We all know how tiring it can be to do intense workouts after a busy day. What if you could stay fit by doing the simple exercises for 20 to 30 minutes every day? It sounds perfect, right?
Well, this can happen with the low intensity and simple cardio workouts. These cardios are easy to perform, and you can do it either in your home or gym. And the best part is, your body muscle does not take much time to recover after a cardio workout.
In this article, you will get all the easy cardio exercise for home and gym. Read this article until the end to get a complete guide on cardio workouts.
What is a Cardio Workout?
Cardio is a short form of cardiovascular. Basically, the cardios are the set of activities that increase your heartbeat and make you breathe faster and more deeply. When your heart rate reaches a high targeted zone, it helps burn down your body fat and calories.
Other workouts can also melt down your body fat and calories. Why should you practice cardio? Let’s talk about the cardio exercise benefits now.
Nine benefits of cardio workouts:
- The cardio workouts make both your muscle and heart strong.
- Melt down body fat and calories.
- Your appetite stays in your control.
- Help you to have a healthy and sound sleep at night.
- You can stay relaxed and stress free.
- Reduce back and joint pains.
- Your lung capacity increases by practicing cardio workouts.
- Increase the blood pumping ability of the heart.
- Reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, or diabetics.
You will get all these benefits by practicing easy cardio exercise. So, why not switch to it permanently?
Cardio Exercises At Home For Beginners:
If you are a beginner, you must start with the less intense cardio workouts. Here, I will share some of the most effective cardio workouts for beginners. Those workouts are easy, and you can practice them anytime.
1. Staircase workout
The staircase exercise is one of the most effective cardio workouts. Besides the cardio, you can do full body strengthening, balance, or explosive by bringing variety to the traditional staircase exercise.
When you start as a beginner, run up the stairs fast and then run back down. You can do the stairs workout for 10 to 20 minutes. While stepping on the stairs, always stay alert. Skipping one step can cause severe accidents.
Once you get used to the traditional or easy stair workout, try combining it with others. For example, you can try stair push up, sidestep, stair craw, etc.
2. Squat jumps:
If you are looking for easy cardio exercises, nothing can be better than squats. Jumping squat is a modified type of squat that will make your daily workout more effective. Practice this exercise for a minimum of 30 to 60 seconds every day.
Instructions
- Start with getting in the lower squat position by bending your knees. Your feet should stay at hip-width apart. Keep your knees behind your toes, chest lifted, and spine straight. You can place the arms in front of your chest to maintain a balance.
- Now jump from the lower squat position, raise your arms over the head, and return to the startingl position. While jumping, use your whole foot, not just the toes.
3. Bear crawl push up
This is the modified version of the traditional bear crawl with the addition of push ups. This exercise targets your shoulder, core, arms, and shoulder.
Instructions
- Start with getting in the tabletop position with your knees and hands. Keep your back straight. Your hands should be under your shoulder and knees under the hip.
- Switch to the pushup position and do a pushup.
- Now start crawling with your legs without moving from the place. While crawling, keep your midsection tightened.
- After a perfect push up, do the crawling for 20 to 30 seconds and get back to the first position.
4. Jumping ropes
This is maybe the easiest cardio exercise you can practice. All you need to do is turn the ropes with handles continuously and jump over it with a chanting rhythm. By practicing this cardio, you can burn almost 220 calories in just 20 minutes.
The jumping rope can create a high impact on your body. Even though the exercise is simple, it will take a lot of practice to do the jumping perfectly. You can try jumping with one foot, crossing the legs, or jumping with high knees after accomplishing the traditional rope jumping.
5. Jog in one place
Jogging or running in one place are easy cardio exercise. You can practice it anywhere. People do jog in one place as a warm up session as it increases your heart rate.
While you jog in one place, pump your arms. The more body part you involve in the exercise, the more calories will burn. If you find this workout boring, try combining it with overhead press, butt kick, high knees.
Cardio workouts at home:
I have discussed some cardio workouts for beginners. Let’s talk about other cardios that you can practice at home.
1. Jumping jack
Jumping jack is a full body cardio workout, which you can practice almost anywhere. This exercise targets your lung, legs, and heart at the same time. You can burn almost 100 calories in just 10 minutes with the jumping jack.
Instructions
- Stand up, keeping your back straight and place your arms at the side.
- Now jump with all your strength. Go as high as you can. While jumping, keep your legs wide and bring your hands overhead. Clap them together if you want.
- Jump again. Lower your hands and bring your feet back together.
2. Plank jacks
The plank jack is the modified version of planks. This exercise will strengthen your core, legs, and stabilize your whole body.
Instructions
- Begin with getting in a high plank position.
- Keep your shoulders over your wrist and feet mat width apart.
- Now jump and bring your feet together. Jump again to get back to the beginning position.
- Continue the exercise for 20 to 30 seconds and take a rest for 15 seconds between two sets.
3. Fast feet with punches
You can practice this exercise both at home and in the gym. With the quick movements of the fast-foot punches, the blood circulation of your entire body gets better.
Instructions
- Stand keeping your feet slightly wider than your hips.
- Bend your knees a little. Also, bend your arms, make a fist, and position them in front of your chest.
- Straighten your arms in an alternating pattern to throw punches. Also, make small, quick alternating movements with your feet.
- Practice for 30 to 60 seconds and perform 2 to 3 sets of it.
The best cardios for weight loss at home
You can lose your calories by practicing the cardios. To get the best result, you need to decide which lean body type you want. And then go for the cardio that fits in the category. Here, I will give you some of the effective and easy cardio workouts that will help you get slim.
1. Swimming: Swimming is really a good example of weight loss cardio workout. When you swim, your body muscles work hard to keep you afloat. This is a full body cardio, and you can lose up to 14 calories per minute with swimming. Your stroke decides the amount of calorie burning.
2. Sprint: Sprinting is seriously a great idea to burn your body fat. This exercise is simple, and you can do it outside, on the track, or a treadmill. If you want to shred your overall body weight, keep sprinting at the top of the list.
You can get an amazing result from the sprinting if you jog right after practicing this. Experts suggest jogging for 1 minute after a 30 to 45 second sprint. Also, try to lift your knees high enough to get your glutes some actions.
3. Rowing: Rowing is a powerful cardio that can help you lose your body fat. This exercise can burn down almost 1000 calories in about an hour. Not only that, but it builds up both your upper and lower body and improves your overall body posterior. To get the best result, row for 20 minutes maintaining a fast motion, rest for one or two minutes, and then continue.
4. Cycling: Cycling is a very popular exercise for weight loss. Experts claim that you can lose up to 1150 calories from one hour cycling. You can apply a smart strategy to get the best outcome from this exercise. Keep cycling with a high intensity level for two to three minutes and then slow down for a minute. Continue this pattern for 10 to 15 minutes.
List of cardio exercises
- Burpees
- Kickboxing
- 180-degree squat jump
- Mountain climber
- Roll up jumps
- Skaters
- Plank knee tucks
- Tuck jumps
- Lateral high jumps
- Wrist to ankle
- Crab toe touch
You may want to strengthen your body, burn extra calories or just a balanced body. No matter what your choice is, these easy cardio exercise can help you with everything.