Squat jumps are great to do as part of high-intensity interval training. They're also great to add to any other workout as a warmup. Do a circuit of 25 of them and then move onto something else. High-intensity interval training is a method of circuit exercising that involves short bursts of intense cardio or strength training and periods of rest.

Many exercises can be done in HIIT, and this can improve strength and raise your heart rate to help your cardiovascular system. Consider the exercises you want to do for HIIT. Perhaps it's running. To turn your run into a HIIT workout, you'd sprint for 30 seconds to a minute, and then jog or walk for 2 minutes.

Then sprint again, and walk again. You'd do this for a full circuit of 30 minutes or so. You can also do HIIT as a circuit of multiple exercises. You could include jumping jacks, burpees, mountain climbers and a number of other cardio exercises, interspersed with rest periods.

HIIT is a great way to have a variety of cardio exercises. Do HIIT for 30 minutes a day, five days a week. Dance is a great and fun way to get your heart rate up. It gets your blood flowing, which can benefit your heart, and it can help improve endurance.

Plus, the beauty of dance is that it's what you make it -- you can go hard or do a more moderate workout with it. What we love about dance is that there are no rules and no wrong way to do it.

If you want an organized dance workout, you can look for a group fitness class in your area or even just a dance class. Either way, you'll get a workout. If you want to dance at home, put on some of your favorite heart-pumping music and dance around your house.

With any cardio exercise, minutes a week is a great baseline, so you can break that up however you want. Dancing for about 30 minutes a day, five days a week is optimal.

It's also a good idea to balance your cardio with some strength training for better fitness. Cycling is a low-impact aerobic exercise, meaning it's great for people who don't want to put too much pressure on their ankles and knees.

It gets your heart rate up and helps you build muscle and endurance, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Make sure your bike is set up properly, whether it's a traditional bike or a stationary bike. You want the seat, pedals and handlebars aligned properly for your body so you don't strain your neck or back.

Once properly set up, start at a leisurely pace to warm up your muscles. Don't put too much pressure on your handlebars or you may strain your neck. Increasing pace or incline can work different muscles and raise your heart rate more, but you'll still get a great workout if you stay on a flat pace.

Spend the last few minutes of your ride slowing down and make sure to stretch your muscles to cool down when you're done. The Cleveland Clinic recommends minutes of aerobic exercise each week, so if you're choosing to do it all with cycling, you can accomplish that by riding for 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

According to the Centers for Disease Control , swimming is a great low-impact aerobic exercise. Swimming is especially great for people with arthritis, as it doesn't put any added pressure on your joints while you exercise.

Whether you simply swim laps or take part in a water aerobics class, this is a good way to raise your heart rate -- and you don't have to worry about getting sweaty. How you choose to swim for exercise is up to you.

You can swim laps in a pool or you could find a group fitness class at your local gym or YMCA. These instructor-led classes will take you through various exercises in the water. You can choose to get all your cardio through swimming by doing it for minutes per week or you can mix it up with your other workouts.

Consider swimming 30 minutes a day a couple days a week and filling in your cardio time with another activity like dance or running. Rowing -- whether you're in a boat or on a rowing machine -- is an exercise that works your quads, glutes, arms, abs and more.

It's low-impact and can be beneficial for some people with arthritis, as it provides a means to work out without adding pressure to the joints.

It will also get your heart rate up and can benefit your cardiovascular system as a whole. Using a rowing machine isn't exactly as easy as it looks, as your form is important. If you round your shoulders too much, it can put strain on your back. Sit in the machine and grab onto the handles.

You'll start with your legs bent and your feet on the foot pads. Extend your legs back, and as they extend, start to pull your hands back. When your legs are extended, start to sit back until your back is straight and pull the handles toward your lower chest.

Doing the right exercises can engage muscles in your upper body or lower body and still get your heart pumping. Some exercises you can try include:. You can improve your cardiovascular endurance with activities that might not seem like exercise at first glance.

Jumping jacks are an easy cardio routine that can get your heart rate up and more oxygen into your lungs. Burpees are a tough exercise, but as you increase intensity level when it comes to cardio, you get your heart rate up more effectively.

With a skipping rope, you can build endurance pretty easily. You might not realize it, but dancing is a fantastic cardiovascular exercise. Simply put on music that you enjoy and begin to move to get your heart rate going!

