Getting heart-pumping exercise at home doesn’t have to irritate your joints. With a no jumping cardio workout, you can challenge your cardiovascular system without having to do a million squat jacks, endless high knees, or lateral bound after lateral bound.
But, um, why can jumping (or plyometric exercises in general) hurt your joints in the first place? Turns out, the problem isn’t so much about the actual jump as it is the landing. “As soon as you are hitting the ground, your body has to absorb the shock of that impact,” Francine Delgado-Lugo, CPT, cofounder of Form Fitness Brooklyn, tells SELF. And our joints—the bendy parts of our bodies where our bones meet—take the brunt of that. If you already have issues with your joints, you’re likely dealing with inflammation, injury, or general wear and tear in those areas to begin with, Delgado-Lugo explains. So when you add shock absorption on top of that, it can be too much stress for your joints to handle, triggering pain, potentially more wear and tear, or even injury to them, she says.
That’s where low-impact cardio comes in. When you hear that term, activities like cycling and walking likely come to mind, but gym work can also fit the bill—as long as you choose full-body exercises where at least one foot is on the ground at all times. That way, your joints don’t take a pounding, but your muscles and heart are still seriously challenged. This is the premise behind the below seven-move no-jumping cardio workout Delgado-Lugo created for SELF.
One reason this routine counts as cardio is that it’s chock-full of compound exercises, which work multiple muscle groups at once. Compared to isolation moves, like a triceps dip or hamstring curl, that work just one group at a time, compound exercises are a surefire way to tax your heart and lungs. In other words, hello cardio!
The formatting of this routine also adds to its cardio benefit: It’s a circuit-style workout, meaning you move from one exercise to the next with minimal rest. You perform each exercise for 40 seconds straight—which may not sound like much time, but can equate to upwards to 15 reps of each exercise, depending on your pace. By doing all that work with minimal downtime, you’re sure to see your beats per minute climb.
Beyond its heart-pumping benefits, this routine also requires minimal equipment. “We have these limited work-to-rest ratios, so the last thing you want to do is spend your time trying to remember which weight to use,” Delgado-Lugo explains. Instead, you need just one set of medium to heavy dumbbells (or kettlebells) for the whole thing. (Some moves are bodyweight-only). That makes it an easy choice for at-home exercise, or when you’re traveling and have limited equipment at your disposal. Another bonus: You can get this done in about 25 minutes, making it simple to slot into a busy day.
