Keep Your Heart Healthy
Getting cardio in is difficult, especially if you’re spending your days working away at an office, and driving or transiting between home and work. However, it’s recommended for adults to do a total of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week to keep their hearts happy and healthy. We’ve compiled a list of activities here for you, most of which don’t require a gym membership or at-home workout gear.
1. Swimming
Swimming is a great way to move if you’re prone to joint pain or aren’t interested in learning how to run. The horizontal position and water temperature can also make your heart work more efficiently. On top of cardiovascular fitness, swimming also trains your muscle strength and your endurance.
2. Running
This high-intensity workout can get you fit in a short amount of time. Running strengthens your heart, lungs, bones, and muscles, and is known for improving mood and sleep. It also offers full-body engagement, working your legs, core, and other stabilizing muscles.
3. Cycling
Similar to swimming, cycling is a great way to get your heart pumping without putting too much stress on your joints. It’s known to strengthen your lower body muscles, engage your core and arm muscles, and improve your cardiovascular and muscular endurance.
4. Stair Climbing
Typically seen as a method of torture to some gym-goers, stair climbing is an incredibly effective workout. The movement is high-intensity, but low-impact, and burns a crazy amount of calories due to the added challenge of gravity.
5. Jump Rope
Jump rope not only increases your heart rate but also improves endurance, coordination, and balance. With the combination of lower body activation and upper body strength, you’ll be expanding that lung capacity in no time.
6. Jumping Jacks
Don’t write this exercise off just because it’s used as a warmup. Jumping jacks require no equipment and are an excellent way to improve cardio health, muscle endurance, bone density, and coordination.
7. Kickboxing
Kickboxing is a great way to incorporate strength training into your cardio workout. Kickboxing focuses on rapid movement, which also boosts coordination, balance, and mental focus. Overall, it’s a very engaging workout to participate in.
8. Ellipticals
Another cardio option that’s easy on the joints, an elliptical workout gently engages the upper and lower-body muscles to improve your heart health and caloric gains. Settings can also be changed on an elliptical to make it a great high-intensity training option, or to focus on a specific lower-body muscle.
9. Burpees
The dreaded burpee. We can’t deny their usefulness, even if we don’t love having to do them. The combination of crouch, pushup, crouch, jump, squat, rinse, repeat works multiple large muscle groups, contributing to a higher metabolism and afterburn effect.
10. Hiking
Like walking, hiking combines cardio fitness, strength training, and balance into a beautiful, nature-oriented setting. Typically, hiking also features uneven terrain, which improves your core stability and coordination.
11. Mountain Climbers
Mountain climbers are known for their ability to engage your core, legs, arms, and shoulders simultaneously. They’re also known to build ‘functional strength,’ which is the ability to perform everyday tasks like lifting, bending, and squatting.
12. Zumba
If you’re looking to add a little pizazz to your workout, Zumba is a great option. Zumba workouts combine dance movements with high-intensity interval training (HIIT), increasing your cardio health, metabolism, and calorie expenditure. It’s also just so dang fun!
13. Rowing
We don’t mean rowing like on a boat, although we suppose that works just as well. Rowing is a gym-based, full-body workout that is relatively low-impact. The continuous pulling motion works almost all of your muscle groups, including legs, core, back, arms, and glutes.
Lance Cpl. M. C. Nerl on Wikimedia
14. HIIT Workouts
HIIT workouts are among the most popular at-home cardio options on this list, due to their high caloric burn and afterburn effect. HIIT training requires you to perform intense bursts of activity, followed by short recovery periods. All in all, it's flexible, efficient, and easy to do from the comfort of your own home.
15. Squat Jumps
Known as a ‘compound plyometric exercise,’ meaning exercises that contain explosive actions with compound movements, squat jumps strengthen your quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves, and core. They’re also excellent for improving power, muscle endurance, and, of course, your heart health.
16. Inchworm
Inchworms are a low-impact exercise that requires the individual to move from a standing to a plank position slowly and methodically. This exercise works just about everything, and offers a great stretch for your hamstrings to boot.
17. High Knees
High knees work as a great warm-up or as an integral part of your routine, as they engage nearly every muscle group in the lower half of your body. They’re also known to improve coordination and endurance, all without needing too much space to complete.
18. Push-Ups
Push-ups build muscle and functional strength in your chest, shoulders, triceps, core, and back. Easily adaptable for your skill level, you’ll still be bettering your posture, stability, and metabolic rate.
Christopher Campbell on Unsplash
19. Lunge Jumps
Another plyometric exercise to add to your workout regimen, lunge jumps strengthen your lower body and enhance your explosive power. Due to the nature of a split jump, you will also greatly increase balance, coordination, and core strength.
20. Walking
If nothing else, going for a walk 30 minutes a day will do wonders for your mental and physical health. Walking strengthens your bones, improves your circulation, improves your mood and sleep, and keeps your heart healthy in the long run.
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