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Here’s a quick body weight workout that you can do at home to develop your legs, and to improve your cardio and functional strength. Here’s the breakdown:

JUMPING LUNGES (10 REPS) — Start in a wide stance, with one foot far in front of the other. Switch your feet by jumping and landing in a “lunge” position where your knees are bent and your quad and glute muscles are engaged. Repeat this for 10 reps. Be sure to keep your weight centered

JUMPING SQUATS (10 REPS) — Start with your feet about shoulder width apart. Squat until your legs are bent at a 90 degree angle, then jump into the air as you come up. Repeat for 10 reps.

ONE LEGGED HIP THRUST (10 REPS PER LEG) — Plant your left foot on the ground, bent at a 90 degree angle. Put your hands at your sides for balance. Keeping your right leg straight, thrust your right leg in the air by elevating your hips off the ground. Repeat for 10 reps, then switch legs and repeat for 10 reps on the other leg.

BURPEES (10 REPS) — Bend down, and touch your hands to the ground. Thrust your feet out behind you, so that you are in a pushup position. Thrust them back to the starting position, and jump into the air. Repeat for 10 reps. **BONUS — Do a pushup when you are in the pushup position to make this exercise more challenging.

REST — Rest 60 seconds between sets. Repeat 3 times.

Your respiratory system gathers and starts to process oxygen, your cardiovascular system continues to process and distributes oxygen and cardiorespiratory endurance is your respiratory and cardiovascular systems ability to work together to sustain oxygen for activity.

Cardiorespiratory endurance is characterized by healthy, effective and efficient heart and lung function needed to gather oxygen for the production and distribution of energy to the body during activity.

Cardiorespiratory Conditioning is any activity used to improve cardiorespiratory endurance and “condition” the heart and lungs.

Having improved heart and lung function allows you to…

Do more, longer… greatly improving performance abilities in a wide variety of sport, work and life activities.

Perform other physical abilities better… without being winded and exhausted you will be able to produce and distribute the energy needed to perform better for a longer period of time.

Reduce the risk of injury…Fatigue leads to poor form and potentially dangerous movements that greatly increase the risk of injury.

Be healthier… Healthy heart and lung function can greatly reduce the risk of disease and sickness.

Live better… cardiorespiratory endurance carries over to every aspect of life greatly improving your quality of life.

Cardiorespiratory conditioning allows you to simultaneously keep the doctor away and improve your ability to live life to the fullest.

Cardiovascular Conditioning Is All About Energy

Effective heart and lung function is necessary to gather, process, deliver and maintain oxygen for the energy the body needs during all human activity.

Unfortunately… most people only train the heart and lungs, and the distribution of energy, by the use of steady-state, monotonous, aerobic activity.

The truth is, the challenges of sport, work and life are unpredictable and varied and use different energy pathways for the distribution of energy depending on the circumstances.

Each pathway must be trained for the best possible fitness and the most effective heart and lung function.

Therefore, using bodyweight calisthenics for cardiorespiratory conditioning is a much better option… because you can simultaneously increase muscular strength, improve heart and lung power and burn unwanted fat!

The Aerobic Pathway

Aerobic means in the presence of oxygen… and any activity that is performed at a low to moderate intensity for more than 90 seconds, allowing oxygen to release energy through metabolism, is usually called an aerobic activity.

The benefits of aerobic activity are…

• Increased Cardiovascular Function
• Decrease in Body Fat

Well, that sounds pretty good, but the negatives of excessive aerobic training are…

• Decreased Muscle Mass
• Decreased Strength
• Decreased Power
• Decreased Speed
• Decreased Anaerobic Capacity

While the benefits are much needed for over-all fitness, the negatives make it hard to believe that aerobic training is the most popular form of cardiorespiratory conditioning… often being used exclusively.

While I believe aerobic training has a place in a well rounded fitness training program… a better option would be to use bodyweight calisthenics for cardiorespiratory conditioning!

The Anaerobic Pathway

Anaerobic means in the absence of oxygen… and any activity that is performed at a medium to high intensity for less than 2 minutes, where energy is derived without oxygen, is usually called an Anaerobic activity.

There are two anaerobic energy pathways…

The Anaerobic System (ATP-CP) is where energy is derived from the re-synthesis of Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP) from Creatine/Phosphate (CP) until the stores are depleted… about 5-7 seconds.

The Anaerobic Lactate System (Glycolytic) happens after the (CP) stores have been depleted where the body resorts to the breakdown of glucose for energy.This results in the production of lactate and hydrogen ions… ultimately leading to fatigue.

The benefits of anaerobic activity are…

• Increased Cardiovascular Function
• Decrease in Body Fat
• Increased Muscle Mass
• Improved Strength
• Improved Power
• Improved Speed
• Increased Aerobic Capacity

Since many of the activities of sport, work and life are activities that happen in short bursts of intense activity… cardiorespiratory conditioning should trained in this manner as well.

Using bodyweight calisthenics for cardiorespiratory conditioning allows you to stimulate all energy pathways… bring about the a greater improvement in heart and lung power than steady-state aerobic exercise alone.

How To Use Bodyweight Calisthenics For Cardiorespiratory Conditioning

Many people are brainwashed into believing the only way to positively effect cardiorespiratory conditioning is to do steady-state aerobic exercise for 20-30 minutes in your “target heart rate zone”.

But what if you used bodyweight calisthenics for cardiorespiratory conditioning by performing a 20-30 minute workout made up of bodyweight exercises and calisthenics exercises without rest?

The bodyweight exercises (anaerobic in nature) will increase your muscular endurance while bringing the heart and respiratory rates up.

The calisthenics exercises (aerobic in nature) will lower the intensity some-what forcing the body to lower the heart and breathing rates while still under stress… greatly improving cardiorespiratory endurance.

Therefore, using bodyweight calisthenics for cardiorespiratory conditioning in this fashion will simultaneously improve strength endurance, heart and lung power and your body’s ability to function as one complete unit… with the added bonus of burning calories and fat even after the workout is completed!

And you won’t even have to do a separate “cardio” session!

This type of muscle blasting, heart pounding, breath taking, fat burning workout is intense, and you should work up to it progressively.

If you are currently bored with your “cardio” training, or don’t feel you are getting the most out of your cardiorespiratory conditioning, try using bodyweight calisthenics for cardiorespiratory conditioning… and see what you’ve been missing!