Cardio without running?

[Victor Zulu]

I was looking to see if anyone had any ideas about doing a decent cardio workout at home without running. My right ankle is pretty much junk ever since a work accident where a ladder fell out from under me and I broke it. It's getting to the point where I'm probably gonna get surgery late this winter. I'm not completely crippled but jogging and treadmills are out for me. Any kind of low impact/upper body cardio I can do? I got a decent little weight bench and free weight setup at home if I can do something with that.

[alesand]

Scrunches (or crunches, I get the two mixed) can work great as long as you don't too much pressure on the ankle.

[gnarbeard]

Cycling or swimming are some really great low-impact cardio options.

For the equipment you mentioned, you can try and do some light lifting. Use a lighter weight, high number of reps.

[DarthAvarous]

"Use a lighter weight, high number of reps."

And don't rest as much between sets.

[skwiziks]

Learn how to communicate thirty words per minute...using semaphore flags.

I'm only half joking.

[shenanigans]

Dance! Its basically like running, but more mentally stimulating and more fun because you get to do it to music. If people would be interested in getting started with breakdancing, I wouldn't mind posting some links.

[nydearb]

Shadow boxing is great. There is a post on it in the same section about it if you haven't read it yet.

[sagebrush]

I'd like to echo swimming and cycling (or 'spinning', as some places call the stationary bikes). You could also try an elliptical machine if it's not too much stress on your site of injury.

[skai]

Circuits. I posted what I do for cardio when it's too cold or too late to go running in the scheduling subforum, as time is the main reason why I do them. It's the perfect thing to do at home in your own room!

You can find the post here.

Or I can shorten it in summary here.

A circuit is a high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout that contains rounds that contain quick exercises in them. You go through the exercises, and once you finish, that's one round completed. Then you start on the round again (same exercises), and you repeat for 20 minutes. That's all you have. 20 minutes. You can rest as long as you want when you get tired, but the shorter you rest, the more you get out of it. You can do 30 if you want, but I find 20 to be a great time.

So, for me, I do a circuit of rounds of 10 low squats, 10 push ups, and 30 calisthenic mountain climbers for 20 minutes. Exercises can vary.