When most people think about cardio they thing about using a big machine like a treadmill or an elliptical or going outdoors to run for an hour. However, there’s another way to do cardio which takes a lot less than traditional workouts and requires no equipment and no gym membership: bodyweight cardio.

Bodyweight cardio workouts are made of exercises that use your body alone as its creator of resistance. By creating a circuit of these exercises, reducing the rest between them and doing them fast, you’re able to get a cardiovascular stimulation and a strength workout at the same time.

This has several benefits:

1. It is a lot shorter than traditional cardio workouts that most people do.
2. Bodyweight cardio requires no equipment and can be done anywhere that you have some space: your home, park, hotel room, etc.
3. These workouts can be very effective, help you build muscle tissue and burn a lot of calories and fat.
4. Unlike traditional cardio, these workouts can be much more interesting and exciting than long duration workouts.

What are some of these bodyweight cardio exercises that you can do? Here are some examples:

1. Lunge walks – This is a hard exercise which is perfect for you if you want to build strong legs. You need to pick a destination and walk to it but each step needs to be in lunge form. This will get you sweating in a hurry.

2. Knee high running in place – A simple exercise that involves running where you stand. The higher you can get your knees to go the better it would be as it’s more intensive. Try it.

3. Squat jumps – This is a simple workout but it can really make your thighs scream… in a good way. Go into a squat and as you risk from it, jump high into the air. If you’ve got enough energy, try bringing your knees to your chest as you jump.

4. The 1-2 jump – This is a great bodyweight cardio exercise. Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart. Jump forward as far as you can and land on your feet. Allow yourself to sink a bit into a squat to absorb the shock of the landing. Jump backward in two jumps to your starting position. Repeat.

These are just a sample of bodyweight exercises that you can do. Remember to keep your rests between sets short to keep your heart rate up and burn more calories.