An improved endurance can be great for the overall fitness of your body. And cardio exercises are one of the most effective ways to achieve a better level of endurance. And the good news is that you don’t need to hit the gym for performing these exercises, or even get expensive fitness equipment for that matter.

So let us walk you through 5 of the most effective cardio exercises that help you achieve an improved endurance. To note, you should have a proper pre-workout program to maximize your results, so spend some time working on that first.

1. Jumping Jacks

Jumping jacks are a fairly simple but somewhat challenging cardio exercise. However, it’s one of the most effective cardio exercises you can do without any equipment, as it not only helps you improve your endurance, but also burn about 100 calories every 10 minutes of exercise. Just make sure you put on a good pair of shoes when doing it, and aren’t suffering from any heart ailments. If you’re a heart patient, you will want to consult your physician before doing Jumping jacks, or any kind of cardio exercises for that matter.

You perform a jumping jack by jumping in the air while widening your feet, and moving your arms over your head in a circling motion as you perform each jack. Now, while they are certainly help you improve your endurance, you must know that they are a bit hard on your joints so you need to be prepared for it, and also start and stay small until you get perfectly comfortable with it.

2. Jumping Rope

There’s probably no one reading this that isn’t aware of jumping rope, but what they likely don’t know is that it’s a great cardio and help build endurance faster than they may think. It can burn up to 220 calories every 20 minutes, and doesn’t require any special skills. The jumping rope comes in pretty cheap as well. You simply need to turn the rope repeatedly while jumping over it. However, if you have never done it before, then it’s certainly going to be more difficult than it might sound.

You may also trip several times before finally being able to jump properly. A good way to reduce your struggle is to turn the rope using your wrists instead of your arms, and only jump high enough to get over the rope as well as try landing softly on the floor. If you want to take this exercise to the next level, there are several variations of this exercise available as well, including:

• Jumping on one foot
• Altering the foot as you jump
• Crossing your feet while jumping

3. Burpees

Burpees are another high intensity cardio exercise that are great for your overall endurance. You first have to stand straight with your hands straight up in the air, then get into a squat position while keeping your hips well above your knees, and then jumping while pushing your feet backward so you end up getting into a push-up position. Now, do a push-up, push your chest back up, jump back into the squat position, and then quickly jump again into a standing position while at the same time, also putting your hands straight up in the air.

While we don’t want to make you feel scared as you begin with it, but let us warn you: this exercise can be really hard, and you will need quite some practice before you’re doing it properly. That said, if you have the patience and are willing to put in the effort, the results may very well be worth it.

4. Walking Fast

Yes, even doing something as simple as walking can be a good cardio exercise and it can improve your endurance too. However, you would have to walk considerably faster than you usually do for it to work well. The thing is, an important requirement for any exercise to be able to improve your endurance is to have your heart rate be at least 60 percent of what your Maximum Heart Rate can be.

To find your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220, and the result would be your maximum heart rate. Generally speaking, you will have to walk at a speed of about 4 miles per hour to make sure your heart rate is at least 60 percent of your maximum heart rate.

5. Squat Jumps

Squat exercises turn out to be a great option for pretty much every type of fitness need, and improving your endurance is no exception. Squat jumps offer multiple benefits, including increasing your heart rate quickly, burning calories, building leg muscles and more. And this is all without any special skills or fitness equipment. Performing a squat jump is fairly simple as well, though it’s still a bit taxing on your body especially when you aim to do squat jumps for at least 10 minutes without any breaks (which is what you should aim for by the way).

To do a squat jump, you just need to get into a squat position and jump as high as you can, before quickly getting back into the squat position and repeating the jump again. As a precaution, let us mention that this exercise may not be suitable for those with heart issues or even weak joints for that matter, as it can be fairly demanding for them.

Finally, if you want to get more out of this exercise, you can also go for some of its advanced variations that include performing the squat jump with your hands behind your head and touching the ground with your hands when landing into the squat position before jumping back up.