into a half-squat position, bending the knees. Keep your hands beside your hips. Push through the ground and jump forward, throwing the arms in the front-upwards direction for momentum.
Land on the original half-squat position with arms beside the hips. Likewise, lunge backward again throwing hands up in the air and landing on a bended-knee position. Repeat this to-and-forth exercise.
8. Single Leg Stand
Start this exercise by standing in a normal position while maintaining a small gap between your feet. Keep your hands on your waist. After that, lift your right leg in an upward direction against the ground while bending your knees. Make sure your right toes are parallel to your left knee.
Hold your right leg in that position for a few seconds. Bring down the right leg. In the same way, lift the left leg and hold for a few seconds before bringing it down.
9. Arm Circles
This cardio exercise is easy to do and can be performed while in a sitting position. To start, rotate or swing your both arms at a certain speed in a circular way. Make sure or try to make a complete circle. You can move around your hands in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions.
Try performing 10 circles clockwise and 10 circles in an anticlockwise direction. If you're unable to move your hands flexibly, you can try making small circles first.
10. Trunk Rotation
First, stand upright in a normal position. Lift your hands with a 180-degree angle sideways in the "Hands-side" position. Twist your torso at one side while keeping the feet in their original position. Bring back the torso to normal position while holding hands in the same position.
Similarly, move your torso to the other side while maintaining hands in the air. Again, untwist the torso and bring it into its original position. You can also wear some weights if you feel the exercise is easy.
11. Squat Kick
First, start by positioning your legs hip-width apart and hands beside your waist. After that, bend your knees to form a squat-down position. As you try to return to the original stand-up position, extend and give a kick by your right leg.
Likewise, perform squat again, and as you return to your original position, give a kick from your left leg. You can try wearing weights on your back if you want to level up the exercise.
12. Jumping Rope
Jumping rope can be an entertaining way to perform cardio while having fun. You might have tried playing this game as a kid. It might be hard at the beginning but as you play it regularly, you are certain to become a champion.
To start with, try jumping without a rope similar to someone who jumps with an actual rope. It might look simple, but there are a lot of ways to perform rope jumping like Double-Unders, Crisscross, Side swings, and many more.
13. Jumping Lunges
This exercise can be a great stretch to strengthen your leg muscles. Start with maintaining in-between foot distance hip-width. Get down in a lunge position with your left in the front and right in the back. Push off the ground with the right leg to make a jump.
Likewise, reverse the process and land on your right leg in the front and left leg in the back. Position your hands as though you're running for the momentum. Perform this back and forth repeatedly.
14. Burpees
To perform this exercise, start by putting your body in a push-up position, maintaining the back like an arc. Push the ground with both legs and lunge it under your chest like a toilet position. Again push the ground with both legs and jump upwards.
You can either swing your hands above your head to make a clap while jumping or simply hold them together in front of your chest while making the jump. Similarly, reverse the process, get down with hands landing on the ground. Get back into the push-up position and repeat the exercise.
15. Inch Worm
Stand upright in a normal position. Bend down and try to reach the toes with your hands. Walk with your hands in a forward direction until you make a push-up position, maintaining the arc in your back.
Likewise, walk back with your hands maintaining the arc until you reach the toes. Repeat the process until you get it right. Inchworm exercise is said to build your shoulder muscles and the overall strength of the torso.
16. Mountain Climbing
Start this exercise by positioning your body in a plank position. Straighten your back like a true mountain climber. Force your right leg against the ground and bring it under your right chest. After that, return the right leg to its original position.
In the same way, push your left leg against the ground, bring it forward under your left chest, and pull it back into its original position. Make sure you perform this slowly and intently. Quality is more important in this aerobic than quantity.
17. Dancing
Dancing is a fun activity to do, but it's also a great aerobic and cardio exercise. Start with tuning in your favorite song or rap and start dancing to it. Make sure to move every muscle in your body and if possible, make some jumps and lunges frequently.
You can also perform simple squats while dancing to the music. Dancing has been found to have many health benefits. Not only is it one form of exercise, but it also helps release happy hormones in our brains and brighten our moods.
18. Shoulder Tap Plank
Position yourself in a plank posture on the floor with your shoulders perpendicular to your wrist. As you lift your right hand, try to position the center of mass somewhere in the left chest. Lift your torso with only your left hand and try touching your left shoulders with your right arm.
Then, place the right hand in its original position, with your center of mass near the right chest. Now, lift the whole torso with your right hand and try touching the right shoulder with your left palm. Try this for a few minutes.
19. Plank To Downward Dog
Similar to the previous workout, position your body in a plank position. Lift your glutes and bring your head below your shoulder. Maintain the arc position while straightening your back. Maintain balance and position your body back into the plank position.
Redo the exercise for a few minutes. Plank to a downward dog is said to have many benefits, like strengthening the upper body and legs and improving mobility of the whole body.
20. Stair Climbing
Stair climbing is considered one of the simplest cardio exercise workouts. Try this exercise in your office buildings. Stair climbing stretches include running and skipping a couple of stairs which might not apply to performing in a small home.
To begin this exercise, you can start with just a simple jog on the stairs. And if you're up to hardcore exercise for muscle building, you can add some weights around your upper body. Stair climbing helps strengthen the leg muscles and upper body.
21. Bear Crawl
To start with, get down on a pushup position. Push your right leg against the ground while keeping the knees untouched from the ground. Move your arms forward like a bear does. Likewise, push your left leg against the ground and move forward. You can crawl around your room or certain parts of the gym.
This exercise helps move every muscle in our body and is one of the best fitness cardio exercises. Additionally, it helps strengthen the upper part of our body.
22. Plank Jacks
First, lower your body in a plank position. Push both of the palms against the ground and lift your bump a little higher than the rest of the body. Jump both of your feet in opposite directions and jump them back into the original position.
Plank jacks can also be a great way to warm up your body before doing hardcore exercises or lifting weights. Repeat the cardiovascular workouts for 15-20 times.
23. Treadmilling
If you have a treadmill at your house or if you are subscribed to a gym membership, treadmilling can be one of the best cardio training exercises you can perform indoors. Exercising on a treadmill is convenient and it has a lot of health benefits like lowering fat, improving heart health, strengthening muscles, and many more.
Additionally, while exercising on a treadmill, your joints don't have to suffer impact like running on hard cemented surfaces. Moreover, you can also adjust the speed of the machine and perform different stretches like jogging and running conveniently.
24. Heel Kicks
One of these most effective cardiovascular workout exercises, the heel kicks (simply called butt kicks) engages your glute with your respective legs at a fast pace.
To start with, begin with a simple jog at the sample place and as you warm up, try to reach your right glute with your right leg. In a similar way, try to reach your left glute with your left leg. This workout for cardio helps stretch our foot muscles and makes our lower body flexible.
25. High Knees
Similar to the previous exercise, start with a simple jog. After you have warmed up with a couple of jumps, try lifting each leg higher up to your hips. These cardio workouts can be hard in the beginning but as you do them repeatedly, you will know how they work.
If you're confused about what to do with your hands, you can pat the knees with your respective arms as this workout will help move hand muscles.
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