The 10 best cardio exercises are walking, running, cycling, swimming, rowing, jump rope, stair climbing, HIIT circuits, elliptical training, and shadow boxing. Each raises your heart rate, burns calories, and builds cardiorespiratory fitness.
Aim for 150 minutes per week at a pace where you can talk but not sing. Or 75 minutes at harder effort where speaking gets difficult. That’s the baseline for real cardiovascular benefit.
Pick two or three that suit your joints, your schedule, and what you actually enjoy. Rotating them cuts overuse injury and keeps you coming back. Add strength training twice a week and your blood pressure, VO2max, and body composition improve more than cardio alone.
What Makes Something a Cardio Exercise?
Cardio means your heart rate stays elevated for 20 to 30 minutes at 50 to 85 percent of your max heart rate. That sustained effort forces your heart and lungs to adapt. Over time, your heart pumps more blood per beat, your muscles use oxygen more efficiently, and your resting heart rate drops.
The technical term is cardiorespiratory fitness, measured as VO2max. In one 8-week trial, adults doing combined aerobic and resistance training three days a week saw VO2max climb by 4.9 ml/kg/min alongside meaningful drops in blood pressure. That’s a real, measurable shift in how well your body handles physical stress.
Not every workout qualifies. Lifting weights, stretching, and casual strolling don’t consistently keep heart rate in the aerobic zone long enough to drive these adaptations. The exercises below do.
What Are the Top 10 Cardio Exercises?
1. Walking
Walking is the most accessible cardio exercise on earth. No equipment. No skill barrier. Works at any age. When I work with clients who’ve been sedentary for years, walking is always the starting point.
One of my clients, a 58-year-old office worker with high blood pressure, started with 20-minute walks three times a week. Within six weeks her resting heart rate dropped from 84 to 74 beats per minute.
To make it count, walk briskly enough that conversation is possible but comfortable singing isn’t. That puts you in the moderate-intensity zone. Aim for 30 minutes most days.
2. Running
Running covers more distance per minute than walking, which means higher caloric burn and greater cardiovascular stimulus in less time. The trade-off is impact. Running loads your joints at roughly two to three times your body weight per stride.
Start with run-walk intervals. Run for 60 seconds, walk for 90. Repeat. Build from there. New runners who skip this phase end up with shin splints inside the first month.
3. Cycling (Outdoor or Stationary)
Cycling is non-weight-bearing, which means your knees and ankles carry far less load than running. That makes it reliable for people with joint issues, those recovering from lower limb injuries, or anyone who finds running uncomfortable. The cardiovascular demand equals running at the same perceived effort.
Stationary bikes also remove traffic and weather as barriers. If consistency is your problem, a stationary bike at home removes a lot of excuses. When I switched one of my regular runners to cycling during a knee flare-up, her fitness held and her knee settled within three weeks.
4. Swimming
Swimming is full-body, zero-impact cardio. The water supports your body weight entirely, which makes it ideal for people with arthritis, osteoporosis, or significant weight to lose. The resistance of water also means your muscles work harder than they do walking at the same heart rate, giving you a strength component alongside the cardio benefit.
The barrier here is access. You need a pool. If you have one nearby, it’s worth prioritising. I remember one client in her mid-60s with chronic back pain who told me swimming was the only exercise that left her feeling better rather than worse. She swam three mornings a week and her cholesterol improved within four months.
5. Rowing (Machine or Water)
Rowing works about 86 percent of your major muscle groups in a single, fluid movement. It’s also seated, which takes compressive load off the spine compared to running. The catch is that technique matters. Poor rowing form leads to lower back strain.
Spend ten minutes learning the correct stroke sequence before you push the intensity. On a Concept2 rower, a moderate 20-minute session at a consistent pace produces a strong cardiovascular stimulus. Many gyms have them sitting unused because people underestimate how effective they are.
6. Jump Rope
Jump rope delivers one of the highest caloric burns per minute of any cardio exercise. It also improves coordination, timing, and ankle stability. The downside is the same as running: impact. Start with short bouts of 30 to 60 seconds and build gradually.
What most people miss is that even basic jumping at a slow, consistent pace keeps heart rate well into the moderate zone. You don’t need to do double-unders to benefit. My clients who picked up a rope for the first time were breathing harder than they had on a 30-minute walk within 10 minutes.
7. Stair Climbing
Stair climbing uses your glutes, quads, and calves under load, which makes it feel harder than flat walking at the same speed. That extra muscular demand translates to higher caloric burn and a stronger cardiovascular response. Use the stairs at work, a stadium, or a dedicated stair machine at the gym.
It’s also a form of incidental exercise that accumulates through the day. Taking stairs instead of elevators is a small habit with a real long-term impact on cardiovascular health, particularly for people who sit most of the day.
8. HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training)
HIIT means alternating short bursts of maximal or near-maximal effort with recovery periods. A basic format: 30 to 60 seconds all-out, then 90 to 120 seconds easy. Repeat 6 to 10 times. Total session under 30 minutes.
The evidence for HIIT is strong. A network meta-analysis of aerobic exercise protocols found HIIT ranked highest for improving VO2peak, outperforming moderate-intensity continuous training across multiple populations. For people short on time, HIIT is the most efficient route to cardiorespiratory adaptation.
The catch: HIIT is hard. It’s not appropriate as a starting point for deconditioned individuals or those with cardiovascular risk factors without medical clearance. Build a base of steady cardio first.
9. Elliptical Training
The elliptical mimics the motion of running without the impact. It’s one of the most joint-friendly pieces of gym equipment available. Heart rate response is similar to running at the same perceived exertion, and resistance settings allow progressive overload over time.
Where people go wrong is leaning heavily on the handlebars, which offloads effort from the legs and reduces cardiovascular demand. Stand tall, lightly grip the handles, and let your legs do the work.
10. Shadow Boxing or Cardio Kickboxing
Shadow boxing keeps heart rate elevated through continuous movement: punches, footwork, defensive slips, and combinations. It also requires coordination and focus, which makes the time pass faster than steady-state machine work for many people.
When I ran group cardio sessions, shadow boxing consistently produced the highest average heart rates and the most positive feedback on enjoyment. Enjoyment matters. Exercise you keep doing beats exercise you quit.
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What Exercises Reduce Fatty Liver?
Aerobic exercise is the most evidence-supported approach to reducing liver fat. Moderate-intensity cardio performed consistently reduces visceral fat, improves insulin sensitivity, and directly targets liver triglyceride accumulation.
In metabolic syndrome populations, aerobic training improved fasting glucose by 0.15 mmol/L, triglycerides by 0.29 mmol/L, and waist circumference by 3.4 cm. Those are all markers tied to fatty liver progression.
Brisk walking, cycling, and swimming are the most practical options. Aim for at least 150 minutes per week. The fat reduction mechanism works through both caloric expenditure and improved metabolic signalling, so consistency over months matters more than any single intense session.
What Cardio Machines Are Best for Lowering Cholesterol?
Any cardio machine you’ll actually use consistently is the best one for lowering cholesterol. That said, the evidence points to aerobic exercise broadly raising HDL (good) cholesterol and reducing triglycerides.
Machines that allow sustained moderate-intensity effort, such as the treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical, and rowing machine, all produce this effect when used regularly. The rowing machine deserves a mention because it engages upper and lower body simultaneously, producing higher total energy expenditure per session than lower-body-only machines. Higher energy expenditure correlates with stronger lipid improvements over time.
If you have high cholesterol and joint problems, the stationary bike or elliptical removes the impact barrier and still delivers the aerobic stimulus needed to shift lipid profiles. Combine this with dietary changes and, where appropriate, medical management.
How Active Should a 70-Year-Old Be?
The same guidelines apply across adult life: 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity. Age doesn’t reduce that target. What changes is the approach to reaching it.
Low-impact options, walking, swimming, cycling, and the elliptical, become more important as joint wear accumulates. Balance and coordination work also matter more in older adults because fall risk increases with age. Shadow boxing, slow cycling, and water-based exercise all address this while maintaining cardiovascular fitness.
Strength training matters too. Muscle mass declines with age, and loss of muscle accelerates metabolic decline, increases fall risk, and reduces functional independence. Two sessions per week of resistance training, alongside cardio, produces significantly better outcomes than cardio alone in older adults.
One of my clients, a 72-year-old retired teacher, came to me convinced she was too old for anything beyond gentle stretching. We started with three 20-minute walks per week and one light resistance circuit. Within three months she was walking 40 minutes at a brisk pace and had dropped her systolic blood pressure by 11 points without changing her medication. Age isn’t the barrier most people think it is.
What Most Cardio Articles Get Wrong
Steady-state cardio is not the gold standard. Most listicles present moderate, continuous cardio as the benchmark and treat HIIT as an advanced add-on. The research suggests the opposite. HIIT produces greater improvements in VO2max and aerobic capacity in less time. Steady cardio is easier to recover from and better for beginners, but it isn’t more effective.
Cardio without strength training leaves results on the table. Aerobic-only training improves waist circumference and triglycerides but doesn’t build muscle or improve strength the way combined training does. People who do only cardio and wonder why their body composition doesn’t change are missing the resistance component. Adding two strength sessions a week to your cardio routine produces noticeably better results than doubling your cardio instead.
