Looking for simple home workouts? Do you want to improve your health with in-home cardiovascular workouts? We have you covered!
In this article, you will learn more about the definition of cardiovascular workouts, the importance of simple cardio workouts, and a detailed description of the 5 best In-home cardio workouts. You will be fully equipped with the knowledge to start your in-home cardiovascular workouts and stay healthy and strong.
So, read on!
Cardiovascular workouts, also termed endurance or aerobic exercise, refer to exercises that utilize aerobic metabolism. During cardiovascular exercise, oxygen is used in the reactions that produce the energy needed for the activity. So, you take more deep and rapid breaths to breathe in more oxygen efficiently. And your heartbeat increases, and you sweat more. Then, your energy increases, and you don’t tire out easily.
Cardiovascular workouts are usually vigorous; hence they increase respiration and heart rate, leading to increased oxygen and blood flow in the body. For an exercise to be a cardio workout, it has to increase your heart and breathing rate to a moderate or high-intensity level (50% and above the normal rate) for at least 10 minutes. So, resistance exercises are not seen as cardio because they don’t increase the heart rate.
The benefits of cardio workouts are many: they enhance your mental health, heart health, metabolism, sleep, mood, and weight regulation. Because they involve rhythmic and repetitive movement of large muscle groups in the body, they also enhance the performance of the lungs, circulatory system, and heart.
Despite the varied uses of cardio workouts, many people don’t engage in them for several reasons. They view them as difficult, and they don’t have the time or resources to visit the gym. If that’s your case, breathe easy. This article will show you 5 simple in-home cardio workouts that will take less than 10 minutes to carry out daily.
They are as follows:
- Jogging in place
- Jumping Jack on a Trampoline
- Skipping
- Squat jumps
- Bounce Down on a Trampoline
1. Jogging in Place
If you are a beginner in practicing in-home cardio workouts, this is the workout for you. It is an easy way of increasing your heartbeat effectively. It is also a good warm-up activity.
Procedure
- Bounce slightly from one foot to another.
- Swing your arms from side to side while at it.
Benefits of Jogging in Place
- Enhances your muscle flexibility, strength, and stability.
- Correct your posture.
- Reduces stress on the body.
- It helps you to develop your upper and lower body.
- It builds your knees and makes them healthier and stronger.
- It improves heart health, enhances circulation, and improves your lung capacity.
- Build your strength, agility, and balance.
- It is a simple workout that can build your capacity to handle harder workouts.
2. Jumping Jacks on a Trampoline
If you want to lose weight conveniently, trampoline exercises are the way to go. They provide you with an enjoyable way of enhancing your heart health, losing weight, and relieving stress. They also improve bone health, strength, and density.
Jumping jacks is another simple workout you can do in your house. You only get a trampoline, and voila, you are good to go!
Procedure
- Stand straight with your legs together and your arms by the sides of your body.
- Raise your arms over your head and jump with your feet apart.
- Jump back to the initial position.
- Repeat for 1 to 5 minutes.
Benefits of Jumping Jack
- Build your heart muscles.
- It prevents cardiovascular diseases like stroke, high blood pressure, hypertension, among others.
- Increases circulation in the body.
- Maintains blood pressure.
- Jumping jacks increases your lungs capacity.
- Improves your breathing.
3. Skipping or Jumping Rope
Skipping is an important in-home cardio workout. It helps to enhance cardiovascular fitness and to strengthen your muscles. The skipping rope is also very affordable and can be gotten in stores. Skipping is a perfect home workout you can practice daily.
Procedure
- Take the rope handle in both hands and begin with the rope behind you and at your heels.
- Move the rope by rotating your forearms and your wrist forward to create movement and swing the rope over your head.
- When you swing the rope overhead, slightly bend your knees. And when you view the ropes passing your shins, jump up and spring from your toes. Begin slowly till you master its timing.
- After jumping a few times, you will become better at it.
- When hopping, stay on the balls of your feet. You will be nimble and quick. You can also alternate hops so your calves won’t be tired.
Benefits of Skipping
- Skipping builds your cardiovascular fitness.
- Increases your leg strength.
- Build your stamina.
- Increases your coordination.
- Build your bone strength.
- Improves your balance.
- It makes you more agile.
- It makes you more flexible.
- Increases your endurance.
- It’s a full-body workout.
4. Squat Jumps
Squat jumps are full-body exercises that majorly build the core and the legs. The squats build the calf muscles and quadriceps, and the jump boosts your heart health and strength.
Procedure
- Stand upright with your arms by your side and your feet slightly apart.
- Squat by bending at the knees.
- Jump into the air from the squat position and raise the hips till the body straightens.
- Then, land back softly on your feet, and roll backward to handle the shock in the heels.
- Continue with different arm movements to modify the difficulty.
Benefits of Squat Jumps
- It develops your core and lower body.
- It builds running and kicking ability.
- It builds agility and balance.
- It helps you reduce weight.
5. Bounce Down on a Trampoline
One of the fastest ways of losing weight is by using a trampoline during your workout sessions. Trampoline transforms your fitness and provides great health benefits. It also makes exercise more enjoyable. Hence, you won’t feel the stress, and you will lose weight easier. Trampolines also improve circulation, increase core strength, muscle strength, cardiovascular fitness, balance, coordination, and bone density.
