Since many of us aren’t going to the gym anytime soon, we have to be more creative and plan our own workouts at home. Cardio exercises have always troubled people who don’t have access to gyms – how do you do cardio workouts at home when you don’t have fancy machines such as a treadmill or a bicycle? Well, cardio exercises come in many different forms and you just need to find those that are suitable for your home situation. If you need inspiration, take a look at these 4 great cardio exercises that you can easily do at home as most of them don’t require any expensive equipment.
1. Jump rope
Jump rope is great if you want a high-impact cardio exercise that doesn’t require a lot of space. With this exercise, you can more than 200 calories in only 20 minutes of jumping. If you are a beginner take it slow and go at your own pace, but if you are ready to take it to the next level you can make this exercise more difficult by jumping on one leg or jumping with high knees. Just remember to use your wrists to turn the rope and not your whole arms.
2. Jumping Jacks
Most of us didn’t really enjoy jumping jacks when we were in high school during gym class, but the truth is that this is a great exercise that engages the whole body. With this exercise, you also burn around 200 calories in 20 minutes like with jumping rope. If you need to make the exercise more difficult, you can add weights or add squats between jumps.
3. Burpees
Burpees consist of jumping into a squatting position, then jumping into a plank, returning to the squatting position, and finally jumping in the air. This is a high-impact exercise, so if you need to make it easier, you can avoid all the jumping and simply move slower from one position to the other. On the other hand, adding weights or even a push-up after the plank position would make this exercise that much more difficult.
4. Mountain Climbers
Mountain Climbers is an exercise that belongs to the cardio category as it makes your heart pump faster, but it is also a great ab workout. To do the exercise, you need to go into a plank position and then run the knees in and out. You can do it slowly at the beginning, but if you need to make it harder, try going as fast as you can or use sliding discs (paper plates or anything that slides easily on your workout surface will do just fine). These sliding disks will make it more difficult for you to control your movement, which means putting extra effort into the exercise.
