At Home Cardio Workouts and Exercises

The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Cardio Workouts Without Equipment

There are tons of different cardio workouts without equipment:

  • HIIT
  • Tabata
  • Plyometrics Workouts
  • Running
  • Skipping
  • Using the landscape for amazing cardio
  • Guerrilla Cardio

Today, I will take a deep dive into every single one of them – and then some!

In addition, I’ll show you several different cardio routines you can implement into your daily life right off the bat!

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The Importance Of Cardiovascular Exercise

There’s a reason everyone from nutritionists to lifestyle experts won’t shut up about the value of a good ol’ cardio workout…

A damn good reason!

Exercise is broken down into two divisions: aerobic and anaerobic.

To keep it brief: During aerobic fitness, the body uses oxygen to work the muscles, whereas during anaerobic other processes are used.

Think of your body as a car and your heart the engine. Cardiovascular a.k.a. aerobic exercise, focuses on working that engine.

Here’s the deal:

The more oxygen in your blood, the better. The heart and lungs are a team that supplies oxygen to your muscles via blood.

Cardiovascular exercise improves the ability of this team to get the job done.

As your muscle mass increases, your cardiovascular system will have its work cut out for it- there is more muscle to deliver oxygen to.

It’s pretty obvious when you think about it.

That’s why cardio fitness is so important – you wouldn’t drive a truck with a car engine, would you?

Not only does cardio exercises turbocharge the ability of the heart to deliver oxygen, but it also helps your muscles utilize the stuff more effectively.

Think you can stand on a gyrating gizmo for 20 minutes a day and cut that fat?

We’ve all seen enough 80’s infomercials to know that some things are probably too good to be true.

The connection between cardiovascular activity and fat loss is widely acknowledged. For example, the guidelines of the Australian Heart Foundation define that exercises removing fat involve “continuous moderate aerobic exercise” with at least five 30-minute sessions a week.

Give the cardio machines a go.

But if you want to play it safe, cardio is the tried and tested way to get rid of that spare tire around your waist.

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The Benefits Of Doing Cardio Exercises

The Benefits of Doing Cardio Exercise

Here are some of the widely-recognized cardio exercise benefits:

  • Strengthening the heart muscle and improving its efficiency
  • Strengthening muscles used for respiration
  • Lowering the resting heart rate
  • Reducing blood pressure
  • Reducing the risk of heart disease and diabetes
  • Increasing red blood cell count to improve carriage of oxygen
  • Improving circulation of blood
  • Cardio Increases the effect of strength training
  • Improving mental health

Do you see where we’re going with this?

The list goes on, and more and more reasons to practice cardio exercise are being uncovered.

“Studies show that people who participate in regular aerobic exercise live longer than those who don’t exercise regularly.”

Reference: mayoclinic.org – Aerobic exercise: Top 10 reasons to get physical

The list of common criticisms of cardio is surprisingly brief:

  • Consistent use required to achieve weight loss
  • Does not build muscle effectively
  • Can be prone to causing overuse injuries e.g. ‘runner’s knee’

Even by glancing at these two lists without reading the rest of this article, you get a pretty good picture. Cardio. It’s pretty good, isn’t it?

So why is it that so many people are filled with dread when they hear the word cardio?

We’ve all seen the human triangles whose idea of cardio is the gym’s three steps up to the squat rack.

The traditional cardio workout is low to mid-intensity and lasts for a minimum of 20 minutes.

Boring!

Classic cardio training includes Swimming, jogging, running, walking, and cycling.

Exercise bikes, cross-trainers, and treadmills are your cardio classics at the gym – your real bread and butter.

To get the benefits like the ones listed above requires commitment- at least three sessions a week. Annoying, isn’t it?

Good news!

These aren’t your only options on the cardio menu. There’s a whole bunch of cardio workouts that are much sexier than this old-school formula.

Let’s break cardio down and take a look at some of the newer cardio workouts. But before you move on, go check out your current fitness level.

Do you want to learn even more about cardio and its benefits?

Be sure to check out my beginners ABC to cardio!

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

So, What’s The Deal With This HIIT Thing?

This is the stuff to get your heart rate pounding like a brick in a tumble-dryer.

Hint: ‘intensity’ is a bit of a giveaway.

Yup, you guessed it. It’s intense!