Enjoyment is a clinical variable. Epidemiological data consistently show that women, older adults, and people from lower-income backgrounds exercise less. The gap isn’t about knowledge of what to do. It’s about perceived barriers and enjoyment.
Choosing exercises you genuinely find tolerable or satisfying predicts adherence better than choosing the theoretically optimal protocol. A 12-minute run you hate three times a week is less effective than a 30-minute bike ride you look forward to, because one gets skipped and one doesn’t.
FAQ
How long does it take to see results from cardio?
Most people notice improved energy and easier breathing within two to four weeks. Measurable changes in resting heart rate and blood pressure typically appear within six to eight weeks of consistent training. Body composition changes take longer and depend heavily on nutrition alongside exercise.
Is 20 minutes of cardio enough?
Yes, if the intensity is right. Twenty minutes of vigorous-intensity cardio, where speaking full sentences is difficult, counts toward your weekly 75-minute vigorous goal. Twenty minutes of moderate effort is a solid session too, particularly if you’re stacking multiple sessions across the week.
Can I do cardio every day?
Low-impact cardio like walking can be done daily without recovery issues. Higher-impact or high-intensity work needs rest days between sessions. Running and HIIT on consecutive days without recovery leads to cumulative fatigue and injury over time. Three to five cardio sessions per week with varied intensity is a sustainable structure for most people.
What is the best cardio for weight loss?
The one you do consistently. If you want a direct answer: HIIT burns more calories per minute and produces greater metabolic changes in less time than steady-state cardio. But a daily 45-minute walk beats a twice-weekly HIIT session you dread and frequently skip. Total weekly energy expenditure matters more than the mode.
Do I need equipment for cardio?
No. Walking, running, shadow boxing, jump rope, stair climbing, and bodyweight HIIT circuits require little to no equipment. The most consistent exercisers tend to have low-friction routines, meaning exercise that requires minimal setup is more likely to happen.
Your Action Points
Pick two exercises from this list that you can do this week without buying equipment or joining a gym. Start there.
- Set a weekly target of 150 minutes of moderate cardio, broken into whatever session lengths fit your schedule. Three 50-minute sessions, five 30-minute sessions, or ten 15-minute sessions all count.
- Add one HIIT session per week once you have two to three weeks of steady cardio behind you. Use a simple structure: 30 seconds hard, 90 seconds easy, eight rounds. Done in 16 minutes.
- Add two resistance training sessions per week alongside your cardio. You don’t need a gym. Bodyweight squats, push-ups, and lunges are enough to start. The combined effect on blood pressure, fitness, and body composition is meaningfully better than cardio alone.
If you want structured guidance on building this into a programme that fits your current fitness level, working with a personal trainer in South Melbourne is the fastest way to get there without wasting months on a plan that isn’t right for your body.
Sources
- Schroeder EC, Franke WD, Sharp RL, Lee DC (2019) “Comparative effectiveness of aerobic, resistance, and combined training on cardiovascular disease risk factors: A randomized controlled trial” PloS one. PMID: 30615666
- Wewege MA, Thom JM, Rye KA, Parmenter BJ (2018) “Aerobic, resistance or combined training: A systematic review and meta-analysis of exercise to reduce cardiovascular risk in adults with metabolic syndrome” Atherosclerosis. PMID: 29783064
- Garber CE, Blissmer B, Deschenes MR, Franklin BA, Lamonte MJ, Lee IM, et al. (2011) “American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults: guidance for prescribing exercise” Medicine and science in sports and exercise. PMID: 21694556
- Lavie CJ, Arena R, Swift DL, Johannsen NM, Sui X, Lee DC, et al. (2015) “Exercise and the cardiovascular system: clinical science and cardiovascular outcomes” Circulation research. PMID: 26139859
- Yang Z, Scott CA, Mao C, Tang J, Farmer AJ (2014) “Resistance exercise versus aerobic exercise for type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis” Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.). PMID: 24297743
- Tucker WJ, Fegers-Wustrow I, Halle M, Haykowsky MJ, Chung EH, Kovacic JC (2022) “Exercise for Primary and Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: JACC Focus Seminar 1/4” Journal of the American College of Cardiology. PMID: 36075680
- Mi MY, Perry AS, Krishnan V, Nayor M (2025) “Epidemiology and Cardiovascular Benefits of Physical Activity and Exercise” Circulation research. PMID: 40608856
- Moncion K, Rodrigues L, Wiley E, Noguchi KS, Negm A, Richardson J, et al. (2024) “Aerobic exercise interventions for promoting cardiovascular health and mobility after stroke: a systematic review with Bayesian network meta-analysis” British journal of sports medicine. PMID: 38413134
