Cardio Exercises You Can Do at Home

Cardio workout is any exercise that increases your heart rate. The human body is made to move. It is essential to keep your muscles in shape to move them in the right way.

The heart is a muscle, and it must be strong enough to supply the blood to the entire body. Having a stronger cardiovascular system helps to deliver enough oxygen to cells of your muscles. It allows your cells for fat burning while exercising and inactiveness.

The cardio workout uses bigger muscle movements for sustaining a specific time to elevate your heart rate at least 50% of its capacity levels.

Cardiovascular fitness is the capacity of the lungs and heart to supply enough oxygen-rich blood to active muscle tissues. It increases the capacity of muscles to use oxygen to generate energy for doing movements. It is a type of fitness, which is related to the health component of your physical fitness. Generally, an individual’s ability to supply oxygen to active muscles is impacted by different physiological parameters such as stroke volume, heart rate, maximal oxygen damage, and cardiac output.

It’s important to understand the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and other kinds of conditioning need a review of changes that happen with raised anaerobic ability, or aerobic. As your anaerobic or aerobic ability boost, the general metabolism also gets a boost. It also enhances muscle metabolism, hemoglobin, bloodstream buffers, stroke volume. Every effect of cardiorespiratory condition or cardiovascular fitness contains a direct positive impact on your muscular endurance and indirect impact on flexibility and strength.

You don’t require an elliptical trainer or treadmill to perform cardio routine. Here is the cardio exercise to perform at home and burn calories.

Jumping Jacks

Jumping jacks is a traditional cardiovascular workout. It helps to burn a sufficient number of calories. Jumping jack also tones your outer and inner thighs, laterals, quadriceps, and deltoids muscles.  Keep your tummy tucked while performing this workout to tone your lower abs.

Jumping jacks target the muscles of the core, legs, and arms. The added benefits help to promote cardio health.

The soleus and gastrocnemius muscles build up the calves, crossing the backside of your legs. The muscles connect near the knee joint on top and mix at the Achilles tendon to connect the heel on the bottom.

They help to plantarflex to your ankle, which is an essential movement to lift the heel over the ground. Whenever you do jumping jacks, it contracts the calf muscles. It also softens the force between the floor and your feet whenever you land.

You will require strong core muscles for athletic activities to balance your movements. Jumping jack workout helps to balance the muscles.

How to do?

• Extend your legs and arms well before starting jumping jack exercise.
• Stand straight, keep your head and spine straight. Let your arm stay on your sides of body and feet together.
• Flex your knees slightly, jump upward in the air as high as possible for you.
• Expand your legs out a slightly wider than your shoulders as you jump.
• Extend your hands together, in line with your shoulders.
• Let your feet rest while lowering down on the floor at your shoulder width and stretch your hands over your head.
• Quickly jump back and repeat to complete the required sets.

Sets and Reps

Perform 2-sets and 30-reps

Variations

Jumping jack variations include flexing down and reaching to the ground between every jump you perform.

Power Jacks

Power jacks are the same as jumping jacks, but the only difference is an individual squat down and jumps as high as possible during every repetition.

Half Jacks

Half jacks are a similar workout to the jumping jack, which helps to prevent rotator cuff injuries.  In this workout, you have to perform repetitive movements. They are similar to jumping jacks workout, but you have to stretch arms halfway over your head rather than all above.
The arms also connect the sides to tighten the jump.

Cross Jacks

The cross jacks are calorie-burning workout is an ideal way to remove the fat gathered in your biceps, thighs, calf muscles, and triceps. You can use this workout for toning your abs. It requires to engage the tummy while doing this workout for effective result.

Cross jacks exercise is best for cardiovascular health that warms up your joints and muscles. It provides many benefits such as activating muscles groups and elevating heart rate.

The cross jack workout also promotes your metabolism and burn excess calories.

This workout also improves your muscle endurance and relaxation. Engage your abs while doing this workout and keep joints soft. Keep breathing while exercising.

How to do?

• Stand straight with head and spine erect. Keep your arms beside the body and foot together.
• Extend your legs outwards to rest at your hip size.
• Jump upward as high as you can do.
• Together, gently let your arms go over your head by crossing your wrist.
• As you lower down, cross your toes at the ankles.
• Same time, lower down your arms by crossing ahead of your hips.
• Keep breathing while jumping upward and breath out while crossing your feet at the floor level.
• Quickly slide into step-3 and again do 3-6 reps without breaking till you complete a set.

Sets and Reps

Perform 3-sets and 3-6-reps

Spot Jogs

Spot jongs are one of the cardio workouts to perform at home. It is a very quick and simple workout to perform at the time of tea preparation. It is similar like jogging workout, but you will do this workout at one place and not going anywhere.

Generally, spot jogging is performed to warm up before doing exercises for weight training and cardio. Doing 2-3 jogging can be more effective. People with overweight can avoid spot jogging and do a brisk walk.

