​ ​
nourish move love main logo
searching icon

35-Minute Low Impact Cardio At Home (No Equipment + No Repeats)

By: Lindsey Bomgren, CPT | January 26, 2024

Raise your heart rate and burn calories with minimal stress or impact on your joints! There are over 20 cardio exercises you can do at home in this low impact cardio workout. No equipment, no jumping and no repeats — a great cardio workout for bad knees and weight loss.

Jump to Workout

Raise your heart rate at home with this no equipment low impact cardio workout.

If you’ve done one of my low impact workouts before, you know: low impact does NOT mean low intensity. This is high intensity interval training done in a low impact way.

A great cardio workout for beginners, bad knees and weight loss.

This no equipment cardio workout consists of 22 cardio exercises for beginners. This no repeats format will keep you engaged throughout the entire 35-minute home workout.

two women performing air squats in a low impact cardio workout for beginners

Low Impact Cardio At Home FAQs

What Is The Best Low Impact Cardio?

Low impact cardio is a form of exercise that raises your heart rate while minimizing impact on your joints. Some examples include walking, cycling, yoga, ellipticals, swimming, water aerobics and low impact exercises (like the 20 cardio exercises you’ll find in this workout).

What Are The Benefits Of Low Impact Cardio?

Low impact cardio workouts improve heart health, reduce risk of heart disease, burn calories, build muscle and release stress all while being gentle on your knees, hips and ankles. Low impact workouts are great for all seasons of life.

Can You Lose Weight Doing Low Impact Cardio?

Low impact exercise is still a very effective way to lose body fat. Your calorie burn will vary based on your personal intensity level and energy output.

two women performing low impact cardio exercises for weight loss

35-Minute Low Impact Cardio At Home

Sweat anytime, anywhere with this fun and effective no repeats, low impact cardio workout!

Do these low impact cardio exercises at home or in a gym. There’s no equipment needed for this bodyweight cardio workout.

And it’s all timed intervals, which means you move at your pace.

This is a great low impact cardio workout to burn calories and increase endurance, bone density, and cardiovascular fitness.

Workout Equipment:

No equipment, bodyweight only.

Shop My Extra-Large Yoga Mat

I get so many questions about this mat! I have the EXTRA LARGE Mat (8′ x 4′ x 1/4″).

DISCOUNT CODE: NourishMoveLove
Click Here To Shop
Woman performing high knees in a Low Impact Cardio Workout for Beginners

Workout Instructions:

Follow along with the guided Low Impact Cardio Workout on YouTube, led by certified personal trainer Lindsey Bomgren. 

Your Workout Looks Like This:

  • 6 Circuits (30 second break between circuits)
  • Timed Intervals (45 seconds per cardio exercise, followed by 15 seconds of rest)
  • No Repeats (you only do each exercise one time)
Add This Indoor Cardio Workout to Your Winter Workout Routine!

Workout Outline

CIRCUIT ONE:

  1. High Knee Skips
  2. Swing Air Squats
  3. Lateral Lunge and 2 High Knees, R
  4. Lateral Lunge and 2 High Knees, L

CIRCUIT TWO:

  1. Launcher Plank and Shoulder Taps
  2. Plank Lunge Up to Front Kick, R
  3. Kneeling Plyo Push Ups
  4. Plank Lunge Up to Front Kick, L

CIRCUIT THREE:

  1. Lateral Heisman Runner
  2. Runner Squats
  3. Lateral Shuffle and Chop
  4. Squat and Ski Runner

CIRCUIT FOUR:

  1. Jab, Cross, 4 Speedbags, R
  2. Alternating Step Back Lunge and Knee Drive
  3. Jab, Cross, 4 Speedbags, L
  4. Squat and Inner Heel Tap

CIRCUIT FIVE:

  1. Walking Burpees
  2. 8 Mountain Climbers and 8 High Knees
  3. Tricep Dip and Reverse Plank Knee Pull
  4. 45-Degree Jumping Jacks

CIRCUIT SIX:

  1. Squat Jack and Jumping Jack
  2. Lateral Shuffle
two women performing squat tap downs (low impact cardio workout)

Prefer to Watch On YouTube?

youtube icon Low Impact Cardio

7 Low Impact Cardio Exercises At Home

High Knee Skips

Targets: Legs and lower body muscles — glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves and hip flexors. The arms, shoulders and core are also engaged.

High knees are a great cardiovascular warm up exercise.

two women performing high knees to warm up for a low impact cardio workout at home

How To Do High Knee Skips

  1. Start standing in an athletic position, feet under hips, both hands raised in the air above your head.
  2. Perform a high knee “skip” as you drive your right knee up, aiming to get your right thigh parallel to your right hip (90 degree bend in right knee).
  3. As you drive your right knee up, bring your left hand down to tap your right knee.
  4. Return your right foot to the ground and repeat on the opposite side; driving your left knee up and tapping it with your right hand.

Swing Air Squats

Targets: Legs, thighs, hamstrings, quadriceps, glutes, calves and core.

Adding an arm swing increases the cardio endurance; the bigger the arm swing the higher your heart rate will climb.

two women performing swing squats or air squats with arms reaching overhead

How To Do Swing Squats

  1. Start in an athletic position, feet just outside of hips, toes pointing forward or slightly out, slight bend in your knees.
  2. Sit your hips back, lowering down into a squat, sweeping your arms back behind your hips as you sit back.
  3. Then, explosively drive through your legs to stand up as you swing your arms overhead.
  4. As you stand, you have the option to add a calf raise; lifting your heels off the ground as you fully extend your hips and arms.

