Cardio circuit workout – 15 minute routine for weight loss and fitness

This 15 minute cardio circuit workout needs no equipment and can easily be done at home.  You don’t just burn calories in a cardio workout – it’s good for heart health too. Regular cardio exercise forces the heart to become bigger and stronger so that it is better at delivering oxygen to the working muscles.

What is circuit training?

Any workout in which a series of exercises are done for a set time is a circuit workout. Gym circuit classes have everyone do a set time on a machine, following which they move round to the next machine. Studio circuit classes have “stations” which are set up around the room. The stations may use a piece of equipment, or just be a body weight or cardio station. In a circuit workout there can be any number of complete circuits, depending on the time available.

If you’re doing a no-equipment circuit at home, obviously you don’t need to have stations around the room. You can just do one exercise for the set time, then change to the next one.

How to do this cardio circuit workout

Please read these exercise safety guidelines before doing this workout.

Although this is intended to be a short workout, it’s important to warm up your muscles and joints. Use this warm up routine.

You’ll need some sort of timer, so that you know when your 30 seconds is up. You can use a fitness watch, phone app or ordinary stopwatch. You’ll also need to be wearing trainers to absorb impact as this is a high impact workout.

Cardio circuit workout chart

There are 6 exercises in the circuit.

  • Complete 30 seconds of each exercise, with no rest between exercises if possible
  • March on the spot for 30 seconds to 1 minute until your heart rate recovers
  • Then repeat 2 more times
  • Once you’ve completed 3 circuits, do a gentle march on the spot until your heart rate returns to normal

Exercise instructions are below the chart.

Cardio circuit workout exercises and intervals

Jog

Knee lift

Lunge pulse

Jack

Knee lift & TAP behind

Jump

Once you have done all 3 circuits of these exercises, march on the spot to bring your heart rate back down.

Related to cardio circuit workout

2 week cardio challengeAbs workout circuit