How to do?

• Raise your knees as high as you can do and hit your butt.
• You can utilize your arms to raise the heartbeat.
• If you are doing this workout in free times, then perform spot jogs for 60 seconds.

Skater Squat

Skater squat is the best cardio exercise to get slim by burning calories. It engages your core muscles as you take them in to perform squat. Performing this exercise helps tone the muscles of calves, glutes, deltoids, and quads. It tones your complete body.

How to do?

• Stand upright by keep your head and spine straight.
• Put your feet together while making your arms rest on your sides.
• Jump on your left side while stretching your left arm backside.
• Together get your right fist close to your chin.
• Place your left foot on the ground while the right leg is lifted back.
• Squat quickly and repeat the process with your other side.
• Keep doing this workout at home with changing your side.

Sets and Reps

Perform 2-sets and 30-reps and increase 100 times as you feel comfortable.

Skipping

Skipping is an easy, cardio workout to do at home. You can do moving skipping or spot skipping. It helps to burn more than 200 calories if done for 20 minutes. Buy a rope at minimal cost or use the long rope available in the market for skipping.

How to do?

• Stand upright, keep your head and spine erected, the rope held with hands back of your body. Ensure that the hands are at any rate one foot away from your body or else there are odds of your stumbling over.
• Whirl the rope forward and jump over it, enabling it to move back your body.
• Bounce on your toes. Enable your wrists and hand to move beside the handles.

Sets and Reps

Do 2-sets of 30-reps and increase as you feel comfortable.

Jump Lunges

Jump lunges are another cardio exercise to do at home. It helps to tone your thigh muscles while raising heart rates without any types of equipment. It helps to boost your body coordination while maintaining lower body more toned and supple.

How to do?

• Let your hand on your sides and stand straight. Keep your head and spine erected.
• Breath in and lunge ahead with your right leg by flexing the elbows. Keep your hands folded into your fists. Get your left hand near your chest while making your right hand placed on your hip.
• Jump and quickly switch your legs and arms, let yourself land in a lunge with your left foot.
• It is one rep. Make sure to alternate your legs as you do jump and lunge without pause until you complete a set.

Sets and Reps

Do 2-sets of 30-reps.

High Knee March

The high knee march exercise is a simple and effective workout for cardio health. They burn calories and tone your core and butts. It also boosts your endurance levels while providing toned abs, hips, and thighs. Perform a full 60 seconds and feel the energy reduction from your body.

How to do?

• Stand straight on the ground, place your head and spine erect.
• Keep your foot together and let your hands stay on the sides of your body.
• Raise your feet one by one, let your knees to come near your waist.
• Together, alternately move your hands. Move left hand with the right knee in a vice versa form.
• Balance the pace, move continuously for 50-counts, which takes 20 seconds.

Sets and Reps

Perform 3-sets for more benefits.

Squat Jumps

Squat jumps are a versatile plyometric workout, which increases your heart rate and improve blood circulation. It also promotes metabolism.

This workout helps to burn extra calories and improves leg power. Squat jumps workout doesn’t require any tool or equipment and training. You can comfortably do it at your home.

How to do?

• Stand straight to do squat jumps, keep your feet spread outside at your shoulder width. Let your hands rest on your both side.
• Extend your hands level to your chest, which should be parallel to the floor. Drive yourself to perform a squat.
• Jump up by tucking your core muscles inside. Do as high as jump possible for ours.
• Raise your hands upward over your head together.
• Come back over the ground in a squat.
• It is one rep of squat jump.

Sets and Reps

Perform one set 10-reps.

Tips

Avoid jumping with your toes but use whole foot.

Avoid bending your body or shoulders while doing this exercise.

Mountain Climbers

Mountain climber is a cardio workout. It helps to burn calories, tone thighs, and abs. It also increases your muscles strength and boosts blood circulation.

How to do?

• Rests on the floor in a board position utilizing your body and equalize it on your wrists.
• Set yourself direct level from your chest area to toes.
• Spot your lower back extended, twist your left knee hidden from everyone else.
• Keep this posture for 2-seconds and return to the opening point. Repeat with your right leg. It is your one rep.
• Complete this workout without rest till you do one set.
• Sets and Reps
• Do 2-sets of 20-reps and improve as you feel satisfied.

Surya Namaskar

You may wonder but yes Surya namaskar also a cardio exercise to perform at home. It helps to stay fab and fit. This workout helps to shape your body while keeping your mind composed and calm.

Make sure to perform this workout on an empty stomach as it has a reversal poses. Performing Surya Namaskar for 25 minutes will help to burn around 350 calories.

Performing every pose with accuracy and a faster pace can help to burn more calories.

• Start gently, with 5-rounds, increasing the numbers slowly over time.
• Take a break of 15 seconds after every rep.

Avoid Mistakes while doing Surya Namaskar

The beginner should learn to do Surya namaskar in the correct way to get effective results.

Reducing the breath for movements

Synchronize every step while doing movements. Breath in as you flex your back, then breath out for next movement.

Avoid doing Surya Namaskar at a fast pace because it will lose the proper movement.

Narrowly lifting the spine

Avoid narrowly lifting your spine in to over Ardha Uttanasana. If you do transitional position to short shrift, you will pinch on your breath and possibly get strain in your neck. It will cause lose the main benefits such as decompressing and strengthening your spine.

The main ideas are to breathe in and raise your front of the chest, extending the whole spine and keeping fingertips on the ground or palm on your shin bone.

Lower spine drops

A beginner may try to put more pressure on the lower spine and drop it to the ground in Ardha Chaturanga. It causes lower back pain. Learn to press your toes and palms deep into the ground by engaging your abdominal and upper body muscles.

Jumbling upward-dog and cobra exercise

Mixing two exercises such as cobra, and upward-dog exercise is a mistake. Become perfect in cobra exercise to get the strength and perform an advance variation of upward dog pose.

Struggling to get the foot ahead in the low lunge

The beginner may struggle to get the front foot forward in entire movement between hands when one is moving from the Adho Mukha Svanasana to Anjaneyasana. The individual may end up in the position where your knees are more stretch and normal practice done like this to put more pressure on the knees and not extend the hip flexors. Try to take down the knees for one second and slowly get your food forward or walk from the pose.

Burpees

Burpees are also a cardio workout that takes a short time. You may not require any tool or equipment and more space for performing burpees at home.

Burpees exercise is a total package such as triceps, leg extensions, and kickbacks. This workout targets many muscles of your body such as shoulders, chest, triceps with a push-up, hamstrings, butt, quads, calves, back, and abs.

Functional fitness

Burpees are functional fitness, which cares the amount of bench press, jerk and clean if you don’t play with kids or take out the trash. The functional fitness is the best exercise to keep yourself fit in everyday life. There is no workout for improving functional fitness than burpees. Between cardio and resistance exercise, burpees will keep you fit excellently.

Burpees are easy to perform

You can do burpees exercise anywhere. You don’t require to go to the gym, do it your home. This workout is bodyweight training, which can be done anywhere and at any time. Make sure to have enough space for doing push-up and burpee.

Burpees are versatile

Your main focus is cardio, so burpees are the exercise to gain functional strength. It helps to adjust a suit you need while doing cardio or resistance training.

Good for endurance

Normally the resistance training target on gaining power and strength, the burpee moves build the endurance. Doing a burpee workout helps to gain tip-top body shape related to muscular endurance, flexibility, and cardiovascular endurance.

Burpee is dynamic

Doing regular weightlifting make your muscles to have a similar range of motion whenever you do it. It means your muscles grow stronger with a particular range of motion, but they are less flexible and mobile. Changing direction or angle of load can reduce the muscular strength. Regular moving muscles will gain dynamic and toned muscles from weight training.

How to do?

• Alternate between jumping forward and a plank position.
• Keep your hands level on the ground and back erect.
• In 10-minutes of time, you can be able to burn more than 100 calories.
• Start gently and do till 10-minutes to avoid injuries.

Dancing

Dancing is another cardio workout to do with fun at your home. Play your favorite music and dance. The movement you do will increase your heart rate and pump the more blood. These exercises include hip hop, Zumba. Performing dance exercise helps to sculpt your body and tone your muscles.

If you are not sure about the move, then watch some dance exercise videos for better results.

Ways to choose dance workouts

An average woman with 130 pounds can burn up to more than 300 calories by doing one-hour ballet. There is different dance style which meets your interest and skill levels such as pole dance to dangling with a piece of thing connected to the roof. Here is the dance form you can do.

Ballet

Ballet is a dance discipline-based workout. It was initially introduced in 1581 as an entertainment dance form in the European courts and emerged into the most demanding performing art.

Ballet exercise classes are classified into 2-parts the first involves holding the bar connected to the wall. It will help to benefit muscle building and core work.

The rest of the class normally perform in the middle of the room, where you gain cardio benefits, including stamina and coordination.

Jazz

Jazz is another dance from which always been a challenging and fall under different categories. This dance style emerged in 1800-1950s. It has a cakewalk, Charleston, jitterbug, and African-American vernacular dance.

Jazz is a fast-paced and high energy workout, which burns several calories. It increases your stamina and flexibility. Jazz workout shapes your butt and thighs.

Tap dance

Tap dance also used for a workout. Once you learn, it will be easy to perform. Tap dance requires to move your feet with music. It requires to lose the ankles to become expert with much practice.

The challenging part is to focus on small details of movement to burn fewer calories. Make sure to practice at a slow pace and continue.

