Cardiovascular exercise will generally work your entire body. But it’s also going to emphasize an oft-overlooked and incredibly important muscle: your heart. Let’s face it — if you’re a heavy lifter, cardio may not be your favorite thing to do. Your schedule or patience level may only give you less than a half hour for cardio, with no time for traveling. Enter cardio workouts at home.
Cardio doesn’t need to mean running endlessly on the treadmill if that’s not your style. You can find a physical activity you enjoy and get moving from anywhere in a quick efficient session. Cardio workouts don’t have to be one note, either. You can structure them differently to help you train for heart health, endurance, or boosting your energy output for body composition goals.
Here are the 10 best cardio exercises you can do at home with just your body weight. You’ll learn how to incorporate them into customized cardio workouts tailored to your body, fitness level, preference, and goals. Jump in (perhaps literally), get your heart rate up, and get sweaty.
Best Cardio Exercises at Home
- Air Squat
- Step-Up
- Skater
- High Knee
- Jump Rope
- Burpee
- Plank Walkout
- Mountain Climber
- Climbing Stairs
- Dance Cardio
Air Squat
Squats aren’t just for leg day. The air squat is simply a bodyweight squat that you can do from anywhere with no equipment. You don’t need to do hundreds of fast air squats for an effective cardio workout. No matter your rep count, air squats provide a stellar low-impact cardio option since your feet are staying planted the whole time.
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Instead of adding more and more reps, you can play with increasing your range of motion, slowing them down with tempo training, or adding a hold at the bottom for pause squats. For advanced athletes, you can swap out air squats for squat jumps.
Why Do It
Air squats are a functional compound movement that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. Using multiple muscle groups raises your heart rate and increases your calorie burn without needing to put excess stress on your feet or spine.
If you normally squat heavy at the gym, incorporating bodyweight squats into your cardio routine can be a great opportunity to hone in on your form and mobility.
How to Do It
- Stand upright with your feet hip-width apart.
- Inhale to sit slightly back and down into your squat. Keep your chest up. Hold the bottom of your squat position for a moment.
- Exhale and push your feet into the floor to stand back up. Tuck your hips and squeeze your glutes.
- Repeat for your desired number of reps or amount of time.
Coach’s Tip: Keep your abs engaged to keep your torso and chest slightly up as you sit into your squat.
Sets and Reps: Try three sets of 15 air squats. If you’re doing squat jumps, try three sets of eight to ten.
Step-Up
The step-up is a unilateral compound movement that will build balance and stability as part of your cardio workout. You can progress the step-up by increasing your height, adding light dumbbells, or incorporating a knee raise with your opposite foot after you take your step.
If you don’t have something sturdy at home to use as a step, you can modify the step-up by just taking a step forward with your right foot, lifting your left knee toward your chest, and alternating sides. You can substitute lunges for step-ups if you are comfortable with your form.
Why Do It
Step-ups are unilateral and allow you to work one leg at a time by targeting your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Although cardio exercise aims to work your heart, incorporating strengthening bodyweight exercises like step-ups will give you some benefits of strength training as well. You may not necessarily build muscle, but you can increase your strength and stability while you get your heart rate up.
How to Do It
- Stand upright behind your step.
- Step your right foot up onto your step. Step your left foot up to meet it.
- Step your right foot back down onto the floor. Step your left foot back down next to it.
- Continue for your desired number of reps. Repeat on your other side.
Coach’s Tip: Emphasize pressing into your heel and stay upright when you step to target your glutes or lean slightly forward for more of a quads focus.
Sets and Reps: Perform three sets of 10 step-ups on each leg.
Skater
The skater is a lateral cardio exercise that works your single-leg strength and stability. You’ll build agility and coordination while getting your heart rate up and moving from side to side. While they are traditionally performed with lateral leaps, you can slow them down and step instead of leap if you want something more low-impact.
You can also perform lateral lunges as an alternative to skaters. They will be more controlled and place more emphasis on your quads and glutes. Since lunges work multiple muscle groups, you’ll still be getting your heart rate up as part of your cardio workout routine.
Why Do It
Skaters work your entire lower body and challenge your balance. Performing lateral movements in the frontal plane of motion (side-to-side) helps improve movement quality in your day-to-day life. You may need to step sideways in your everyday life, and training that pattern with control and your muscles engaged may help you out.
