We usually associate cardio to exercises like running, riding a bike, or the typical cardio machines of the gym. But cardio is any exercise that involves putting a large part of our muscle mass to work for a longer or shorter time. Today we will see some exercises to do cardio at home.

The only material you may need is, at most, a music player to entertain the cardio session at home. Within the exercises that we are going to present you, you can play with the intensity doing the exercise more or less quickly. 

My recommendation is that you do a minute followed by each exercise, with little rest between them and, if it can be, repeat 2-3 times each exercise:

Kneeling up or skipping on the site

The simple fact of having to raise the knees alternately and repeatedly, is an exercise that asks most of the muscle groups of our anatomy, but especially the hip flexors, which causes our heart to put on to work.

The faster we do this exercise, the more intensity we will be getting into. Likewise, the higher we raise the knees, the more complicated the exercise will involve. So, beginners: we raise knees almost to the height of the hip and at medium speed and, advanced: we raise knees to the height of the hip or more and try to get more speed.

Heels back or running on the site

An exercise similar to the previous one that resembles “running on the spot”, but here it is the knee flexors (ischiums) that do almost all the work, although the arm movement and the simulation of the race turn it into a cardio exercise.

Here it happens the same as in the previous exercise, if we want to put more intensity, what we will do is increase the speed of the legs and arms, simulating that we run faster.

Jumping Jacks

Jumps accompanied by movement of arms, thus we manage to mobilize the whole body. When jumping, we spread legs and put our arms up. When jumping again, we join legs and lower arms. An exercise that, a priori, seems very simple, but as the seconds pass it does not seem so easy to endure.

This exercise can also be made more intense by making the jumps higher, separating the legs more when jumping and raising the speed of execution. We can also put a squat when we open our legs, this is for advanced.

Climbing a chair or step

This is a pure exercise of legs, but that will make our heart beat to the beat. All that is to raise of height, to our body it costs to him and it has to use energy and muscular work.

We can simply get on a chair, table or step that we have at home. First with one leg, we go down and go up with the other. Here, for greater intensity, we can play with the height of the step, the higher, more intense. The speed at which we go up and down also influences.

Squats without weight or Air Squat

A fundamental exercise that can not be missing in any routine. The squat we usually identify with a pure exercise of strength, but if we do not add weight and make them “in the air”, it is a strength-endurance exercise.

Of course, we must bear in mind in this exercise to perform the technique correctly, as explained in the video. Here, to add more intensity, rather than doing them fast, I would add a small jump when climbing or, also, hold down a couple of seconds before climbing.

Jump rope

The other day we talked to you in an article about how to jump rope is one of the ways to get in shape without going to the gym. The rope offers many possibilities and is an easy material to get.

From doing simple jumps to double jumps, alternate legs or displacements, there is a great variety of exercises that we can do with the rope. If you are, a novice in jumping rope, the simple act of doing 20 jumps in a row, is already a challenge.

Mountain climber or the climber

We can consider the exercise of the climber as one of the most intense at the cardio level. Having to hold in position while doing the leg movement makes our whole body is in tension and that “burns” a lot.

In this exercise, increasing the intensity is simple, since you have to do the movement at a higher speed, which will mean a considerable increase in fatigue. I would say that in this exercise, the speed increase is the one in which fatigue is most noticeable.