There are several weight loss exercises at home that you can carry out with the trampoline. One of them is the bounce down. Bounce Down is a vigorous workout where you bounce on your trampoline while swinging your arms. It’s an excellent home weight loss exercise.
Procedure
- Stand in the trampoline’s centre and place your feet a bit wider than your hip’s distance.
- Then, jump from the trampoline springing off your entire foot, not only your heels or toes. Land on the trampoline.
- As you jump, swing your arms in the opposite direction for counterbalance.
- You can continue for 2 to 3 minutes.
Benefits of Bounce Down
- Improves digestion.
- Helps in weight reduction.
- Stimulates metabolism.
- Enhances your stamina.
- Minimizes cellulite.
- Reduces cholesterol and triglyceride levels
- It helps in maintaining blood pressure.
- It helps you to maintain balance.
- Improves lungs capacity.
- Reduces risk of chronic diseases.
- Improves your sleep quality.
- Improves your mood.
- Increases your confidence.
- Improves your total well-being.
How to Start Your In-Home Cardio Workout
Now, you have learned about the various in-home cardio workouts, and you can’t wait to start. You can’t wait to experience the strength, ability, and general well-being that cardio workouts provide. But you are overwhelmed and don’t know how to start. I will hold your hand in this guide to get you started on your cardio workout.
So, let’s delve in.
Check Your Fitness Level
Before you start your workout plan, you need to visit your doctor to check your fitness level. Hence, you will be able to make your workout plan and know what exercise to engage in.
Set Your Workout Goals
- What do you want to achieve with your workout?
- How many times will you work out in a week?
- How many minutes will you engage in your workout daily?
These are pertinent questions you need to find answers to before you start your workout.
As you set your workout goals, remember to start small. Set SMART goals -Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals that will keep you focused on your workout plans. You can start from a few minutes daily and increase as you master the routines. Do not go in aggressively. Most people that start aggressively end up not sticking with their goals. Rather, start small and work yourself up. Remember, the goal is to remain consistent in your workout routine.
Get Your In-home Cardio Workout Items
Even though you can work out independently, you will need several exercise items to make your workout easier. Examples of exercise items are treadmill, skipping rope, free weights, strength training equipment, and trampoline. A trampoline is an excellent exercise device and is great for beginners. They make exercise fun for you. Trampolines help make your weight loss exercise fun and comfortable at home; they also make you lose weight easily while catching fun. They are also affordable and easy to get. You can choose from these types of trampolines like mini trampolines for kids, 8ft trampoline, rectangle trampoline, and 14ft trampoline. Your body will thank you for it.
Start By Warming Up
Before you start your daily cardio workout, do some warm-up exercises first. That will help to prepare you for the harder cardio. As a beginner, you can carry out the warm-up exercises for some days before incorporating the harder workouts. Some warm-up exercises to practice are jogging in a place, running in a place, and dancing.
Move on to Harder Cardio Workouts
After you have mastered the warm-up exercises, you need to move to harder cardio workouts like squats, jumping jacks, bounce down, among others.
Make Work out Fun
Who says you can’t have fun when working out? Instead of making your workout time drudgery and dreadful, you can make it fun by including some additional devices like music, the use of trampolines, and others. Trampolines are devices that make your workout fun. With them, exercise is easy and fun. You can choose from these types of trampolines like mini trampolines for kids, 8ft trampoline, rectangle trampoline, and 14ft trampoline.
Have a Workout Routine
If you want to be consistent with your workout, you have to make it a routine. Have a particular time and place for your exercise routines. Set your alarms, and when it goes off, don’t snooze off. Get off your bed and move your body!
Monitor Your Intensity
If you have been working out for a while, you need to monitor your intensity. You can use several parameters like a perceived exertion scale, talk test, or target heart rate. They will help you to either increase or reduce your workout time.
You can track your intensity by The rate of perceived exertion (RPE). It is on a scale of 1 to 10.2. These are some of the levels:
RPE level 3: Here, you are comfortable but you are breathing harder.
RPE level 4: You are sweating a bit, but you can talk without much effort.
RPE level 5: You have become uncomfortable, you sweat more but you can still talk.
RPE level 6: Talking becomes difficult now and you get quite breathless.
If you notice that you are getting very uncomfortable during a workout, stop for the moment and get some rest. If you notice some pains, get some rest. You don’t need to be in gruesome pain to achieve a good workout session. You can experience slight pains, but it doesn’t have to be intense. Change your workout routines if a certain workout brings you sharp pains. Go for easier exercises if the harder one’s prove difficult. Remember, the goal is consistency.
Conclusion
Cardio workouts are great ways to build your heart muscles, strength, core muscles, ability, and stability. If you cannot visit the gym, there are great in-home cardio workouts you can carry out to build yourself. You can also incorporate a trampoline into your workout routines to make it more comfortable and convenient for you. This article has provided you with in-depth information on starting your cardio workouts and making them a routine. Follow them, and your body will thank you for it!