Dance however you feel like! If increasing your cardiovascular endurance is important to you, the gym is the best place to do it, thanks to equipment that makes cardio easier. The elliptical is an intuitive machine for getting your heart rate going. Step onto it with your feet flat on the pedals.

Push each pedal forward and alternate. As your right foot goes forward, the left should be moving backward with its pedal, and vice-versa. As this happens, hold onto the handles and move your arms naturally with their motion. The rowing machine is not only great for pushing your heart rate up but also engages your core muscles nicely.

An easy way to learn this machine is to split it into lower and upper body motions. Strap your feet in and take a seat. You climb it just like you would a regular staircase! Just aim to keep your back straight and not hunched as you do so. The treadmill is one of the best cardio machines.

Just get on it and either walk briskly, jog or run — whichever intensity is best for you. This is a great way to boost aerobic capacity and heart rate. Sit on the bike with your feet on the pedals and your hands on the handles.

Pump your legs in a circular motion to move the pedals smoothly. You can adjust the resistance for more of a challenge. You can measure your cardiovascular endurance by yourself by walking or running a set distance, such as a mile , and monitoring the time that it takes.

You can easily track your progress this way, as progressively quicker times mean better endurance. However, the gold standard is using VO2 Max, which refers to your maximum oxygen consumption during exercise.

With a few basic variables and the time it takes you to walk a mile, you can use an online calculator to see what your endurance rates are.

Regardless of which you use, it is important to keep track of these indices to help you improve your fitness level over time. After all, the better your cardio endurance, the less the risk of heart disease.

An app like Cardi Health can help make that happen, especially as it can help you track your heart rate and also give you a personalized fitness plan to help you stay fit and build your endurance. Not everyone can exercise at the same intensity.

While you should aim for at least minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise each week , you might need to start lower than that if it is too harsh on you. For high-intensity activity, 75 minutes a week might be enough.

Cardiovascular exercise can lead to a reduced risk of heart disease and allow your body to use oxygen efficiently. However, to really reap these benefits, it is important that you stay consistent.

Cardiovascular endurance can help you dance the day away at a music festival, spend the day exploring a new city on foot, or chase your dog around the yard. Not to mention, it becomes even more important the older we get.

Those lifestyle changes create a cascade of positive effects, too. Numerous studies have linked increased cardiovascular fitness to lower levels of depression and anxiety, but you may not need a study to prove this point.

If a person can walk up three flights of steps without huffing and puffing, they feel better about themselves. With that in mind, here are a few activities that can work some serious magic:. Boxing and kickboxing.

Sports like basketball and soccer. For this, you need to do a little math—just a little, we promise! You can determine your maximum heart rate, says Urban, by subtracting your current age from Multiply that number by 64 percent and 76 percent to get your overall range for moderate-intensity physical activity.

Generally speaking, how long should you stay at an intensity level before taking things up a notch? Perry says it can be as little as two weeks or as long as eight weeks. Genetics is also a factor.

Here are some specific ways to build your cardiovascular endurance and stamina. The pitfall to avoid is starting too hard and then burning out or injuring yourself. If you have a Peloton Bike, Power Zone training is a great way to build up your endurance and measure your progress.

In fact, studies have shown that incorporating sprint intervals into your training can work wonders for your cardiovascular endurance.

One study published in PLoS One showed that subjects who tried this reported a 19 percent increase in cardiorespiratory fitness after 12 weeks.

Even just one minute per exercise session of this type of super-high-intensity activity can boost your overall endurance. Mixing up the intensity of your workouts can be the boost you need to catapult you to the next level of cardiovascular endurance and help improve your running speed.

One caveat: Because SIT requires maximum energy expenditure for those sprints, these types of intense sessions may be better suited to people who have more experience with exercise. Not quite at the endurance level you need to be for SIT? This type of interval training, which switches between higher and lower intensities, allows you to cut down on workout time without sacrificing results, helping you work smarter, not harder.

In fact, a review of studies published in the Journal of Physiology found that low-volume HIIT, which can be done in as little as 15 minutes, enlarged the chambers of the heart, making it pump blood more efficiently throughout the body.

When in doubt, go back to the basics. If you want more of a workout, go for a run once a day , a few times a week.

Remember that heart rate math you did earlier? If you stay at the same intensity level of exercise as your cardiovascular endurance improves, your heart rate will move toward the lower end of your age-specific range.

Of course, it will change again once you increase intensity or duration.