Not Feeling the Gym Today? No Problem! Here are the 10 Best Cardio Exercise at Home No Equipment Requires (2021)

Bad weather, pandemic, extra workload, or any other emergency. There can be any reason for you are not able to make up to the gym. In any such case, you can go for a round of cardio workout to prevent any loss to routine or strength. Or perhaps you prefer exercising at home rather than heading to a gym.

There’s a huge list of cardio exercises at home no equipment that you can choose from. Those are easy to follow, convenient to do and save a lot of your money as well.

Besides, a perfect cardio exercise also doesn’t need a huge space. Further, you can go creative and add them to your fitness routine. There’s a huge variety of productive cardio workouts available that you can use to burn calories and build muscles. You can get maximum benefits from these home-based exercises with a low impact on your joints. Explore this article to understand more about cardio exercises at home that you can do anytime.

Make variations between slow to moderate pace and fast pace bursts. This helps burn calories, makes you stronger, and builds endurance. And, not to forget, adding intervals also helps in losing belly fat.

While most of the cardio exercises last from 30 to 45 minutes, adding a few minutes to each can burn more calories. However, don't overstrain yourself as this can lead to injuries.

One of the difficult things is choosing the right cardio exercise. You may be the one preferring more activity or the other type looking for a single choice. However, you need to pick the most intense exercise. Rowing, high-intensity aerobics, and running are known to yield faster results as compared to those produced by walking, cycling, or using elliptical equipment. But, one routine doesn’t fit all. And, the type of cardio workout perfect for you depends upon your preferences. So, you should select the one that you enjoy and want to do regularly.

A cardio exercise’s main focus is to burn calories via high-intensity moves. For stronger muscles, you need to invest both efforts and time. If you are willing to target tush and legs, incorporate bike rides, hikes, and inclines in your routine. Slow down the machine for doing moving lunges. Or, pick up some dumbbells and walk the same as you do shoulder exercise and bicep curls. Got a pool at home? You can put water resistance to use with the webbed gloves to tone muscles.

You need to focus on preventing monotonous stress injuries and building overall strength. And, for this, practising the same cardio exercise every day will do more harm than good. Thus, you have to include more than two types of cardio workouts every week.

Try to ignore things that ask your mind to take a break and slow down your exercising. You need to follow a discipline to maintain your body and learn how to do work willingly.

Include at least 6 to 8 weight exercises, cardio workouts, and resistance training in a circuit based and up-tempo workouts. Start with the first exercise and then move to the next one without taking a rest. And, before resting, repeat each exercise for at least 1 to 2 minutes.

Now, let’s explore the 10 best options of the cardio exercises at home no equipment you can do.

If a CrossFit pro fears it, burpees got something serious. This one cardio exercise produces amazing results when done even for a short time. Also, you don’t require huge space and any equipment that make it a perfect cardio exercise to do at home. For this, you need to alternate between jumping forward and plank position.

To start with, ensure that your back is straight and hands are flat on the ground. Then jump with moving your feet forward and back the same as a Squat Thrust. Push your hips forward after standing up. And, you need to complete standing with tight buckets. If you can, you should add pushups and jump as well at the bottom and top positions respectively.

Within 10 minutes, you can burn over 100 calories doing burpees. To avoid any injury, start slow and workout for up to 10 minutes. This one’s a short and heavy workout that uses huge muscle mass and also elevates the heart rate rapidly.

Ever climbed a mountain? Here, in this, you can make your body experience the same. Take a position of the high plank while keeping the core engaged and hands just below the shoulders. Your body should form a straight line position parallel to the ground. Start the mountain climbing action by bringing in the right knee towards the chest first followed by the left knee. Keep doing this without stopping and try to be as fast as possible.

After this, you can add the movement of hands. Pick up the right hands first and tap the left-side shoulder. Then repeat the same with the left hand. However, throughout the routine, you need to keep your hips as steady as you can. And, if it seems difficult at the start, you can move your feet wider apart to make this exercise simpler.

The perfect cardio workout that you can easily do all alone. Squat jumps are also a part of the cardio circuit. According to the name, you have to begin this exercise in a squat and jump up. Try to jump as high as possible and return to the squat position. This puts a huge impact on the knees. However, you need to do this exercise carefully, if you are a beginner or suffering from a knee injury.