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), or Interval Training, is all about short, intense bursts of exercise and low-intensity recovery periods.

This form of exercise has been around for about 20 years, and it is gaining traction in the fitness world fast.

Owing to how hard HIIT works your cardio system, it isn’t for the faint-hearted.

For real:

HIIT may not be advisable for those with cardiovascular issues.

It’s serious stuff.

That’s why it takes a serious drive to opt for this type of cardio training!

How To Do a HIIT Workout

HIIT trainings alternate between periods of high and low-intensity exercise.

Do sprint intervals on a treadmill for 20 seconds, followed by a walk for 40. Rinse and repeat.

This is an example of a HIIT cardio workout.

There’s no standard formula for the length of a HIIT workout, but most people tend to aim for 30 minutes maximum.

Since your body is worked so hard by HIIT, it needs a full 48 hours to recover.

For this reason, people tend not to do HIIT more than two or three times a week.

“The Afterburn Effect”

Fat seems like a real four-letter word in the health world.

Enter: High-Intensity Interval Training; fat’s kryptonite!

This training has been proven to be massively effective at burning fat stores while maintaining muscle mass.

Many studies have proved HIIT to be much more effective than endurance cardio at burning fat.

HIIT has been shown to burn calories up to 142% greater than low-intensity cardio exercise!

What’s more, the “Journal of Obesity” revealed in a 12-week study that HIIT increases muscle mass while burning body fat- primarily lost from the torso and visceral areas.

Got your attention yet?

Here’s how it works:

HIIT is like a turbocharged workout for your heart. It is so effective at challenging your heart that long after your workout, your body will continue burning fat!

This is known as ‘afterburn’, a.k.a. EPOC – excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.

With a HIIT workout, you are going so hard that your body can’t deliver all the oxygen your muscles need. Your muscles are in debt, and your metabolism is the debt collector.

And he’s one badass individual!

HIIT Workouts Are Amazingly Time Efficient

Maybe you’re not looking to wage war against body fat and just fit in a time-efficient workout.

With only 30 or 40 minutes, you can go hard, so Interval Training ticks another box.

This type of workout has been engineered for maximum gains in the shortest timeframe possible.

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Tabata Cardio

Tabata is a form of HIIT developed in the 90s by Dr. Izumi Tabata to train Olympic speed skaters.

A typical Tabata set is 4 minutes long, alternating between two high-intensity exercises, each lasting for 20 seconds with 10-second rest intervals.

It’s pretty hardcore!

WARNING: This is no entry-level workout regime.

The short rest periods make your body go into overdrive!

“Each exercise in a given Tabata workout lasts only four minutes, but it’s likely to be one of the longest four minutes you’ve ever endured.”

Reference: active.com – What is Tabata Training?

But this is why it is even more effective at burning calories and at achieving a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise.

Your afterburn is amplified even greater than during regular HIIT training.

You can repeat sets until you are spent- as this is a HIIT, going beyond 30 minutes is not what we are after. Between sets, rest for 1 minute.

Here’s a potential Tabata set to get you going:

Exercise 1: Burpees
Exercise 2: Squat Jumps

Just follow the 20-second work/10-second rest formula and build your own Tabata workout.

Pick and choose your exercises from some of the classics: burpees, push-ups, lunges, sprints…

You can’t go wrong with Tabata!

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Cardio Plyometrics Workouts

Boom!

Plyometrics focuses on bringing you speed, agility, and explosive power.

Power and raw strength, the way NFL players can plow through a defensive line like a knife through butter. The way Manny Pacquaio throws a jab.

The way Venus Williams launches for a volley shot.

You get the picture.

This type of training is a beautiful combination of cardio and strength training.

As it is a HIIT workout, it’s a brilliant way to get big results from your workout in a small amount of time.

Your muscles are trained to reach maximum power in the shortest time possible. Whenever you need to move mass or exert force in a sudden movement, you’re using plyometric power.

The secret?

Gravity!

Plyometrics make your body work against gravity, utilizing an amazingly overlooked workout resource.

  • Push-up claps.
  • Jump squats.
  • Box jumps.

These are all plyometric exercises that use gravity to provide resistance, maximizing how hard your body needs to work.

Give it a go!

15-minute Plyometrics Workout

Warm-up for a minute jogging.

Complete each exercise for 30 seconds, followed by a 30 second rest period.

Repeat.