How to Do It
- Stand upright with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Lift your left leg off the ground and leap laterally to the left. Land lightly on your left foot. Let your right leg swing behind you as you bend your right knee.
- Leap laterally to your right side, landing on your right foot. Swing your left leg behind you, bending at your knee.
- Swing your arms along in the opposite direction of your jump as you leap from side to side. Keep your core engaged and chest up throughout the movement.
Coach’s Tip: Focus on landing lightly on your full foot with your knee tracking out and your legs and glutes engaged. Start slowly until you can control your landing.
Sets and Reps: Perform three sets of ten on each side.
High Knee
High knees are a continuous movement that you can perform in place. While jogging in place is also an option, doing it as a standing march is a lower-impact alternative that will still get your heart rate up while working your legs, hips, and glutes. You’ll also get a core workout while performing high knees as you contract your abs to stabilize your spine and flex your hips.
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You can adjust your speed and intensity to your fitness level. If you’re comfortable with more impact, you can jog in place instead and focus on getting your knees up to hip level or higher with each step.
Why Do It
High knees will build your leg strength and stability as you alternate sides and continue rhythmically to get your cardiovascular benefits. For anyone who would benefit from doing exercises from a chair, high knees can also work from a seated position.
How to Do It
- Stand upright with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Inhale to brace your core. Exhale and bring your right knee up to hip height or higher.
- Lower your right foot back down to the starting position as you inhale. Exhale to lift your left knee to hip height or higher.
- Repeat alternating sides for your desired amount of time. Speed it up into a jog if you are comfortable with more of a jumping movement.
Coach’s Tip: Feel your hip flexors contract and squeeze them as you lift each knee to get some extra strength benefits.
Sets and Reps: Perform high knees for three sets of 30 to 60 seconds.
Jump Rope
It’s not a bodyweight-only exercise, but getting a jump rope for your home can be inexpensive and won’t take up too much space. Jumping rope is high-intensity cardio and will put a lot of impact on your joints. If you’re good with that, continually jumping over the rope will build your coordination and endurance in a big way.
If you have a really small space and are concerned about hitting something nearby with your jump rope, jumping jacks are a great alternative. They are rhythmic and you’ll be working your entire body, similarly to jumping rope.
Why Do It
Jumping rope is a full-body cardio exercise. You’ll easily get your heart rate up after just a short time. As you swing your rope, you’ll be working your shoulder mobility. You’ll also be building skill and agility with your feet, which can carry over to other sports and exercises.
How to Do It
- Grab your jump rope. Stand tall and hold one handle in each hand with your arms by your sides.
- Swing your jump rope over your head, moving from your wrists rather than your shoulders or elbows. Jump over it with both feet when it gets to the floor.
- Add small hops in between swings or skip over it with one foot at a time.
- Continue jumping rope for your desired amount of time.
Coach’s Tip: Change the direction of the rope by swinging it back to challenge your coordination. Try double-unders if you want an extra intense obstacle.
Sets and Reps: Jump rope for 45 to 60 seconds as part of a circuit.
Burpee
The ever-dreaded burpees have made it to the list. Athletes have a love-hate relationship with them for a reason. They’ll take you from the floor to standing and back down again, cycling through squats, push-ups, and jumps along the way. But you don’t need to fear burpees if you’re not ready for them — they can be easily modified and scaled back for beginners.
For a modified burpee, squat down, get your hands on the floor, and carefully step back into your push-up position instead of jumping back. From there, drop your knees to perform your push-up with your knees down. Or skip the push-up entirely and step your feet right back up to the top.
Simply stand up from your squat with tension and eliminate the jump if you’re not currently performing jumps. You’ll still get your heart rate up and work your upper body, lower body, and your core.
Why Do It
Burpees combine multiple compound movements into one quick exercise that will majorly elevate your heart rate and tax your muscles. You’re moving quickly and you’ll still get some strength benefits from working your squats, push-ups, and jumps.
Jumping back from your squat to your push-up helps you build control and prepare for advanced calisthenics training.
How to Do It
- Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart. Squat down and place your hands on the floor.
- Jump your feet back and land at the top of your push-up position.
- Perform your push-up and then jump your feet back up to your hands.
- Jump up from your squat position and land standing tall. Repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Engage your abs throughout your burpees and perform the explosive movements with control.