However, to do this exercise, you don’t need any special skills and it will help burn calories, increase heart rate as well as legs’ power. This cardio workout routine is highly intense and needs you to have a strong heart and joints. The major thing you need to be careful about is a soft landing that avoids any jerk or damage to your knees. Also, you can choose from several squat jump variations such as froggy jumps, Prisoner squat jumps, and BOSU. Incorporate squat jumps for at least 30 to 60 seconds into your daily cardio routine covering jogging, step touches, jumping rope, marching, and others. A sequence of squat jumps (30-60 seconds) can be added after 3 to 5 lower body workouts. Once done, you should rest for at least 30 to 60 seconds after this exercise. And then repeat the process for 10 minutes.

Take a position similar to that for burpees. High plank with glutes and core engaged, wrists directly under your shoulders, and body in the straight line from head to heels. Then, bend your elbows towards the lower chest, which touches the ground to do push-ups. After that, get back to the high plank position again and bend your left knee that touches your right palm. To start again, return your right hand and left foot and repeat the same with your right knee and left palm. This way, you will keep going on in the loop again and again.

Stand with your feet at a distance of hip-length from each other. From this position, raise your right-side leg first and bend the knee to get it either parallel or higher than the hip. Next, switch the leg by jumping. Now, repeat the same back and forth rapidly for at least 50 times.

The high knee is a powerful and strong bodyweight cardio exercise that gets your heart rate up rapidly. While moving legs up and down, you can use your arms for pumping your body and gaining more momentum. Besides, make sure that calf muscles are warm and good before doing this workout. It is also a perfect cardio exercise to be done along with burpees. Try to lift your knees as high as possible for at least 20 seconds and then follow a minimum of 3 to 8 rounds of burpees.

Scissor kicks are a fast bodyweight cardio workout, to master which, you might need some practice. Stand straight and make a rapid front kick in the air. Now, follow the same for the second leg. Continue this process while bouncing from 1 leg to another and the action would be similar to kicking something standing/kept in front of you. Once you practice and start doing this with a better rhythm and movement, it starts producing great results. Keep this in mind that you shouldn’t lean back very far. To perform this exercise, you need to have strength in your lower body and core.

To do this cardio workout in a better way, both arms should be stationary during the entire movement. And, the arms should serve the purpose of stability and not for adding momentum. Also, your core should be engaged and tight throughout the workout. Speed shouldn’t be a major focus and but your motion needs to be controlled and rhythmic. This exercise is quite effective when done solo as well as when mixed with other routines. However, before doing this exercise, you need to perfectly warm up your body.

This is another cardio exercise at home no equipment that starts with a standing position. Clasp your hands in front of your chest and step your left leg in a straight back position. Next, drop down into the lunge position while bending your legs at an angle of 90-degrees. To start again, push your right heel and return towards your left leg. After this, repeat this process to the other side. Continue exercising while alternating between your right and left legs and try to be as fast as possible.

Another one on the list that shares the beginning position with burpees. Start with that high plank position keeping glutes and core engaged and hands directly underneath your shoulders. From the body in a straight line position, lower your elbows one by one. This takes you to the forearm plank position. Now, get back up to the high plank position. This completes one circle and you need to keep repeating the same again and again.

This one covers everything from strength training to cardio. Staircase exercise is a perfect cardio workout wherein you use the steps of stairs at your home without involving any equipment. Before starting, you should ensure that the stair you choose has a handrail for safety. Alternatively, you can use a platform for fitness rather than actual stairs in case your staircase is long and contains over 6 stairs.

Move up and down at least one or two laps and you can alternate this with other exercises like jumping jacks and jumping rope. Work in intervals of high intensity. You can walk up, run through the stairs quickly, and to recover, walk back downwards. Repeat this process for at least 10 minutes. Another sequence can be using only one step, jumping steps with both feet, and then stepping down. Alternatively, you can also stand sideways with only your one foot, take a step and jump. Turn around at an angle of 180 degrees, on the step, and land with the second foot. You can also use 1 step for dips, lunges, step-ups, push-ups, squats, etc.

‘Side Shuffles’ is a perfect bodyweight cardio workout that introduces lateral movement and some types of sideways movements into your exercise. Starting with a standing position, you need to shuffle one of your legs out to the other side and then rapidly move it back, replacing it with the second leg. This is like shuffling legs one by one in outward directions while standing at a place. Moving quickly and nicely throughout the workout while staying on toes is the key.