Quiet Cardio Workouts: 8 Low Noise Exercises For The Home

Getting fit can be noisy. 

Whether you’re jumping up down doing burpees and star jumps, running on a treadmill or slamming weighs around (if this is you we recommend you try some weightlifting drop pads), noise feels like an unavoidable consequence of working out.

If you live in an apartment or share your home with young children this can stop you from working out altogether, but it doesn’t have to.

There are plenty of super-effective quiet cardio workouts you can do which are low impact, they don’t involve bouncing around and can be done almost silently!

Below are eight quiet cardio exercises you can do at home without disturbing your neighbours or waking up the kids.

You can put these exercises together to create a varied and intense workout. Skip ahead to read our quiet cardio workout suggestions.

Quiet Cardio Exercises:

With all of these exercises remember to keep your transitions low impact to reduce noise, for example don’t jump at the end of your burpee and don’t jump from one leg to the other when performing lunges.

1. Lunges

To complete a lunge stand with your feet hip-width apart and take one big step forward with your right or left leg. Lower yourself down until your thigh is parallel with the floor and your shin is vertical, do not allow your knees to travel beyond your toes.

Stand back up and repeat on the other side.

This is a low impact exercise so shouldn’t make much noise, if you have hard floors then it is a good idea to use an exercise matt to minimise footfall noise.

2. Bear Crawls

A bear crawl is like normal crawling except your knees aren’t in contact with the ground. Only your hands and feet touch the floor, try crawling the length of your hallway and back like this, it’s a lot harder than it sounds! 

Providing you don’t collapse onto the ground with exhaustion bear crawls shouldn’t make much noise. 

Image credit: wikimedia.org

Try and complete ten lengths of your hallway or room and incorporate it into your next home workout.

3. Push-Ups

A very simple exercise yet an exercise that can be brutally challenging for even the fittest of people. 

Providing you control your descent when doing push-ups they won’t make much noise at all…the only noise will come from your breathing.

4. Air Squats

To perform an air squat simply squat down so that your hip crease is below your knee and then stand straight back up again.

These are a great way to get your heart rate up without making much noise at all. Try doing 30 as quickly as you can (take breaks if needed) and you’ll soon have a healthy sweat on!

5. Shadow Boxing

Shadow boxing consists of throwing punches at an imaginary opponent, shadow boxing isn’t for everyone but if you know your hooks from your jabs from your uppercuts then it is a great way to get a sweat on without making much noise.

It can be noisy if you decide that you need to dance around your imaginary opponent however providing you avoid moving heavily on your feet it can be a great addition to your quiet workout.


Top tip: if you want to take your boxing workout to the next level and can afford to make a small amount of noise then check out these quiet punching bags.


6. Planking

The plank is the perfect quiet exercise; you literally stay still for as long as you can thereby making zero noise!

It’s not for the faint-hearted though..

..challenge yourself and see how long you can hold a plank for, see if you can improve on your time in your next workout.

7. Slow Burpees

Normal burpees are noisy because they involve a lot of high impact jumping. Slow burpees take the jump element out of the burpee making it much quieter.

To perform a quiet burpee lie face down on the floor then stand up one foot at a time (do not jump up) before extending your hands above your head, then lie back down moving one foot at a time and repeat until you’ve completed your reps.

This is a much less physically taxing version of the burpee which won’t raise your heart rate as high as a jumping burpee but it’s a great addition to your portfolio of quiet exercises.

8. Tricep Dips

If you have a spare chair, sofa, table, bench or even a kitchen worktop available then you have all the equipment you need to do tricep dips.

Start with your back to the chair, knees bent and your hands on the chair fully extended, then slowly lower yourself down until your arms are at 90 degrees. Push back up to fully extend your arms…repeat!

Tricep dips are low impact so will make very little noise while being a great way of building muscle strength particularly in your triceps and shoulders.

Quiet Cardio Workouts:

Here are a couple of ways you can mix up some of these exercises to create an effective quiet workout.

With all of these workouts remember to be careful with your transitions between exercises, avoid being too heavy on your feet to keep noise to a minimum.

1. 16 Minute Total Body Workout

This workout is a total body workout which will use all of the quiet exercises listed above. 

Start with lunges and do as many as you can for 40 seconds, rest for 20 seconds and then move onto 40 seconds of bear crawls followed by 20 seconds rest before moving onto the next exercise.  Keep going until you’ve done two rounds of all eight exercises.

2 Rounds of:

  • Lunges
  • Bear Crawl
  • Push-Up
  • Air Squats
  • Shadow Boxing
  • Plank
  • Slow Burpees
  • Tricep Dips

40 seconds work 20 seconds rest then move onto the next exercise.

16 minutes total.

2. Ab Blaster Tabata Workout

Tabata is a type of training which consists of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest usually for a total of 8 rounds, this will take four minutes, it doesn’t sound like long but it can certainly feel like a long time!

Give this a go to target your core:

2 rounds of:

  • Planking (20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest)
  • Bear Crawls (20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest)
  • Push-Ups (20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest)
  • Slow Burpees (20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest)

If you really enjoy pain try doing a full 8 rounds of the same exercise, 8 rounds of planking or push-ups can be very brutal!

3. 50 Reps x 8 Sets

This workout involves doing 50 reps of all 8 exercises until you’re done, this adds up to a total of 400 reps!

Break the reps up as needed but try to go unbroken for as long as possible, the exercises can be completed in any order so we recommend you start with your weakest exercise first while you are less tired.

If 50 reps is too daunting you can drop the numbers down to something more reasonable, try 40 or 20.

  • Lunges – 50 repetitions
  • Bear Crawl – 50 repetitions
  • Push-Up – 50 repetitions
  • