You neither require a gym membership nor a walking-friendly neighborhood for you to be fit. If you want to be fit and you don’t want to hit the gym, here are some of the best cardio exercises that you can practice in your home:
Jumping Rope
This is a great move that has been shown to have the ability of helping you to burn over 200 calories in less than 20 minutes. In addition to helping you to burn calories, it’s also cheap and you don’t require a lot of exercising space. You also don’t require special skills for you to engage in rope jumping.
For you to reap full benefits, you need to practice regularly. For ideal results you should turn the rope with your wrists and not by your arms.
You should involve variations in your exercises. For example, you should jump on one foot, while crossing the feet, while double turning the rope, and by jumping with high knees.
High Intensity Interval Training
This is another exercise that you can practice in your home. The training involves alternating between high and low periods of intensity for the entire course of your workout.
When you engage in these two you achieve two things: you force your heart and lungs to work harder and as a result you easily enhance the ability of the heart to pump blood to all parts of the body.
The exercises also keep your heart rate pumping fast which plays a major role of increasing the rate at which you burn calories.
Due to the physiologic benefits that come with high intensity interval training, you achieve great results within a very short time.
Burpees
This exercise requires you to squat to the floor, jump your feet to a plank position, jump back in and stand up. The good side with this exercise is that it helps you to burn over 100 or more calories within a very short time.
Although, the exercise is very effective in helping you to burn calories, you need to use it sparingly as it’s hard to execute.
The best way of going about it is incorporating 30-60 seconds of burpees every 3-4 minutes of cardio circuit. For ideal results you should ensure that the circuit includes other exercises such as: marching, jogging, jumping rope, and step touches.
Squat Jumps
This exercise requires you to start from a squat position then jump as high as you can, and then land back into a squat. The exercise raises the heart rate, burns calories, and increases the power in the legs. In addition to this, no special skills are required to execute the squat jumps.
The best way of using this exercise in workout is by incorporating it in other exercises such as jogging, jumping rope, marching, and step touches. If you are involved in high intensity interval training, you should do 30-50 seconds of the squat jumps, rest for 30-60 seconds and repeat the exercise for another 10 or more minutes.
Thanks for the very clear advice in this article. Money is very tight at the moment so I’m always on the lookout for ways to exercise effectively at home. I’ve heard of interval training but not really had the confidence to try it yet, so the pointers on how to accomplish that are particularly welcome.
Jumping rope is a great idea for anyone trying to combine weight loss and exercise with looking after the family; take the kids and a couple of ropes to the park (or just the back garden) and they’ll be entertained and burn off some excess energy while you get a great work out.
What I love about all these exercises is that they are great cardio and cost nothing, but they also work many major muscle groups at the same time. When cost and time are tight, these are the exercises that are really beneficial. I have tried doing some of these exercises for breaks when working for a long time. They give me a little energy boost and help keep me from sitting at my desk too long.
After you’ve been doing these for a while, they’ll become easier. If you need to crank up the intensity, get a backpack, put some books into it (college textbooks work GREAT!) and do the movements with your improvised weights on your back. You’ll also build some killer legs and glutes while you’re at it!
I hate going the gym and do all of my cardio at home using exercise videos. There are so many out today that there’s something for everyone. I love step aerobics (I guess I’m a throw back to the 90s). It’s fun, the music is great and motivating and it really gets my heart rate up.
I recently purchased a weighted jump rope from a sporting goods store. Jumping rope is harder than it looks and will leave you out of breath in no time. I’ve only had the rope for a week so I’m still in the process of ramping up. Consistently working out with it will be the key, but it’s cheap to buy one and easy to use anywhere. I highly recommend it.
Squat jumps sounds like a good exercise to improve jumping ability. Hope the basketball players are listening. You can buy a weighted vest or go the cheap route and just use a backpack with a couple books to add weight. Every week try adding a little bit more weight as you gain strength.
I recently purchased a weighted jump rope from a sporting goods store. Jumping rope is harder than it looks and will leave you out of breath in no time. I’ve only had the rope for a week so I’m still in the process of ramping up. Consistently working out with it will be the key, but it’s cheap to buy one and easy to use anywhere. I highly recommend it.
Squat jumps sound like a good exercise to improve jumping ability. Basketball players should pay attention. You can buy a weighted vest or use a backpack with a couple books to add weight. Every week try adding a little bit more weight as you gain strength.
I like to work out at home but I have yet to try the jump rope. I keep forgetting to look for a jump rope when I am at the store. Jumping squats are my favorite for now! I love the fact that I burn a lot of calories and have a nice whole body workout.
Great article. Thank you. I’m usually a fan of high intensity interval training but now my knees aren’t. 😉 Any suggestions? I’d like something that is intense and effective but won’t disable me the rest of the day.
From my experience, jumping rope is a little tricky to get used to, but it’s worth the time it takes to improve. It gets your heart rate up almost immediately, and it’s much more fun than just running or something similar.
I think burpees and squat jumps can be fun and challenging as well.
It always makes working out a little easier when it’s fun.