How To Get In Shape From Home – The 6 Best Cardio Workouts

Have you ever considered the excellent opportunities, to get in shape in your own living room? Cardio workouts from home are one of them and it’s very easy to do. Sometimes we cannot just go down to our local gym or go for a run outside, and it may therefore become necessary to do workouts from home.

Whether it’s the long hours at the office, a busy family life, or you’re stuck at home! there’s a solution for that as you’ll see.

What Is Cardio Workouts From Home?

Briefly, cardio workouts cover training of the heart and circulation. Cardio is about the body’s oxygen uptake and endurance during long-term strain on the heart (heart muscle). Cardio workouts make the heart pump faster over a longer period of time and thus pump the blood around the system faster.

This results in health benefits that improve your fitness – it’s therefore good for your health in general. In relation to running, cardio workouts from home provide variety and improve your overall performance.

Cardio workouts have several purposes. Below are the most common reasons:

• You want variety in your running training – which also makes you less vulnerable to injuries.
• You get in good shape – raising your endurance
• You want to lose weight (weight loss)
• You achieve well-being
  You maintain your existing shape
• You sleep better at night
• You get more energy

You can do it from home ex. in your living room with equipment for the purpose. But in practice, cardio workouts can take place anywhere, both at home, in the gym, indoors, and outdoors – only the imagination sets the limits for activities and exercises.

How To Start Cardio Workouts From Home

There can be many reasons why you want to start cardio workouts from home. But before you start, it’s important to find out what motivates you when you train. Do you like team training, then your home training must be built up via online training platforms where you train with others.

Does good music motivate you when you exercise? Then turn up your favorite music at home while you train. Do you like fresh air? Then you can move the training outside e.g. in your garden. When you are going to start training at home, it’s also a good idea to find some training videos to motivate you.

What Are Effective And Good Cardio Workouts From Home?

If you want to achieve an effective training effect, you should perform the exercises at lower intensities for a longer time than if you train with high intensities, e.g. as intervals. High intensity is good for your training if you want to achieve faster and better results, but it requires that your body and physiology are adapted and ready for it.

So, If you don’t have time to train, you can do the exercises with a higher intensity in a shorter time (short programs). If you e.g. train hard and intensely in the short time you have, you can make it more efficient with interval training that alternates between high and low intensity.

There are other factors that play into an effective workout such as rest, food, and drink. The food factor has a big influence if your goal is weight loss. The more you eat (the more calories you consume), the more and harder you have to train.

Therefore, make sure you also adapt your caloric intake to your cardio training and your goal and create a program according to your needs.

What Exercise Equipment Should I Use For Cardio Workouts From Home?

With the right equipment, you can easily do cardio workouts at home and put together programs and exercises yourself. Below are the 6 best workout exercise elements for cardio training from home.

Training Mat

Having a training mat is a must for home training. This is the base of home training. An extra thick yoga mat protects you from different body positions during exercising and especially your joints. Say goodbye to discomfort so you can focus on your workouts with the extra-thick exercise mat.

Made from high-density foam, the large 1/2-inch thick exercise mat (the image above) is versatile for your training, providing more cushion for your body so you can focus on your flow and balance, not your discomfort. I have this mat for my home exercises and used it much in particular during the pandemic times in my country.

The extra-thick yoga and Pilates mat have high-density foam in 1/2-inch thickness, great for use on hard floors. The extra-thick cushioning provides comfortable support, compared to other, thinner mats.

The colorful, non-slip surface allows for greater stability so you can flow between exercises more easily, and high-quality material ensures durability. It even comes with a free yoga mat sling so you can easily and comfortably transport it to wherever you may want to perform a session.

Mountain Climbers are a great exercise performed on a training mat for the whole body that provides a good cardio workout.

Jump Bench (Box)

Performing jumping jacks on a plyo box at home is the perfect way for you to get your cardio and agility training in. Plyo boxes let you tone your core and your legs while also being used for storage. This makes your new plyo box one of the most practical, versatile and popular pieces of gym equipment in your home arsenal.

