10 Minute Cardio Warmup
Today we’re going to look at a quick, 10 minute cardio warmup you can do before any of your workouts. Our warmup below is a great way to get your blood pumping and that heart rate up. We’ve designed it to work without weights and with minimal space. If you’re looking for a great way to get ready for each workout, and hopefully prevent injury, then read on.
Why Do a Cardio Warmup?
Getting a quick warmup before your workout has a lot of benefits for your body. Most importantly, it helps you get warm and loose. A quick warmup gets your blood flowing and keeps your body loose. This helps prevent injuries during your workout.
Getting a quick warmup also has a psychological effect and often helps people “get in the mood” for their workout. Getting the blood pumping helps wake you up, and can help get over any tiredness so you can be focused for your workout.
The Cardio Warmup
Our warmup is meant to be a quick and easy way to get your heart rate up. It should take you roughly 5-10 minutes max, and should get your heart rate up a bit without being too strenuous. Below are the exercises, perform each one for roughly 30-45 seconds with a quick 10 second break between moves. Once you’ve completed them all give yourself a minute to rest then repeat them all.
Jog In Place
Start with a simple jog in place (but feel free to move around if space allows). This starts to get your blood flowing and your heart rate up. Keep it at a steady pace, and keep an intensity that’s easy enough to maintain while still getting your heart rate up.
Jumping Jacks
Another great cardio exercise, jumping jacks add a bit more movement over just running in place. As above, keep your pace steady and at the point where it’s easy but still effective.
Lunges
Next we move into lunges. You can do these in place, or move forward if you have the space. Make sure to alternate legs to keep your body in balance. For an added challenge you can turn these into jumping squats by lightly springing up on the upward movement of the lunge.
Mountain Climbers
Now we drop down to the floor and start mountain climbers. These are great for cardio, but should also be hitting your core. Once again, do these at a steady pace that makes you sweat but doesn’t over exert you.
Planks
Finally, we end with the planks. Keep your core tight and try to hold it for at least 30 seconds before going into your rest phase. For an added challenge don’t rest after the mountain climbers and go straight into planks. The back-to-back ab exercises should have you feeling it by the end of the second set.
End With Some Stretches
Lastly, end with some general stretches to make sure your muscles are adequately warm. I tend to try and focus on stretching out my target muscles for the workout. If I’m doing legs for example I might do some toe-touches and calf stretches.
Spend a few minutes after some light cardio but before your workout doing some stretches. You can also stretch again after your workout. This has some added benefits and helps prevent injuries over the long terms.
Cardio Warmups
That’s our easy, 10 minute cardio warmup. All the moves are simple, but effective at getting your heart rate up and blood flowing.
As noted, this shouldn’t be a super strenuous warmup as it’s only meant to get you warm. If you’re finding it difficult drop the pace a bit. A light jog for example is perfectly acceptable, you don’t have to treat it like a sprint and realistically shouldn’t. It is just a warmup after all, so don’t feel like you have to go crazy on it!
We want to know what you thought about our warmup. Did you love it? Did you hate it? Did we miss your favorite exercise? Let us know, we always want to get feedback to help better tailor our content.
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