Light cardio and fluid stretching movements are essential to lessening the likelihood of muscle and ligament strains. It’s also a good idea to gradually introduce physical effort to your cardiovascular system so as to not shock the body into sudden exertion.

This 5 minute warm up cardio workout is ideal for getting the blood flowing and the muscles warmed up for more strenuous challenges to follow.

As an added benefit, this is a calorie burning warm up that helps you get a jumpstart on your fat burning because of the multiple muscle groups used during the light bodyweight cardio moves.

Here’s the breakdown:
10 Exercises
30 Seconds each
No equipment needed; only bodyweight exercises are used

Warm Up Exercises in this Routine
Lateral Steps + Pulls – Step from side to side, tapping your foot behind the body of the leading leg. At the same time, wave both arms up in front of your body (in front of and above your head) and then pull them back downwards to your sides in a full sweeping range of motion.

Slow Rocking Butt Kickers – A slower less intense of our regular butt kickers to get your lower body warmed up; add in upper body movements as well if you like, especially if you are about to jump into a routine that is heavy in upper body exercises.

High Knee Pulls – Pull one knee upwards towards your core, while reaching up and then down with both hands so that your elbows and high knee are near your core at the same time.

Arm Swings + lateral Steps – Similar to the first move, step from side to side while tapping the toe of the following foot behind the leading/supporting leg, all while swinging arms out and then in front of the body, crossing over one another.

4 Torso Twists + Knees – Twist from side to side four times, and then bring one knee up to the opposite elbow. If you follow this same count (1, 2, 3, 4, knee), you should be bringing a different knee up each and every time.

Jog in Place – Just like it sounds; get that heart rate up!

Bodyweight Squats – If your legs aren’t feeling quite warmed up yet, keep the squats shallow. Keep your butt back and your weight in your heels.

Front Kicks – Kick high and in front of the body, alternating which kick is doing the kicking. Keep your core tight for an added toning benefit.

Boxer Shuffle – Hop from side to side, tapping the non-leading leg on the ground in the center of the distance that you are hopping back and forth.

Cross Toe Touches – Reach down to touch the toes of your foot with the opposite hand, doing a very slight squat each time that you reach downward.

Once you are finished with this cardio warm up workout, you will be ready to tackle any of Fitness Blender’s hundreds of challenging strength, HIIT, endurance, toning or stretching workout videos.

*Do keep in mind that there are some special populations and individuals with certain health conditions (diabetes, arthritis, asthma, high blood pressure, etc) that should have a warm up that is longer than 5 minutes. Remember to always talk to your doctor about what workouts & program structures are appropriate specifically for you.