Lateral Lunge and Two High Knees

Targets: Legs, glutes, quads, hamstrings, hip abductors, hip flexors, calves and core.

two women performing a side lunge or lateral lunge with two high knees

How To Do A Lateral Lunge and Two High Knees

  1. Start standing, feet under hips, core engaged.
  2. Take a large step out towards your right, keeping your left foot in place. Sit your hips back. Think of performing a single leg squat on your right leg (left leg remains straight).
  3. Then, drive off your right foot to return to the starting position, with your right knee in line with your right hip.
  4. Perform two high knees, driving first your left, then your right knee up towards your chest.

Lateral Shuffle and Chop

Targets: Calves, glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors, shoulders, arms, back and core.

This side-to-side movement increases coordination and agility while raising your heart rate.

two women performing a lateral shuffle and chop; low impact cardio workout at home

How To Do A Lateral Shuffle and Chop

  1. Start in an athletic stance, feet hip-width apart and knees bent. Clasp your hands together.
  2. Perform two large shuffles to the right side of your mat. On the final shuffle, rotate your torso as you “chop” your hands crossbody. Think about the driving power coming from your hips and core.
  3. Note, toes follow hips and hands to the right.
  4. Then, perform two large shuffles to your left. On the final shuffle, rotate your torso, turning to face the left as you chop your hands crossbody.

Modification: If core rotation does not feel good for you, perform a “push” with your palm instead of a chop.

Jab, Cross and Four Speedbags

Targets: Arms, shoulders, back, biceps, triceps, calves and core.

two women performing jab, cross and speedbag boxing combos for a cardio workout at home

How To Do A Jab, Cross and Four Speedbags

  1. Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent, core engaged. Open your hips to the left so your left foot is forward and right leg is back. Bring your hands or knuckles up to “defend” your face in a guard position.
  2. With your left arm, “jab” forward towards the front of the room. Pull your left arm back to your defensive position.
  3. Then, perform a “cross” punch with your right arm, using the power in your hips to drive your right arm across your body towards the front of the room. Pull your right arm back into defensive position.
  4. Then imagine you’re hitting a “speedbag” with arms overhead for a four-count. Make small circular motions with your fists as you “hit” your imaginary boxing bag.

45-Degree Jacks

Targets: Outer glutes, hips, calves, shoulders, obliques and core.

two women performing modified, low impact cardio jumping jacks

How To Do 45-Degree Jacks

  1. Start standing, feet under hips and core engaged, arms at your side.
  2. Step your left foot up and out towards the left front corner of your space (45 degrees). As you step forward, “jack” your arms overhead. The bigger the arms, the higher the heart rate.
  3. Pull your leg back to center as you return your arms to your sides.
  4. Then, step your right foot up and out towards the right front corner of your space (45 degrees), jacking your arms overhead.

Lateral Shuffles

Targets: Calves, glutes, quads, hamstrings, hip abductors and core.

two women performing lateral shuffles as a bodyweight cardio exercise

How To Do Lateral Shuffles

  1. Start in an athletic stance, feet hip-width apart and knees bent.
  2. Perform two large shuffles to the right side of your mat. On the final shuffle, bend your knees, bringing your left hand down to tap the mat.
  3. Then, perform two large shuffles to your left. On the final shuffle, tap down towards the mat with your right hand.

More Workouts

Low Impact Workouts

Pin this Low Impact Cardio At Home, No Equipment

No Repeats Low Impact Cardio At Home pin for pinterest | Women performing bodyweight cardio exercise high knees

This post includes affiliate links. I do earn a commission for products purchased using these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Nourish Move Love, making the content you see on this blog possible.

8 comments

  1. Thank you so much for such a good and effective body weight workout! I’m 7 weeks postpartum after my second and experienced horrible sciatic pain my entire third trimester. It feels so good to be able to sweat again and move my body! I so appreciate the modifications and the way you structure your workouts to make me learn to love my new postpartum body and appreciate it for what it is today and what it can become! So grateful for you!

    • Hi Hope! I’m so glad you enjoyed this workout mama — you’re amazing for tackling it at 7 weeks PP — WAY TO GO! I hope you and your new little are doing well! Keep up the great work mama! -Lindsey

  2. This workout was amazing! I discovered your workouts maybe 6 or so months ago ~ I was talking about working out with my son and my favorites are barre and kickboxing (yes, Rachel!) and he wondered if there was a blend of them that I could do. I googled it and wound up at your site and have loved every single workout so far and that they’re free is just icing on the cake! Thank you, thank you! You and Rachel are like my a.m. workout buddies. I have some issues with my knees from time to time and your workouts make it easy to adjust so there’s not too much strain on them. I’m feeling my pants fitting differently and even my hubby noticed that I’ve lost a couple of pounds 🙂

    • Hi Stacey! I’m so glad you found your way here and loved this workout! I love that we are your morning workout buddies. Keep up the great work and keep coming back for more! -Lindsey

  3. This was so fun! I love to have just a straight cardio workout for days when I’m too sore or just want some high energy movement! Went I’m saving this one to do over and over again! Thanks! I love all your workouts!

  4. I loved this one! I’ve been following your workouts for about a year and LOVE them! I just tweaked my knee and am working on strengthening the supporting muscles again so this one was an answered prayer for sure! Thanks so much for having options for every stage of life!

More from Low Impact Workouts