Five rounds will bring you to a 15-minute sweat storm.

  1. Tuck jumps
  2. Burpees
  3. Jump squats
  4. Skaters
  5. Clap push-ups

Good luck, you’ll need it!

Cardio Running Workouts

There’s a reason people think of running when they hear the word ‘cardio’.

It’s pretty much the Big Mac to McDonald’s.

The Benefits Of Running

An hour of running will burn roughly 600 calories- roughly DOUBLE the number of calories of a weight session at the gym.

Running is a killer cardio workout -highly effective at working your leg muscles and core.

And it makes you FEEL GOOD:

The ‘runner’s high’ is a real thing, although the science behind it is a little hazy.

Some studies claim the dopamines released by running create euphoric feelings, while others claim it’s your higher body temperature that achieves this.

The bottom line is, running makes you feel good.

WebMD’s Dr. Bryan states, “On average, you tend to see people who are runners and habitual exercisers having better moods, suffering from less depression and less anxiety, and more general feelings of well-being.”

Clearly, running is doing something good for mental health!

Compared to those who never run, people who run consistently have half the chance of dying from heart disease. That’s pretty hard to argue with.

Is paying for a gym membership your go-to excuse not to work out?

I wouldn’t blame you if that’s the case.

That’s the beauty of running: no fees and no commute to the gym.

So get yourself some running shoes and get out there!

Did I get you all pumped up?

If you want to find out more about running, check out these 6 amazing reasons why you should start running – TODAY!

The Hometraininghero’s Beginner’s Running Plan

It can be tough starting out. I get it.

But here’s the good news:

There are ways you can ease into running and make small, steady gains.

Remember, slow and steady wins the race!

This beginner’s plan is ideal for someone new to running or perhaps has let their running shoes gather dust.

Week 1&2

For the first two weeks, aim for three runs a week.

For each run, you’re going to start out walking for 5 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of jogging/running (whatever feels comfortable).

Turn around and head back the way you came, slowing to a walk when you’re about 5 minutes from your start point.

Week 3&4

Now you’re starting to build your cardio base and are ready to train 4 times a week.

Same deal as before, but this time run for 18 minutes each way.

That’s a 46-minute workout with 36-minutes of running.

Week 6&7

You get the drill: 5-minute walk, break into running for 20 minutes before turning back.

You can start to push yourself a little harder, especially during this first 20-minute portion of the run.

This is a 50-minute set, including the 10-minutes of warm-up and warm-down.

Aim to complete 5 of these sessions each week.

Skipping Rope: Simple Yet Effective!

Skipping is another MONSTER calorie burner.

1000 calories an hour is nothing to poke a stick at.

“Jumping rope is a great calorie-burner. You’d have to run an eight-minute mile to work off more calories than you’d burn jumping rope.”

Reference: webmd.com – Skipping Rope Doesn’t Skip Workout

Skipping Rope Workout

First, you’re going to want to get yourself a good rope.

What’s a good rope, you say?

Plastic or beaded ropes are more hard-wearing and can be used for advanced techniques.

When you stand on the middle of your jump rope, the handles should reach all the way to your armpits. No further.

There are a bunch of different exercises that you can alternate between during a skipping workout:

  • Forward jump: the most basic method. Every turn of the rope, jump forward over it.
  • Side-to-side: Each turn of the rope, jump a few inches to the left, then next turn to the right.
  • Backward: The same as the forward jump, but jump backward. The name is pretty self-explanatory.
  • Single leg: Landing softly, jump on one foot each turn.

Find out why, when done right; jump rope is the best cardio EVER!

Landscape Feature Workouts

Let’s face it.

Gym gear can be expensive!

There are features of an urban landscape that you can use to boost your cardio, and all for free!

Stairs

Are you too afraid to use the stair-climber at the gym?

Maybe it’s because when you use it, you look like an alien trying to do the Macarena?

It turns out you may have been missing out on another killer workout!

Remember seeing Rocky running up the stairs of the Washington Monument?

Rocky knows something many people don’t: Stair-climbing is a powerful weapon in the cardio arsenal!

Believe it or not:

It’s even more effective than those creepy-looking stair-climber machines at the gym.

Stair-climbing combines cardio and strength while burning a ton of calories.

