4 Fun Workouts to IMPROVE Heart Health and Cardio Fitness

Maintaining a healthy heart is crucial for both physical and mental well-being. By incorporating regular exercise into your daily routine, you’ll become much fitter physically and, in turn, find yourself in a much better mental space more of the time.

Cardio exercise is the best way to strengthen your heart muscle and improve blood flow, but as we all know, cardio is sometimes boring and tedious. Luckily, there are plenty of fun cardio activities you can do that will improve your fitness level while also stimulating your brain and engaging you. Here are just four examples you might like.

Dance Cardio

Traditional cardio exercises usually involve repetitive motions, which are rarely fun or thrilling. However, if you’re someone who likes music and dancing, then you should consider dance cardio.

Dance cardio offers a fresh and exciting way to elevate your heart rate while jamming along to your favorite tunes. The best part is that dance cardio can be performed to any type of music, whether you prefer hip-hop, pop, or EDM.

Dance cardio is excellent because it works on multiple fronts at the same time. Not only does it strengthen your heart and burns calories, but it also improves coordination, balance, and flexibility to a great extent. If you don’t want to join a dance fitness class, you can always attend or follow online tutorials and enjoy dance cardio from the comfort of your own home.

Jump Rope

Although seemingly easy, jump rope is incredibly difficult if you pick up the pace. This excellent childhood activity is also great for adults since it gets the heart rate up and it gets the blood pumping and circulating.

Jump rope will also strengthen your leg muscles and your abs, in addition to improving your coordination and timing. This will make you vastly more agile, which will come in handy if you play any type of sport.

You don’t even need a ton of equipment to perform this activity. All you need is the jump rope itself and a flat piece of ground with clear space in front and behind you. Remember not to go all out on your first session. Gradually increase the intensity by incorporating different jump rope techniques, such as double-unders or alternating feet.

Aqua Aerobics

If you're looking for a low-impact workout that’s easy on your body but still gets the heart rate up, consider aqua aerobics. This water-based exercise takes advantage of the natural resistance and buoyancy of water to provide a challenging cardiovascular workout.

Since in water you “weigh” much less, the stress on your joints such as your ankles or knees is much less than what it would be during running for instance. What’s more, aqua aerobics could mean a number of things, from swimming laps and water aerobics classes, to aqua jogging and water running.

Even if you’re not a fan of aqua aerobics, it’s good to incorporate them into your routine every once in a while since swimming is a great stress reliever as well. On top of that, swimming is the only activity that involves most of your muscles, including the heart.

Parkour

Parkour doesn’t have to be dangerous or extreme. Forget watching those awesome YouTube videos with millions of views, because they only represent the extreme side of the spectrum.

Although parkour is definitely more adrenaline-filled than swimming or jogging, it can still be a safe and thrilling way to push your body without causing any harm. Parkour itself simply means moving rapidly through an area, typically urban, and navigating obstacles by running, jumping, and even climbing. You can perform parkour as quickly or as slowly as you want.

Parkour is a full-body workout that engages your cardiovascular system as you run, jump, and vault over obstacles. Besides enhancing heart health, parkour also cultivates mental resilience, body awareness, and problem-solving skills.

Plus, since you’re out in nature and exploring the great outdoors, parkour is excellent as a mood booster and a stress reliever. It's important to note though that parkour should be approached with proper training and caution, ensuring the safety of yourself and everyone else involved. You can even take parkour classes and academies nowadays that teach you proper techniques, first in the gym, and then out in the open.
 

Conclusion

When it comes to improving heart health and overall fitness, exploring unconventional workouts is exciting and fun. Instead of running or biking, consider trying out dance cardio, jump rope, aqua aerobics, or even parkour. You may not like all of them, but if even one peaks your interest and makes you more excited for cardio workouts, it’ll be much easier to incorporate it into your routine and perform it regularly, if not daily.