Cardio exercise benefits you from head to toe, inside and out. According to the Cleveland Clinic, regular cardio exercise improves joint health, fighting osteoporosis and helping artiritis; protects the health of your brain by increasing blood flow, lowering the risk of stroke, and protecting against Alzheimer’s disease; improves skin health by increasing circulation; promotes healthy a pancreas, blood, and lungs; boosts sexual function by improving erectile function in men and promoting positive body image; boosts your mood; and improves your energy level and sleep. If you haven’t been fitting in regular cardio, now’s the time to start.
But just how much do you need? The CDC recommends all adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (such as brisk walking) each week, or at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise (such as running) weekly.
However, more is better, and exceeding these minimum recommendations can bring you even greater benefits. That’s why it’s so important to make cardio exercise a priority and have options for doing it at home when it’s convenient, so you’re not tempted to skip.
Strength training at home
The CDC also recommends adults do muscle-strengthening activities targeting all the major muscle groups (arms, chest, shoulders, core, legs, hips, and back) two or more days per week. The good news is that it’s easy to get in a quick strength workout at home, even without equipment: Your own body weight can provide all the resistance you need to build total-body strength.
Exercises such as squats, lunges, push-ups, dips, and planks are basic exercises that can be done anywhere and will strengthen all the muscles in your upper body, lower body, and core (via British Red Cross).
All of these exercises can also be modified to be made easier or tougher. You can add resistance using household items such as soup cans or milk jugs, or invest in some inexpensive exercise equipment that doesn’t take up much space such as dumbbells, resistance bands, and a pull-up bar.
Your home workout doesn’t need to be complicated. Choose one or two exercises to target each major muscle group and do two to three sets of 12 to 20 repetitions to start (via the National Academy of Sports Medicine).
How many reps you complete will depend on the exercise and your fitness level. In general, the goal is to challenge your muscles enough that they’ll adapt and grow stronger, but without pushing yourself so hard that you experience a lot of day-after soreness (or worse, get injured).
Circuit training
You can knock out both your cardio exercise and strength training at home with circuit training in less than 30 minutes (via Healthline). Circuit training involves alternating cardio exercises with strength training exercises performed one after the other, with little to no rest breaks in between.
A typical circuit might include eight to 10 exercises completed in succession. Then, the whole circuit is repeated one or two more times. Circuit intervals are often timed; you can set a timer for 30 to 45 seconds and do as many repetitions as you can of a single exercise. When the timer stops, you move on to the next exercise.
You can choose any combination of home cardio workouts and alternate them with strength training exercises. A sample circuit could include a 4-minute jumping jacks warm up, then 30- to 45-second blocks of squats, push-ups, mountain climbers, walking lunges, dips, burpees, plank holds, running in place, and supermans. At the end, take a 60-second to 2-minute rest break, then repeat.
You can combine any number of exercises in this manner, so you’ll never run out of ideas or get bored. Exercise boredom is a typical reason why people can’t adhere to a regular workout routine, and doing the same thing all the time causes fitness plateaus (via ACE). Circuit training is one way to keep your workouts short and entertaining so that you keep coming back for more and crushing your fitness goals.