Cardio Workouts You Can Do at Home

Want to get fit and healthy with cardio-based home workouts? Read on to discover the best way to train at home.

Lifting Kettlebell at Home

Exercising from home is a great way to work on your health and fitness without having to pay for expensive gym memberships.

You can conveniently train when you want and you don’t have to worry about queues of people trying to get on the machines you need.

It also gives you the chance to do more of the workouts you enjoy.

You can get stronger or improve your fitness with targeted cardio workouts that help you to reach your goals faster.

Most people think when it comes to cardio workouts you have to use a bike or run, but in this article, we’re going to tell you the best ways to work up a sweat and burn some calories at home.

What is a Cardio Workout?

When people think of cardio workouts they think of running on a treadmill (or outdoors) or using other pieces of equipment such as bikes, elliptical, or rowing machines.

The truth is a cardio workout is anything that works your aerobic system and gets your heart rate up and keeps it there for some time.

When you think of it in this way it opens up a world of possibilities of the types of workouts that you can do and we’re going to break down the best ones for you.

What Equipment Do You Need?

The best thing about home workouts is you can use whatever you have available.

If you have cardio machines at home, such as a bike or treadmill, that’s great, but it isn’t essential.  

They’re great for performing aerobic workouts and they also give you a way of working on a specific skill, for example, if you’re a cyclist who wants an indoor option for when it gets cold, using an exercise bike or a spin bike is a great option.

However there are other options available, and in this article, we’re going to give you our top workouts that you can do at home.

Train For Success

The key to an effective cardio workout is knowing how to train to get results.

That doesn’t just mean steady-state cardio where you hop on a treadmill and jog for 30 minutes.

It means training in a way that you enjoy, and that will help you to make progress.

The workouts you see here will involve a range of training methods that are designed to test your aerobic system, and give you a great cardio workout.

Some are harder than others, but the good thing is you can always lower the intensity if you need to, and modify the workout to your capabilities.

With that in mind, let’s look at some of the best cardio workouts to do at home.

Jump Rope

Jump rope workouts are some of the quickest and most effective ways to train your body. They’re adaptable and you don’t need much longer than 10-20 minutes for them to be effective.

They train your entire body and are much harder than they look and once you get more advanced you’ll be able to play with different foot patterns, faster speeds, and even add in other exercises to make the workout more difficult.

Workout: Tabata Style

Round 1 (repeat 8 times)

20 seconds – Fast Jump Rope
10 seconds – Rest

Round 2 (Repeat 8 times)

20 Seconds – Alternating Foot Jump
10 Seconds – Rest

Round 3 (Repeat 8 times)


20 Seconds – Fast Jump Rope
20 Seconds – Bodyweight squat
20 Seconds - Rest

Kettlebell AMRAP

A Kettlebell is a unique piece of kit that doesn’t take up much space and is extremely easy to store. They’re also fairly easy to travel with, which means you can perform this workout wherever you are.

AMRAP stands for As Many Rounds as Possible, or As Many Reps as Possible and the idea is simple, your goal is to complete as many reps or rounds as you can during the time limit.

Following this type of workout is very demanding and although you’re using a weight, you’ll be breathing heavy and sweating loads when you’re done.

Workout A – As Many Rounds as Possible (10-minute limit)

The 4 exercises below are one round, your goal is to complete as many rounds as possible in only 10 minutes. There is no designated rest period, you can rest when you need to.  

Kettlebell Squat – 25 reps
Kettlebell Swings – 25 reps
Kettlebell 1 arm press – 10 each side
Ab Crunch – 20 reps
Workout B – As Many Reps as Possible

In this workout, your goal is to complete as many reps as possible during the designated time. Similar to the above, this format tests your aerobic system and will leave you feeling thoroughly worked out at the end.

Round 1: 30 seconds each (repeat 4 times)

Kettlebell Squat, Kettlebell Deadlift, Kettlebell Swing, Kettlebell Single side row, Rest

Round 2: 30 seconds each (repeat 4 times)

Kettlebell Lunge, Devils Press, Kettlebell swing, Kettlebell Single overhead press, Rest

Bodyweight EMOM

Every Minute on the Minute is an intense way of working out that gets your heart rate up and tests your entire CV system. The reason is simple, it makes your body work extremely hard for the entire time you’re working out and the rest is minimal.

The format is straightforward, you have a series of exercises to complete and you have 1 minute to do them. Then every minute, on the minute, you’ll repeat those exercises.

If you complete your moves in under 1 minute, you use that time as rest, however, if you don’t finish before the minute is up, get ready to go again, because as soon as the next minute starts, it’s time to repeat the exercises.

Workout A - Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes

20 Air Squats
10 Burpees
5 Press-ups
Workout B – Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes

15 Kettlebell swings
10 Squats
6 Alternating jump Lunges

Machine-Based Cardio Workout

If you do have access to equipment our advice would be to switch your workouts up. Don’t just follow a steady-state program because if you do, your body will quickly get used to the intensity and it won’t have the same effect. Before long the workouts won’t feel as hard, and you’ll be burning fewer calories in your workouts.

Our advice is to use more intense workouts, such as interval training and sprint work.

These work just as well, whether you’re on a bike or a treadmill, and they’re great at making the sessions feel faster and more effective.

Because of the higher intensity, they can also be great for burning calories, which can help you even further if weight loss is one of your goals.

The workouts below will work effectively on any piece of cardio equipment, whether you use a bike, treadmill, or rowing machine.

30 Seconds Increase

Warm-up for 3 minutes at 50-60% of your max pace, then every 30 seconds thereafter slightly increase your speed, using your judgment as you do.

Your goal here is to reach your max speed around the ten-minute mark and to hold it for as long as you can.

Once you can no longer keep up the pace, slow the intensity down for 3 minutes then repeat all over again.

Try to complete 2-3 times total for maximum effect

Tabata Intervals

Round 1

30-second sprints followed by 30-second intensity. Repeated 6 times total

Round 2

40-second sprints followed by 20 seconds lower intensity. Repeated 4 times

Round 3

60-second sprints followed by 60 seconds lower intensity. Repeat 3 times

Final Thoughts

Home-based cardio workouts don’t have to be boring and they don’t need to use a ton of expensive equipment. It’s perfectly possible to great a great workout from the comfort of your own home, and get great results, you’ve just got to know how. Luckily you now have a range of workouts to choose from and the best thing is they can all be modified to meet your needs. So whether you don’t have access to a Kettlebell or you can’t complete a full AMRAP session, you can easily modify the workout to meet your needs.

We’ve also shown you how to use strength-based exercises in your cardio workouts to ensure you’re getting a full-body workout and you’re building your muscles as well as getting fitter.

All you need to do now is pick the workouts which you like the most and you’ll feel better than ever in no time

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