Buying the right plyometric box is easy, especially at ProsourceFit because they come in versatile sizes to suit your fitness needs. Most women do well starting on the 16” plyo box and men with the 20”. Advanced users will want to buy the 24” plyo box.

If you’re looking to buy a single plyo box or a set for your home gym, you’re in the right place. Each of the options below is durable and ready to help you reach your fitness goals!

Jump Rope

Training with a jump rope is fun, and it doesn’t require much space or other equipment than a good jump rope – and it’s effective. Jump rope exercises are effective because it’s cardio training, coordination, balance and footwork at the same time. In particular, it means that it is easy to maintain your training with a jump rope.

Resistance Band

With a resistance band, you can train for many purposes such as strength, muscle strength rehabilitation, balance, and endurance.

You should choose a resistance band according to the purpose of your training and the resistance you want from the band. Choose a resistance band of 2.5 meters, which can be wrapped around both hands and feet to adjust the resistance.

A resistance band can be used both for strength training, endurance and for rehabilitation. They can be bought both as narrow and wide bands. The color of the is an expression of the degree of resistance. In my country it’s:

Green: Extra light
Orange: easy
White: medium
Blue: hard
Black: extra hard

Resistance bands are undoubtedly good for the body. You can exercise virtually every muscle in the body from different angles and at varying tempos. A resistance band allows you to train functionally with the body’s own weight or with resistance.

Kettlebell

A kettlebell is a great tool for cardio- and strength training. The exercises you can do with a kettlebell challenge all muscle groups and make you sweat. Kettlebell exercises require coordination, balance, and control.

It becomes especially fun when you start performing a series of exercises in flow without a break. This type of training is very demanding on the body if you do it correctly. You get your heart rate up, cardio training and it raises your combustion.

The Russian kettlebell swings, where you swing the kettlebell to shoulder height, is an enormously effective exercise that really both challenges your strength and provides really good cardio training. You must of course choose a kettlebell weight that suits your physical ability.

The Kettlebell Swing is considered to be the most powerful kettlebell exercise and forms the basis for other ballistic kettlebell exercises. Although this exercise looks easy to perform, it takes some practice to do it correctly.

How to perform the exercise: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, with a straight back and shoulders pulled back. Pull your hips back while keeping your arms close to your body. Explosively drive your hip forward until your hip is fully extended.

From here, the built-up energy is transferred to the kettlebell, which with outstretched arms is brought up to eye level. Make sure to keep the weight back on the heels and do not bend at the hip until the arms are brought back to the starting position along the body.

Dumbbells

Dumbbells come in different sizes and weight and the light ones – as the woman held in the image below – are used mainly for aerobic (cardio) programs to get more endurance and strength. In general, Dumbbells should be a part of your workout routine because they are versatile, meaning you can do so much with them to get progress, and they are portable.

Looking to tone your arms and legs? Then you need to adapt to a strength training program and that’s where dumbbells come in. If you’re looking to burn more calories, it’s a must to have muscles because it costs a lot of energy to maintain them.

To achieve the overall “toned” look, you have to burn more calories than you consume. So having muscles is one way for you to do that along with the right nutrition. In addition, strength training will strengthen your bones which can help prevent age-related diseases such as osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes.

Using an adjustable dumbbell and barbell sets gives you more opportunities and is convenient because you can switch up the weight from a dumbbell to a barbell or the other way within the same barbell set.

Final Thoughts

How often you should do cardio workouts depends on the goal of the training, fat percentage, weight, age, etc. It varies from person to person. You should start carefully to avoid injuries and overloading of muscles and tendons.

Then you can easily train every day if you want, but be aware to listen to your body. There is therefore no definitive answer, but you will naturally achieve your goal faster the more cardio training you do. Be sure to put together a program that suits you, your time, your motivation, and your goal.

The best result when training at home is achieved if you combine cardio training with strength training. A greater muscle mass, which is achieved through strength training, helps to burn more during cardio training.

I hope you get something out of this post. If you have any questions about the topic or want to leave your own Personal review, please leave a comment below.