10 Minute Cardio Workout

How To Get The Most Out Of 10 Minutes Of Exercise Time 

To make an effective 10 minute cardio workout, you have to warm up to the idea of making it intense.  There are a ton of things you can do to burn a lot of calories.  The goal is to finish up panting like a dog with your hands on your knees.

Speaking of warming up, these workout ideas are necessarily intense, so be sure to make some time to warm up and cool down before and after.  Even if time is tight, get the body ready for the work it is about to do. 

A quick warm up could consist of 30 jumping jacks, 15 squats, and 20 pushups.  After that, give yourself a 10-count and then jump into these workouts.

Stairs

• You can do a lot of different things with stairs.  Mix and match these ideas to get the most out of your 10 minutes.  Just don’t try to sprint back down the stairs, especially when you are tired.  You will end up falling and injuring yourself.  Use the railing if you need to and stay under control.
• Sprint up the stairs touching each stair, run down at a moderate pace.
• Sprint up the stairs skipping a step, run down at a moderate pace.
• Hop up the stairs, keep the feet together the whole time, run back down at a moderate pace.
• Hop up the stair skipping a step, run down at a moderate pace.
• Putting it together: Run up the stairs skipping a step 5 times, hop up the stairs skipping a step 5 times, run up the stairs touching every step 5 times, hop up the stairs touching every stair 5 times.
  

Hill

• If you are lucky enough to have a hill nearby, use it.  It can be all the equipment you need for a ton of great 10 minute cardio workout ideas.
• Sprint up the hill and jog back down.  Turn around and do it again.
• For some added work, sprint up the hill and bear crawl back down the hill.  That will keep your breathing and heart rate up, and also introduce some back and shoulder work.
• If you are more advanced, try this progression.  Sprint up the hill, do 1 burpee, jog back down the hill.  Sprint up the hill, do 2 burpees, jog back down the hill.  Continue the progression until you sprint up the hill the 10th time and do 10 burpees.
  

Running

• 4 X 400m on 2 ½ minutes: That means start your first 400 at 0 minutes, start your second at 2:30, start your third at 5 minutes, start your fourth at 7:30.  In other words, each 2:30 interval will contain your running time and resting time.  If you run the 400 in 1:30, you have a minute to rest before starting the next one.  If the run takes you 2:15, you only have 15 seconds left to rest.
• A note on the 400 meters.  You don’t need a track.  I have a stretch of sidewalk near work that I measured out about a quarter mile.  It works just fine.  Is it exactly 400 meters?  No, but I bet it’s within plus/minus 5%.
• For a continuous run, make your pace faster than you would normally run.  If you have an incline available, even better.  Remember, this is a 10 minute cardio workout.  You are not leaving anything in the tank for later.

Sprints - You want to drop the fat off your butt?  Sprint.

• 50 or 100 yard sprints will get your heart rate going.  Keep in mind, this is an all-out sprint. 
• Do 10 X 100 yard sprints on 1 minute or 20 X 50 yard sprints on 30 seconds.
  

Bodyweight Exercises

• Put together combinations of exercises for a high energy 10 minute cardio workout.  Alternate muscle groups as much as possible to get the most cardio benefit without reaching failure in one muscle group. 
• For example: 15 jump squats, 15 mountain climbers, 10 burpees, 30 jumping jacks, 15 step ups
  

Bodyweight/Sprint Combo

• 10 burpees then 50 yard sprint.  If a burpee takes about 5 seconds and a 50 yard sprint (after burpees) takes about 10 to 15 seconds, you should be able to do one series in a little more than a minute.  Shoot for 10 in 10 minutes and let me know how it goes. 
• Also, mix in other things like broad jump for 30 or 50 yards, sprint back.  Then run backwards 50 yards and sprint back.  Then walking lunge that 50 yards and sprint back.  And throw in a bear crawl with a sprint back.
  

There are a lot of ways you can make an effective 10 minute cardio workout.  There's no reason to get bored or in a rut.