When you think of cardio workouts, you might think of going to the gym to participate in an instructor-led class, or hopping on a treadmill, elliptical or exercise bike for 30 minutes or longer. While all of these options are excellent for reaching your exercise target heart rate, you can create cardio workouts at home with no equipment. Using a variety of familiar exercises, you can raise your heart rate while you burn calories and improve your fitness.
What is Cardio Exercise?
While many people use the words "cardio" and "aerobic" interchangeably, there are three basic cardiovascular workouts you can create. A beginner cardio workout keeps your heart rate between 50 percent and 70 percent of your maximum heart rate, and helps you gradually build heart and muscle strength. An aerobic workout keeps your heart rate between 70 percent and 80 percent of your maximum heart rate throughout your workout. An anaerobic workout, also known as sprint or interval training, has you performing high-intensity bursts of exercise for 30 to 120 seconds at 80 percent to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate, taking longer recovery breaks between each sprint.
Beginner Cardio Exercises
Start a cardio workout program using almost any movement that raise your heat rate to a pace similar to a brisk walk. Your goal is to work at a pace that raises your heart rate but lets you continue to exercise for 20 minutes or more without stopping. This could include waking up and down stairs, walking in place with high knee steps, swinging your arms while walking in place, performing lunges or squats, or performing tai chi, yoga or Pilates. Perform squats by standing with your feet about shoulder-width apart, hands on hips. Slowly lower yourself by moving your buttocks backward while you keep your torso straight and eyes straight ahead. Lower yourself to your maximum comfortable range of motion, hold for two seconds, then raise yourself with your legs. A lunge is similar, except you lower yourself by taking a large step forward or to the side, then stepping backward to raise yourself.
Intermediate Cardio Exercises
If you can keep your heart rate at a pace similar to jogging during your workout, you can create aerobic workouts. At this pace, one or both of your feet may leave the floor, creating low- or high-impact exercises. Jog in place, with or without high knees, or kicking your but with your heels each step. Mimic skipping rope. Do several minutes of jumping jacks. Go up and down stairs at a faster pace. Add bodyweight exercises such as pushups, situps, pullups, chinups, crunches, squats, lunges and dips. To perform dips, stand between two stable chairs and put your hands on the tops them. Bend your knees to get your feet off the floor, then raise and lower yourself with your arms, keeping your back straight. You can find a variety of aerobic exercise programs on your TV that don't require equipment.
Advanced Cardio Exercises
Whether you're a competitive athlete or perform regular, aerobic exercise, you can benefit from sprint training. If you're not a trained athlete, build two or three sprints per half hour into your workouts. This could be as simple as jogging in place, doing jumping jacks or running stairs at a high intensity for 30 to 90 seconds, then recovering for several minutes. If you are an athlete, create sprints by working hard for two minutes and resting for two minutes, or by working at jogging speed for 30 seconds, running speed for 30 seconds, then sprinting speed for 30 seconds. Consult a health professional before you try sprint training of any kind.
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