Sets and Reps: Try three sets of eight to 10 burpees.
Plank Walkout
The plank walkout, also known as the inchworm or hand walkout, is a full-body cardio exercise that tests and builds your core strength and stability at the same time. You’ll be working multiple muscle groups and walking on your hands, which challenges your wrists and shoulder stability. Plank walkouts can build your hamstring flexibility but can also be modified for super tight hamstrings.
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If reaching for the floor with straight legs is too much, you can bend your knees. You can keep your knees bent as you walk your hands out to your plank and back to your feet. Over time, you may be able to straighten your legs a bit more.
To increase difficulty you can add a push-up when you reach the plank position. Otherwise, you can skip the push-up or perform it with your knees down.
Why Do It
The plank walkout builds endurance, flexibility, and total body control in addition to giving you a cardiovascular workout. It’s also an opportunity to practice engaging your core as you move through an exercise, rather than just isolating your abs in sit-ups. Although you’re working your whole body, there’s no jumping and little impact, making it more of a moderate-intensity choice.
How to Do It
- Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart. Reach your arms overhead by your ears.
- Keep your legs straight or bend your knees as needed to reach your hands to the floor.
- Walk your hands forward until you’re in a straight-arm plank position with your shoulders stacked over your wrists. Hold your plank for a moment or add a push-up here if desired.
- Walk your hands back to your feet keeping your legs straight or bending your knees as needed. Stand tall and reach your arms overhead. Repeat.
Coach’s Tip: Keep your abs engaged to maintain a neutral spine and a strong plank to protect your lower back.
Sets and Reps: Perform three sets of eight to 10 walkouts.
Mountain Climber
Mountain climbers are a cardio exercise that will majorly work your upper body, core, and legs. It’s performed from a plank position, so you’re getting the benefits of upper body strength and stability as you work your abs and bring your knees in and out. It can be slowed down or sped up depending on your fitness level.
If you’re new to mountain climbers, start slowly and with control and they’ll still elevate your heart rate. To increase the difficulty, quickly run your knees in towards your chest as you jump them back to plank position. Mountain climbers are a great choice for high-intensity interval training because you can increase your speed without too much added impact.
Why Do It
Mountain climbers are a core exercise in addition to being a great part of a total body cardio workout. You’ll also build shoulder and wrist stability by keeping your upper body still as you climb your legs. Your abs will be working to assist in bringing your knees in as well as resisting rotation or lateral flexion through your spine.
How to Do It
- Start at the top of your push-up position in a straight-arm plank with your shoulders stacked over your wrists.
- Squeeze your abs to stabilize your spine and keep your body straight.
- Drive your left knee towards your chest as your right foot stays on the ground. Extend your left leg back and repeat with your right knee.
- Continue alternating knees and adjust your speed to your fitness level.
Coach’s Tip: Try to keep your spine straight and still as you perform your mountain climbers. If you’re not able to hold your body still, try slowing down the movement until you can. If you need more room between your stomach and chest and the ground, brace your hands on an inclined surface like a weight bench, plyometric box, or wall.
Sets and Reps: Do three sets of 30 to 45 seconds of mountain climbers.
Climbing Stairs
Performing steady-state cardio at home without a machine may seem tricky, but it is possible. If you have access to stairs in your home or building, you can continually climb up and down them for a set amount of time and it will mimic using a stair climber machine at the gym. Climbing stairs works your entire lower body and you can emphasize your glutes by stepping into your heels. You’ll also work your core to keep your body upright and protect your spine.
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If you don’t have access to stairs, high knees in place can be an alternative. It may get tedious trying to perform 30 minutes of high knees, so you can try mixing in some butt kicks to switch it up.
Why Do It
Climbing stairs is a functional exercise. Many people encounter stairs in their everyday life. Practicing climbing stairs as your cardio will strengthen your legs and glutes for everyday movement while you work your cardiovascular system. It can be a taxing exercise and will raise your heart rate and keep it up throughout your cardio workout helping you to build endurance.
How to Do It
- Stand upright at the bottom of your stairs.
- Step your right foot onto the first step. Emphasize pressing into your heel to feel your glutes.
- Step your left foot up to meet your right. Continue to the top of your stairs.
- Walk back down your stairs with control. Keep your muscles engaged as you descend. Repeat going up and down for your desired amount of time.