Stair Workout Ideas

  • Standard: Jog or run up, and walk back down.
  • Weight-assisted: Same as standard, but carry dumbbells or wear a weight vest.
  • Plyometrics: As you make to each stair landing, do a set of burpees, squats or push-ups.

WARNING: It’s a much better idea to walk rather than run back down the stairs. Not only does this reduce your risk of falling, but it is much easier on your joints.

Benches

Another classic gym gimmick is the step platform.

Sure, you could pay $50 for a fancy branded one, or you could head to the nearest street or park bench.

Benches use your body weight for resistance.

Bench Workout Ideas

Bench Step-Ups:

  1. Face the bench with your arms at your sides.
  2. Put your right foot on the bench, raising your left arm with your hand held high and elbow at a 90-degree angle.
  3. As you step up, raise your left knee to the level of your hips, raising your right arm and swinging the left down. Plant your left foot before stepping back down.
  4. Swap legs and repeat.

Bench Push-Up:

  1. Position your hands a little further than shoulder-width apart on the bench.
  2. Step back and straighten your body- your head should be a little in front of your hands.
  3. Now perform a push-up, getting your chest as close to the bench as you can.

You see? The landscape is full of exercise equipment just waiting for you to utilize it:

Get creative!

You can literally use anything in the landscape to increase the intensity of your workout and get that sweat on.

Cardio Workouts at Home

Home is as good a place as any for working out.

Just because you’re not surrounded by huge guys pumping iron doesn’t mean you can’t make some gains all by yourself.

When it comes to cardio circuits at home, your imagination is the limit:

  • burpees,
  • mountain climbers,
  • jumping squats,
  • push-ups…

Pick a timeframe you know you can achieve- 25 or 30 minutes is a decent chunk.

Are you stuck for ideas?

Here is a sample workout.

The Hometrainingheros at Home Cardio Workout Idea

  1. Squat jumps: 60 seconds
  2. Sit-ups: 25 seconds
  3. Skaters: 60 seconds
  4. Skipping rope: 60 seconds
  5. Star-jumps: 60 seconds
  6. Plank:60 seconds
  7. Push-ups: 60 seconds
  8. Burpees: 60 seconds

Repeat.

Guerrilla Cardio

The liberator of abs!

That caught your attention, didn’t it?

Again, this one’s got a name that will send the couch potatoes dissolving into their armchairs.

While this fitness method is still relatively underground, it has a big claim:

Guerrilla cardio cuts belly fat faster than ANY other cardio program!

Four minutes a day for three days a week. You can do that, can’t you?

News flash:

It’s probably going to be the most gut-wrenching 4 minutes of your day.

Haven’t you been scared off?

Try this sample sprinting guerrilla workout:

Four minutes of warm-up jogging.

Eight sets of the following:

  • 20 seconds sprinting at maximum effort
  • 10 seconds rest

Four minutes of warm-down jogging.

If you find sprinting boring, “juice it up” using an agility ladder. That should do the trick!

Good luck!

Final Words: Make Cardio a Part of Your Life Doing Cardio Workouts Without Equipment

Let’s wrap this up.

Cardio is all about looking after the engine that powers you- your heart.

Developing a strong cardiovascular system is going to benefit both your mind and body.

“People who don’t exercise are almost twice as likely to get heart disease as people who are active.”

Reference: webmd.com – Exercise for a Healthy Heart

Want to live a longer, healthier, happier life? For the record, cardio is probably your safest bet.

Improving your mental health, improving essential body functions, and increasing life expectancy; these are just some of the known benefits of regular cardiovascular exercise.

And that’s not to mention cardio as a master blaster of fat!

Our lives are busier and more complicated than ever. I get it. It can be the hardest thing in the world to make time or summon the effort for a lengthy workout.

But now you know!

The myth has been debunked: you absolutely DO NOT have to spend hours slaving away on the treadmill to have an effective cardio workout.

HURRAY!

Depending on your goals, you might even get more results with a SHORTER session.

You have a bunch of new tools in your cardio toolbox to get a great cardio workout.

You don’t even have to pay membership fees or waste time commuting to the gym.

If you’re going to walk away from one thing from this article, it’s that cardio is a winner.

Now, go ahead and use this list of cardio exercises!

Oh, wait up:

Do you need even more inspiration?

Visit my MASSIVE resource on cardio workouts and exercises stuffed with articles written to help you crack the cardio code!

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