3 Ways to Crush Cardio in 10 minutes or Less

I am a believer in the balanced workout – warm-up, work out (strength training in some way), cardio, core, stretching. Cardio is a crucial part of the workout as it keeps the heart healthy, builds endurance and helps squeeze out every last bit of energy you have for the workout. Many people believe that it doesn’t count as cardio unless it’s for 20 minutes or more, but I am going to give you 3 ways to crush cardio in 10 minutes or less.

1. Rowing Machine

Listen, the rowing machine, or the “erg”, is a great piece of equipment in the gym. Unless you are already a long-distance runner/swimmer/rower, than most people will find just a few minutes on the rowing machine sufficient to get a good workout.

To get a good workout on the rowing machine in 10 minutes or less, try these 3 different options:

• Straight Row: row with a steady pace for the full 10 minutes. Keep an eye on the stats on the screen and see if you can maintain your split, ie. how long it would take to row 100m. Most rowing machine’s show this stat on the screen.
• Interval Row: I love doing intervals on the rowing machine because it allows me to challenge myself to row hard, but also gives me a good amount of rest before rowing hard again. I typically start with a 1 minute slow row, and 30s hard row. As you progress you can go 1:1, 2:1, 3:1.5, etc. Just make sure your rest time is the same time or slightly more time than you spend on the hard row
• Pyramid Row: If I feel like I want to row hard, but I want to ease into it, I’ll challenge myself to a pyramid row. Give yourself 1-2 minutes to warm-up. Ease into the row and set a baseline split. If you skimmed over the first bullet point, your split is the machine’s estimate of how long it would take you to row 100m. Once I have my baseline, I then increase my pace slightly for minute 3-4. Then for minute 5 I will push as hard as I can. Minute 6-7 I’ll try to return to the same pace I have in minute 3-4, and then from 8-10, I am returning to my slower pace.

Each of these will help you get a good workout on the rowing machine in 10 minutes or less.

Pro Tip: on the days when I don’t want to do cardio, but know I should do cardio, I always go for the workout with the more complex set-up. My brain would get bored and would have time to think of excuses to quit if I did a straight row, so I go for the pyramid or interval row so I have ample rest periods, I get a hit of endorphins from pushing myself, and my brain doesn’t have time for excuses because I am paying attention to the clock or my rowing splits.

2. Stairmaster Intervals

I personal love the stairmaster, but it is a doozy of a cardio machine. You know it is an effective piece of equipment when the physique and bikini competition girls tell you that they had 45 minutes of stairmaster programmed in their final weeks of prep.

But for us, we have 10 minutes or less so we need to make the most of the machine so we keep our hearts healthy and booty’s juicy!

Of course you can walk on the stairmaster for minutes, but implementing intervals is my favourite way to really work up a sweat. I did this the other day and was sweaty but got a beautiful rush of endorphins afterwards that carried me through my work day.

There are a few ways I structure intervals on the stairmaster:

1. Intensity Intervals: My tried and true intensity intervals are 1 minute at level 5 and 1 minute at level 10. But as I mentioned in the previous section, you can do 1 minute low, 30s high; 2 minutes low, 1 minute high; etc.
2. Direction Intervals: I am sure you have seen people walking sideways on the stairmaster, but if not, this type of intervals is my go-to when I need lots of variety so I don’t get bored and give up early. You start with 1 minute facing forward, then 1 minute facing right, then 1 minute forward, then 1 minute facing left, and you repeat this straight:right:straight:left:straight cycle until you hit 10 minutes.

Again, the stairmaster is a great cardio machine to finish your workout, but if you are looking to really sweat it out at the end of your workout, try out one of these interval options and you’ll really feel like you’ve finished your workout.

3. Cardio Finishers

I already wrote a whole blog about cardio finishers but I am going to talk about them again because I love them. They are such an efficient way to finish your workout, get some cardio in, but not necessarily rely on a cardio machine to get them done.

My favourite one that I have recently brought back into my routine is one that I learned while I was interning at a kinesiology/sport therapy clinic. It actually takes 12 minutes, but if you are really tight on time, you can adjust it accordingly.

Grab an EZ-bar (straight bar with set weights on the side). Nothing too heavy as you’ll be doing shoulder presses with this bar up to 21 times in one set. You can also grab a mat if you want something soft for your hands.

Set your timer to 12 minutes (or however much time you have). STart by shoulder pressing the bar 3 times. Set the bar down and do 1 burpee, hop over the bar, doing another burpee, and hop over the bar to do one final burpee for a total of 3 burpees.

Repeat this sequence of shoulder presses and burpees in intervals of 3 (3,6,9,12,15…) all the way up to 21, or whatever you get to when the timer goes off. In 12 minutes, I typically get to around 18 and have ended mid-burpee before.

This really gets the heart pumping, but also gets the whole body involved so it’s a great way to finish a full-body day.

Making the most of cardio, in a short amount of time

The core goal of this blog was to show you how easy it is to get away from your standard treadmill run, or 12:5:30 (remember that trend?) and get a great cardio workout in a short amount of time. Instead of dedicating a whole day to cardio, you can work it into every workout and know that when you walk out of the gym, you’ll have had a complete workout.

There are so many other ways that I make cardio fun, without wasting time or risking injury to my joints, so let me know in the comments if you’d like to know more ways that I crush cardio in 10 minutes or less.