Cardio circuit fitness program for weight loss and heart health

Get your heart rate up and burn calories with this cardio circuit workout. It’s a 4 week program, with the circuit intervals and the number of circuits increasing over the 4 weeks.

Safety notes

The workout has high impact exercises, so you should have suitable shoes that will cushion impact. It may not be suitable if you have joint issues or if you are very overweight. In this case, please see the suggested low impact cardio workouts at the end of the post.

Before you start, please read these exercise safety guidelines.

You need to do a warm up before doing the circuit. You can see a suitable warm up routine here and read more about warm ups here.

Cardio circuit exercises

#1 mountain climbers

Get into an all-4s position on the floor. Make sure your hands are directly below your shoulders.
Take your legs out behind, keeping your back slightly curved.
Now bring one knee at a time in towards your arms.

#2 jogging on the spot

Keep your shoulders back and abdominal muscles engaged.
Focus on jogging in a controlled way, don’t land heavily on your feet.

#3 tap behind and knee lift

To start, take your right leg out behind.
Raise your arms above your head.
Push your toes off the floor, bringing your knee forwards and up. At the same time, pull your arms down towards your knees.
Now go back to the starting position and repeat. Continue for half the interval time, then change to the left.

#4 squat jumps

Start in a squat position, with your arms down by your sides.
Swing your arms up over your head as you push your toes off the ground and jump up.
Come back down onto the floor in the starting position and repeat.

#5 side leaps

Start by standing with your feet close together.
Raise your right knee, then jump sideways to the right, leading with your right leg.
Follow through with your left leg, bringing your left foot close to your right.
Now lift your left knee and repeat to the left.

#6 jacks

Stand with your feet together and arms by your side. Jump your legs wide as you take your arms over your head.
Lower your arms as you jump your feet back together.
It’s important that you don’t let your knees rotate inwards as you land. To help avoid this, turn your toes outwards slightly as you land.

4 week plan

This is the interval time and number of circuits plan for the 4 weeks. (For anyone new to circuit training: in circuit workouts you do each exercise for the given time interval, then start again and repeat for the given number of circuits.)