This indoor cardio workout takes less than 30 minutes to complete to give you long-lasting fitness and strength benefits. It teaches you 6 of the best cardio exercises you can do at home with zero equipment required. This quick workout is so effective, it is easy to fit it into your day and will yield amazing results. The perfect combination of strength and cardio to tone and tighten.
30 Minute Indoor Cardio Workout
- Jumping Jacks
- Crunches
- Squats
- Jump Lunges
- Push ups
- Burpees
- Crunches
Keep reading for a step by step guide with pictures and descriptions of each of these exercises.
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If you’re anything like me, you’re usually pretty strapped for time.
Between work life, home life, community happenings, social life, etc – sometimes fitting in a workout can feel like “one more thing”.
Here’s the thing – workouts don’t have to be super long and require a huge chunk of time out of your day to be effective.
In fact, they don’t even require any equipment to yield amazing results and help you in your fitness progression.
Today’s workout is actually one of my favorites. I’ve got 6 of the best bodyweight exercises you can do at home with zero equipment required.
You should be able to knock this one out in 30 minutes or less, so it’s convenient to get in, get it done, and get on with your day.
Try it out and let me know what you think of it.
Here are some other quick workouts to make sure you fit in exercise in your busy schedule:
Get in some intense cardio with 10 Minute At Home HIIT Workout.
Check out the 20 Minute Fat-Blast Cardio Workout.
Don’t forget the abs with a 10 Minute Shredded Ab Routine.
Warm up
First thing’s first – we need to get the blood flowing.
Take a few laps up and down the stairs; some high-knees marching in place and some arm circles are also good.
If you’ve got about 3 minutes I have a really great warm up YouTube video for this exact purpose. It includes simple exercises that are going to get blood flowing to all your major muscle groups and prep them for the moves we’ll be doing in this workout.
Push play on the video below for the warm up; otherwise scroll down a little further for the 30-minute Indoor Cardio burner.
The Workout
We’re going to be doing alternating sets of jumping jacks and cardio/strength moves in a “countdown” format.
You’ll perform each exercise according to the numbers I have indicated below; we’re starting high and finishing low on this one.
It may look simple on the surface, but I promise you’re going to be feeling this one. Give it a try.
Grab your towel and water bottle and hit play on the video below.
You can also keep scrolling for descriptions and pictures of each of the exercises.
Here’s a graphic representation of the sets and reps of the exercises performed in this video with descriptions below.
- Start with your feet together and your arms relaxed.
- Jump and separate your feet while bringing your arms up overhead.
- Jump again and return your feet and arms to the starting position.
Crunches
- Lay down on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Engage your core and lift shoulder blades off the floor while stretching your hands toward your knees.
- Lower back down and repeat.
Squats
- Stand with legs hip-width distance apart. Keep hands in front of you or on your hips.
- With chest and head up, bend at the hips and knees to lower down as if sitting. Keep your knees just over your toes.
- Lower until your thighs are parallel with the floor.
- Straighten and stand up.
Jump Lunges
- Step forward on one leg and drop your weight straight down toward the floor, keeping your knee just above the toe.
- Leap and alternate legs quickly in a jumping motion.
Push ups
- Come to the ground in push up position- place palms and toes on the floor, with arms straight.
- Keep back neutral and flat.
- Drop chest until it comes close to touching the ground.
- Raise back up into starting position.
Burpees
- Start in a standing position
- Quickly drop down and touch the floor with your hands just beside your feet.
- Jump your feet straight back behind you.
- (Optional – do a push up at this point)
- Jump your feet back up towards your hands, return to the starting position, and jump 6 inches off the floor with hands raised high.
How much calories I burned if I do indoor cardio workout? Thx
Hi Yosefin! Forgive my slow response, but this is really a pretty loaded question. The calories you burn depend on a number of factors. It’s so detailed I ended up writing a blog post about this topic just to help you out! Check it out here: https://tone-and-tighten.com/2016/02/calorie-calculator-nutrition-facts-bmi-calculator-and-more.html
Hope that helps! Thanks so much for your question!
Jared
This looks great! Do you recommend doing this everyday?
Hi Myiida,
Rarely do I ever recommend doing one single workout every day. It’s important to incorporate a balance of various workouts including cardio, strength training, intervals, stretching, etc. You could do this up to 2-3 times/week, but I would supplement other days with some other workouts. Thanks!
Jared
Hi im Alex and I have lost 58 pounds in one year and im look for an exercise to tone my lose skin I want to know if this would help
Hi Alex. Congratulations on your weight loss! That’s fantastic! Unfortunately every ab/core workout you will find is designed to tone and strengthen muscle. Your skin is a separate organ that sits on top of your muscles. After it has been stretched out significantly you can expect some rebound to it, but not much. Things like massage and strength training should help improve your skin’s elasticity, but ultimately if you have a ton of excessive skin surgical intervention may be required. Thanks for writing in!
Jared
How do you actually do this 30 min indoor cardio workout? Are there any rest periods in between exercises, etc?
Hi Gary! Obviously you have to bust it to get through all of this in 30 minutes. There’s 20 exercises total with decreasing reps in subsequent sets. While the first couple of sets should take about 2 minutes to complete, you should be able to get through the last sets (5 reps) in a few seconds. Hope that helps; thanks for the question!
Does this help me burn my belly fat within 10 days bcs the school is gonna start and I want a really good workout
Hi Helga! FYI it’s impossible to “spot train” a given area. I can’t say this will burn “belly fat” and just belly fat – but I can say it will absolutely burn fat from everywhere off your body! Stick to it consistently and you should see some amazing results!
All my best,
Jared
Hi, in reference to spot training, what if belly fat is the only problem area? Will I have to sacrifice losing weight all over?
Hi Vee,
It is impossible to spot treat one area. I wouldn’t look at it as “sacrificing losing weight all over”; rather look at it as losing fat and gaining muscle mass. The lower percent body fat you have the better you will look and feel. You’ll get the “toned” look without losing much weight.
Thanks!
Jared
Hi just wondering how many calories this would burn?
Hi Iris,
Calories burned during activity actually depends on a lot of things: age, gender, weight, body type, activity intensity, etc. You can Google “calorie calculator” to give you a more accurate idea, but as a complete ball park figure you could expect to burn 200-300 calories if you hit it hard with this workout. Hope that helps!
Jared
Nice quick cardio workout when short of time or needing a simple pick me up workout.
My thoughts exactly, Sarah! Thanks so much fro sharing your thoughts!
JB
This workout took me 10 minutes and its just perfect before the shower. Thanks sharing this
Greetings from Germany
So glad you liked it, Ozge!
Jared