If you want to enhance endurance and improve cardiovascular fitness, you can do anaerobic exercises at home. In this article, I’ve shared five examples of anaerobic exercises you can do at home.
Anaerobic exercises are short-term and intense burst movements that allow your body to use carbs and fats for energy. They are great for improving endurance and agility and have a positive impact on overall health.
Anaerobic workouts are done with full intensity, speediness, and without focusing on breathing. HIIT, sprinting, and weight lifting are some of the important examples of anaerobic exercises.
Top 5 Anaerobic Exercise Examples to do at Home
If you want to develop your endurance, burn significant calories in a short time, boost metabolism, and accelerates weight loss, then you can do anaerobic exercises at home.
Tabata, Crossfit, Plyometric Jumps, HIIT and Weight Training are five best forms of high-intensity training you can integrate into your anaerobic home workout routine.
These workouts require little to no equipment and can be done in the corner of the house.
1. Tabata
When it comes to performing anaerobic exercises at home, Tabata is the best example. Tabata is one the high-intensity training programs that involves short, intense bursts of activity followed brief intervals (recovery period).
It requires you to perform exercises at quick pace, typically at 85 to 95 percent of your maximum heart rate.
The one set of Tabata last for four minutes and include total 8 rounds. In each round, you’ll workout for 20 seconds at maximum effort followed by 10 seconds of rest.
Here’s a example of 10-min Tabata workout:
Perform two sets with 2 minutes of rest in between.
- Jumping Jacks – 20-sec work, 10-sec rest
- High Knees – 20-sec work, 10-sec rest
- Pushups – 20-sec work, 10-sec rest
- Squats – 20-sec work, 10-sec rest
- Mountain Climber – 20-sec work, 10-sec rest
- Flutter Kicks – 20-sec work, 10-sec rest
- Shoulder Tap – 20-sec work, 10-sec rest
- Crunches – 20-sec work, 10-sec rest
Tabata is an excellent way to improve aerobic and anaerobic fitness but also requires decent stamina and healthy heart. That is why if you’re a beginner or have any cardiovascular health issue, it is best to avoid it.
Related: Free 30-Day Tabata Challenge
2. Crossfit
Crossfit is an intense form of training that helps strengthen and tone muscles.
You can do various Crossfit WODs at home to torch decent calories in a short time, improve cardiovascular health, and help you get in shape.1 CrossFit – Development, Benefits and Risks – PMC Pubmed Central
Exercises in Crossfit training are done into multiple circuits, generally called As many rounds as possible (AMRAP), Every minute on the minute (EMOM), and increasing and decreasing ladder.
Let’s have a look at some examples of Crossfit WODs:
Example 1- AMRAP in 15-minutes
- 20 Air Squats
- 20 Pushups
- 15 Situps
- 15 Burpees
- 10 Shoulder Taps/side
- 15 KB Swings
- 15 Dumbbell Thrusters
Example 2 – EMOM for 15 minutes
Perform each exercise for one minute (including rest time) before moving to another.
- Air Squats
- Pushups
- Situps
- Burpees
- Mountain Climber
- Shoulder Taps
3. Plyometric Training
Plyometric is another training program you can include in an anaerobic workout.
A study has shown upper and lower body plyometric training optimize performance as well as reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and promotes good healthy lifestyle.2 EFFECTS OF LOWER AND UPPER BODY PLYOMETRIC TRAINING ON CARDIOVASCULAR VARIABLES OF ATHLETES – ResearchGate
Plyometric Training include primarily jumping exercises, such as vertical jump, squat jump, kneeling jump, and tuck jump.
Here’s an example of 20-min plyometric training:
- Rest between exercises: 30-45 seconds
- Rest between circuits: 2-min
| Circuit 1 | Circuit 2 | Circuit 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Ankle Hops | Split Jump | Tuck Knee Jump |
| Double Leg Butt Kick | Shoulder Tap Push-up | Plyo Lateral Lunge |
| Plyo Pushups | Broad Jump | Kneeling Squat Jump |
| Single-leg Vertical Jumps | Single-leg Deadlift Jump | Squat Jump |
| Barrier Jump | Pike Jumps | V ups |
4. High-intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
HIIT is another great example of an aerobic and anaerobic workout that you can do at home. It’s a famous workout program among fitness community.
It requires you to perform exercises in intervals same as a Tabata which I shared above. However, activity and interval time can be more. There’s no specific 20-10 pattern in HIIT.
For example, you can perform a certain exercise for 30 seconds and then take interval of 30-seconds in HIIT.
You can adjust the activity and interval time. However, you have to maintain high-intensity (80-95% of MHR) throughout the movement to boost your anaerobic capacity.
Here’s an example of 20-min HIIT at home:
| Exercise | Activity | Interval |
|---|---|---|
| Ankle Hops | 20-sec | 20-sec |
| Jumping Jacks | 20-sec | 20-sec |
| Mountain Climber | 20-sec | 30-sec |
| Squat Jump | 20-sec | 30-sec |
| Flutter Kicks | 20-sec | 30-sec |
| Shoulder Taps | 20-sec | 30-sec |
| Jumping Lunges | 20-sec | 45-sec |
| Pushuups | 20-sec | 45-sec |
| Bicycle Crunches | 20-sec | 45-sec |
| Kneeling Squat Jump | 20-sec | 45-sec |
5. Weight Training
Strength training is also considered an anaerobic exercise because it requires carbohydrates and fats for energy instead of oxygen.
If you have dumbbells, barbells, or kettlebells any of these equipment, you can do strength training to your maximize your anaerobic performance at home.
Here are some examples of resistance anaerobic exercises you can do at home:
5 Exercises to Include in a Anaerobic Home Workout
1. Jumping Rope
Skipping or jumping rope is one of the best anaerobic exercises you can do at home.