Coach’s Tip: Push through your heels as you step onto your stairs and engage your abs to keep your spine straight and body upright.
Sets and Reps: Walk up and down your stairs for 30 minutes for a full steady-state cardio session. Alternatively, try three sets of 30 seconds of stair climbing as part of a circuit.
Dance Cardio
If you like to dance, why not dance for your cardio? You can follow a free YouTube video with choreographed moves, or put on music that you like and continually move your body along rhythmically. While it may not come to mind as a traditional workout, as long as you keep moving, you will get your heart rate up and sustain it.
If your main goal is fitness, try to engage your core and be mindful of your joints and movements as you move a bit more freely.
Why Do It
Doing something you enjoy makes you more likely to stick with it consistently over time. Dancing to a beat with your heart pumping may be more your jam than burpees. Maybe you’ll look forward to your mid-day at-home cardio workout instead of dreading it.
How to Do It
- Start with a warm-up to prepare your joints and muscles.
- Follow along with an instructor on a YouTube video.
- Dance to your own music, rhythm, and steps instead if you prefer.
- Finish with a cool-down.
Coach’s Tip: Keep your abs engaged and be mindful of how you land on your feet if you’re jumping or leaping.
Sets and Reps: Perform your dance cardio for 30 minutes for a steady-state cardio session.
How to Program Cardio Workouts at Home
Now that you know the best cardio exercises to choose from, let’s put them together into the best at-home cardio workouts. Here are all the puzzle pieces you need to build your cardio routine at home.
What Is Cardio?
When you hear about doing cardio, you’re likely hearing about aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is defined by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) as exercise that can be performed continually and rhythmically utilizing large muscle groups. (1) Traditional strength training is an anaerobic exercise that is characterized by high intensity and short duration.
Aerobic exercise doesn’t always have to be high-intensity, though it can be. It just needs to be a physical activity performed continually that raises your heart rate and increases your breathing to pump more oxygen and blood throughout your body.
Choose Your Fitness Goal
Deciding why you’re doing cardio can help you design your program.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends adults complete 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week. (2) The CDC also recommends two days of muscle-strengthening activity.
If you are training for general health and fitness, you can split up your 150 minutes however you’d like to. Set aside a minimum of two days for resistance training for 45 minutes each. That leaves you 60 minutes of cardio, and you can split that up into two days for 30 minutes per day.
When you’re training for an endurance sport like cycling, running, or swimming, you may want to exceed the general recommendation of 150 minutes per week. You’re likely already engaging in your sport itself and cross-training to keep your muscles strong. You may want to add aerobic cardio for a longer duration and lower intensity to prevent overtraining and just work your cardiovascular system.
If your goal is weight loss, you want to be sure that you are doing resistance training to preserve your lean muscle mass as you lose body fat. Adding cardio to your weight loss program can help you burn a few more calories and strengthen your cardiovascular system. Try a mix of one longer low-intensity, steady-state cardio session and one 30-minute session of moderate to higher-intensity cardio per week.
- For Heart Health: Complete two 30-minute moderate-intensity cardio sessions per week.
- For Endurance: Complete two 45-minute sessions of low to moderate-intensity steady-state cardio per week.
- For Losing Body Fat: Complete one 30 to 45-minute low to moderate-intensity steady-state cardio session and one 30-minute moderate to high-intensity cardio session.
Choose Your Style
Now that you know what type of cardio you should do for your goals, what should you do to fill your 30 to 45 minutes?
The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) defines steady-state cardio as low to moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise that can be sustained for a longer period with your heart rate staying at 45 to 65 percent of your maximum heart rate. (3)
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Examples of steady-state cardio exercises you can do at home would be walking or marching in place with high knees or climbing stairs. Since you are doing something for a longer time without resting, choosing something low-intensity works here to sustain your target heart rate.
Another way of designing a cardio workout at home is putting together bouts of high-intensity exercise with short rest periods to reach your desired length of session. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is popular because it raises your heart rate quickly and can save time. At-home cardio exercises are great to put into a HIIT workout.
You can further design your HIIT sessions by doing bodyweight circuits to work your muscles at the same time. You can also make use of other ways of quickly increasing your volume like an EMOM (every minute on the minute) or AMRAP (as many reps as possible).
- Choose your intensity level: low, moderate, or high.
- Steady-State: Walking in place, high knees, climbing stairs.