Hip Hop

Hip hop dance discovered in early 1970 with its roots in locking, popping, and breakdance. This dance is fun and has high energy with popular music.

Hip hop engages your core and works effectively. You can find hip hop dance workout classes everywhere, including gym, recreation departments, and dance studios.

Modern and Contemporary

Contemporary and modern dance forms are opposite to the rules of ballet. These dance forms require expression and technical expert practice. It focuses on core muscles and strengthens your back and stomach muscles.

Latin and Ballroom

These dance forms are popular in South America and Europe. They also used widely in the US. Ballroom dance is enjoyable as it performed with a partner. It requires only some time to learn the basic steps.

As this workout is low impact exercise, the ballroom dancing is suitable for all age group people. It does not need more flexibility. It will help to shed pounds and shape your body.

Alternative

Alternative dance forms or PG-13 classes such as pole dancing, burlesque dancing, and stripteasing. These new movement expressions become more popular so, any age person can do it. These dance forms help to strengthen the upper body.

Benefits of Cardio Exercises

Improve heart health

Cardio exercise at home improves your heart health. Your heart is an important organ of the body, which pumps blood and supply all over the body. If you fail to keep workout, then the heart will become weak over time, which result in heart ailments.

Increased Metabolism

Cardio workout also effectively increase your metabolism. As cardio workout increases your heart rate, it also boosts the many functions of the body, also known as metabolism.

The more intense cardio session you perform, it increases the noticeable metabolic rate. It promotes post-workout oxygen and maintains weight.

Boost Hormonal Profile

Doing cardiovascular workout also helps to balance the hormonal profile in your body. It helps release the feel-good hormones that reduce depression and fatigue by decreasing appetite.

Enhanced Recovery Ability

There are different types of cardio workout. Normally, with a lower and moderately paced type, it can reduce your recovery time. If you have done a hard workout session in the gym, or treadmill walk, or a light job and lifting session, cardio workout helps to enhance recovery ability.

It also helps to decrease the muscles soreness and get more oxygen-containing blood to your muscle tissues. This workout also repairs and rebuild the damaged tissues. It means you can do a regular workout without feeling much pain.

Growing more muscle mass is a good combination of sufficient rest and overloading stimulus to heal itself. If you learn to balance the direction and workouts with enough rest, it will give you the desired result.

The more regularly you allow to work your muscles with full recovery, the faster it will add more new muscles. Remember, to not overdo the cardio workout to prevent additional strain.

Control Diabetes

Cardio workout also controls your diabetes. Doing cardio exercise promotes the ability of muscles to use glucose. The regular workout provides better control of the blood sugars than those who don’t work out. Blood sugar is extremely sensitive to change in the body. Therefore, cardio exercise is important.

Risks of Cardiovascular Exercise

Make sure to not perform over exercise as it may cause you’re the following risks.

Stress fractures

More cardio workout may create stress fractures. It occurs when you wear low-quality shoes, uses hard surfaces, and overuse.

Women are more prone to get the stress fractures, especially in the lower metatarsal bones than the men. When you get pain and swelling, consult a podiatrist. Get X-ray check-up and early treatment to prevent injury.

Plantar fasciitis

Cardio exercise may also risk your arch pain, plantar fasciitis. It happens when you put more stress on your plantar aspect or foot bottom in your aerobic routine. When plantar fascia come in contact with a fibrous band of support in the foot heel, it becomes inflamed and causes pain.

Extreme pronation in rearfoot and forefoot can lead to plantar fasciitis. Choose proper shoes with arch support to prevent plantar fasciitis.

Dehydration

Excess cardio workout can cause dehydration. Dehydration can cause body tissues to suffer from low water. It will lead to discomfort and crack in the skin. If you are extremely dehydrated, then it will create a risk of respiratory infections.

Heel spurs

Heel spur problem linked with plantar fasciitis, it happens when calcium deposit develops on the underside of your heel bone. A heel spurs slowly over time. Bothe heel spur and plantar fasciitis can be prevented by right warm-up such as stretching the tissue band on your foot bottom.

Shin splints

Apart from your ankle sprains, shin splint can also happen, which is a common injury in your lower body. As the muscles are connected the shin bone, it gets the foot up and down. The pain generally linked with shin muscles and tendon inflammation because of stress.

Make sure to treat your shin pain with an immediate cold compress for reducing swelling. Proper stretch before exercise can help to prevent such risk.

Calf pain and Achilles tendon

The constant rising on the toes that happen while doing the aerobic routine. It often creates tightness and pain in your large muscle in the back of your legs, which create inflammation and pain in calf muscles and tendon. Slowly stretching the calf muscles after a workout can help to prevent the pain.

Consult immediately with your doctor after getting an injury. These all risk happen when you do mistakes or overuse. Otherwise, cardio workout makes you healthy and fit.