It is a full-body exercise that primarily involves the movements of your arms and legs.
The studies suggest doing jumping rope has a positive impact on physical fitness. It improves heart health, helps you lose weight, reduces the risk of diabetes, and improves body composition.
Moreover, it will enhance your endurance level, quickness, jumping ability, and athletic performance.
The skipping rope is for everyone, whether you’re a male or female or beginner or intermediate fitness enthusiast.
To perform jumping rope, you need a rope and some space where the rope can’t touch the wall.
How to jump rope:
- Stand upright with your feet hip-width apart, holding the handing rope in each of your hands. Keep your arms straight at your sides, at least a foot away from your body. At the same time, the rope should hang behind you. That’s the start.
- To start jumping, use your hands and wrists to swing the rope over your head. Avoid the excess movement of arms, and try to use your wrist for rotation.
- When the rope comes in front of your feet, slightly lift your feet off the ground and continue this motion as fast as you can for anaerobic purposes.
Jumping can help you burn 1000 calories in an hour if you perform at your maximum heart rate. If you consistently do ropes, it may increase weight loss.
2. Squat Jump
You can include the squat jump in your anaerobic home workout routine. It can help you increase your blood flow and improve oxygen supply in the muscles.
The squat jump works on several muscles at the same time, especially your lower body.
It is a great exercise for increasing stamina, agility, strength and power, burning calories, and improving overall fitness.
How to do squat jump
- Stand straight with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Bend your elbows and keep your hands together in front of your body.
- Push your hips back, squat down until your buttock is parallel to the ground, and press into the floor with your heels to jump explosively in the air as high as you can, land your feet, squat, and again jump.
- Do as many reps as possible in 20 to 30 seconds and as fast as possible.
When I have to increase my blood flow and breathing, I do jump squats in the morning.
So when you want to charge up your body in a short time, you can do this exercise at home.
3. Burpees
Burpee is one of my favorite exercises I do at home for anaerobic purposes. It helps me strengthen my muscles, increase endurance, and improve overall fitness.
If you’re a fitness enthusiast who exercises at home without equipment, try burpees at home.
It is a compound exercise and will work on your entire body at the same time.
A study showed burpees increase very good strength endurance in a 3-minute Burpee test conducted by the Journal of Human Kinetics. This test includes 3862 women and 5971 men, aged between 18 to 25, from different countries like Poland, Great Britain, Hungary, and Serbia.
With burpees, you can strengthen muscles, burn good number of calories, and lose weight.
Let’s take a look at how you can do burpees with step by step instructions
- Stand upright in the shoulder-width stance.
- Jump into the air as high as possible and raise arms straight overhead simultaneously.
- Land your feet on the floor, bend your knees and place your hands on the ground, all at the same time.
- Now, kick your leg behind, so you’ll come in the high plank position.
- Then do one complete pushup and reverse all the steps and repeat for the next repetitions.
- Do as fast as you can for 20 to 30 seconds.
4. Side to Side Run
Doing lateral runs at home can significantly increase your heart rate and blood flow that allows your body to use oxygen efficiently.
The anaerobic lateral running exercise works on your entire body, specially the lower body.
You can do side-to-side run or lateral drills to increase your agility, stamina, power that helps you improve overall athletic performance.
How to do side to side run anaerobic exercise at home
- Standing in a straight position, pump your arms and legs, as you quickly move from side to side in a 5 to 10 meters range area.
- Once you cover the distance, stop and drive your inside knee up, then press off with the opposite leg to laterally run to the opposite side.
- Repeat right to left and left to right as fast as you can for 30 seconds.
5. Push Up
Push Ups can be an anaerobic exercise if you perform at your maximum heart rate or as fast as you can.
You can easily do 20 to 30 push-ups in 30 seconds.
Push-up is a great upper-body workout you can do to build strength and upper body muscle.
To do a pushup, get into a high plank position, and lower your upper body toward the ground as low as possible until your chest is a few inches above the floor, and then press back to the high plank position. That’s your one rep!
Try to perform as many push ups as possible, as fast as you can in 30 seconds.
How Long Should I do Anaerobic Exercise at Home?
Doing 10 to 15 minutes of daily one session of anaerobic exercises at home is enough to improve endurance and agility.
If you’re a beginner, you can do anaerobic workouts at home for 15 minutes two to three times a week to improve overall health and performance.
Can You Lose Weight with Anaerobic Exercises?
Yes, anaerobic exercises can help you lose weight if you do them consistently and maintain a diet.
A study has shown that anaerobic exercises positively influence the lipid profile and can help you lower your body fat percentage.3Patel H, Alkhawam H, Madanieh R, Shah N, Kosmas CE, Vittorio TJ. Aerobic vs anaerobic exercise training effects on the cardiovascular system. World J Cardiol. 2017 Feb 26;9(2):134-138. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v9.i2.134. PMID: 28289526; PMCID: PMC5329739.
Anaerobic workouts help you burn more calories, boost metabolism, and allow your body to use stored fat for energy purposes, which positively impacts weight loss.
But remember, doing exercise only may not help you lose weight. Weight loss is a complex process that requires you to follow a strict diet and consistent training.
You can eat low calories foods that fill you up, you can do intermittent fasting and moreover, you can take weight loss supplements to speed up your weight loss.
References
- 1CrossFit – Development, Benefits and Risks – PMC Pubmed Central
- 2
- 3Patel H, Alkhawam H, Madanieh R, Shah N, Kosmas CE, Vittorio TJ. Aerobic vs anaerobic exercise training effects on the cardiovascular system. World J Cardiol. 2017 Feb 26;9(2):134-138. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v9.i2.134. PMID: 28289526; PMCID: PMC5329739.