- HIIT: Bouts of high-intensity exercise followed by short rest periods.
- Bodyweight Circuits: Combine bodyweight movements like air squats, step-ups, skaters, burpees, and mountain climbers. Complete one after the other with minimal rest between rounds.
- EMOM: Complete a certain amount of reps at the top of every minute, on the minute, for your desired number of minutes.
- AMRAP: Complete as many reps as possible in a set amount of time.
Choose Your Exercises
How should you choose your exercises for your cardio workouts?
Be mindful of your joints and experience when choosing your intensity level. If you need something more low-impact at home, avoid any jumping movements. If purchasing a machine is an option for you, ellipticals and rowers are some of the most joint-friendly machines for steady-state low-impact cardio.
Include a warm-up and a cool-down before and after every cardio workout. It can be a quick few minutes to get your blood flowing and joints and muscles prepared. A proper warm-up with dynamic movements can help prevent injury and improve your exercise quality. A nice cool-down with some static stretches and slower dynamic movements gives your body a chance to return to rest before moving on with your day.
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For circuits, consider choosing exercises that work your upper body, lower body, and core. Since there aren’t any purely upper-body exercises on this list, choosing a full-body movement like burpees or a plank walkout is a way of incorporating your entire body.
In HIIT or circuits, try to strike a balance between bilateral (two feet on the ground) and unilateral (one foot on the ground) movements. If you’re doing air squats, throw in some step-ups or skaters as well so you can strengthen each leg at a time.
- Be mindful of your fitness level and joint health.
- Include a warm-up and cool-down.
- Create circuits that work your upper body, lower body, and core for full-body workouts.
- Balance bilateral and unilateral exercises.
Choose Your Volume
Now that you know when and how to create cardio workouts at home, here are some sample ideas for how to design a 30-minute session.
- For Heart Health: Walk in place, climb stairs, or dance for 30 minutes.
- For Endurance: Perform two to three full-body HIIT workouts of two to three exercises. Incorporate exercises like high knees, jumping rope, and burpees for time instead of reps.
- For Losing Body Fat: Try two full-body circuits of three to four exercises. Perform three sets of 12 to 15 reps of each exercise.
Get Your Heart Rate Up At Home
The best cardio exercises to do at home are bodyweight movements that engage multiple muscle groups and get your heart rate up. They can be pieced together into different types of workouts depending on your goal. Play around with your format depending on whether you’re doing cardio for your general cardiovascular health, training for an endurance sport, or boosting your energy output as you lose body fat.
Remember that finding a physical activity you enjoy makes you more likely to stick with your program. So put some music on, get your heart pumping, and get back to your day in 30 minutes or less.
FAQs
Have some lingering questions? Let’s get them answered for you.
How can I do 30 minutes of cardio at home?
If you’re doing steady-state cardio, pick one activity — like climbing stairs — and continue for 30 minutes straight. Alternatively, combine two to three customized circuits or bouts of HIIT to fill your 30 minutes (or less).
What are the best cardio workouts at home?
The best cardio workouts at home combine the 10 best cardio exercises: air squats, step-ups, skaters, high knees, jump rope, burpees, plank walkouts, mountain climbers, climbing stairs, and dance cardio.
These exercises engage multiple muscle groups and provide cardiovascular benefits. The best cardio workout for you includes a combination of these exercises that you enjoy and are suited to your fitness level and goals.
What does “cardio” mean?
Cardio is short for cardiovascular exercise. Cardiovascular exercise is generally considered aerobic exercise that can be performed rhythmically and continually while raising your heart rate and increasing your breathing.
How much cardio should I do a day?
The CDC recommends 150 minutes of physical activity per week and you can spread this out however is best for you. Doing 30 minutes of cardio a day two to three times a week can be beneficial to your health.
However, depending on your personal needs and goals, you may need to do less or more. It’s always best to consult with a qualified health professional to help design a tailored program for you based on your body and experience.
References
- Patel H, Alkhawam H, Madanieh R, Shah N, Kosmas CE, Vittorio TJ. Aerobic vs anaerobic exercise training effects on the cardiovascular system. World J Cardiol. 2017 Feb 26;9(2):134-138.
- How much physical activity do adults need?. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, June 2). https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/index.htm
- Golden, N. What is Steady-State Cardio? NASM. https://blog.nasm.org/what-is-steady-state-cardio
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