At Home Cardio

With gyms still not quite open yet, we are left without some of our favorite machines such as the stairmaster or elliptical. Quarantine has challenged my creativity in terms of making workouts with what equipment my clients may have. Generally it’s mostly body weight exercises with some bands and free weights.

Here are some of my favorite types of cardio without any equipment that you can do at home or in your neighborhood.

• Walking - You really can’t go wrong with walking. You can walk in place, up and down the stairs, or outside.

• Incline walking - Find some hills in your neighborhood for an extra push!

• Jogging/running - This isn’t my favorite, but if you wanted to kick up your cardio a notch you can always jog or run. You can even do intervals of jogging and walking.

• Hill sprints - Find a hill and sprint up! When it comes to higher intensity exercise, you don’t have to do as many or go as long.

• Body weight HIIT - Jumping jacks, squats, or any body weight exercise done in an interval type fashion can also count as cardio. Typically I like to go with a higher ratio of rest to work when starting out. For example, you can do 20 seconds of an exercise and then rest for 40 seconds. If you are more fit, you can do a 1 to 1 ratio with 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest.

• Cycling - Whether it’s indoors or outdoors, cycling is a great way to work up a sweat!

I find walking and hill sprints are my favorite forms of cardio. I’ve been walking 4 times a week for 35 minutes for my cut. This week, I’ll be switching out 1 of my walking days for a HIIT day. You can combine these different types of cardio throughout the week or stick with your favorites.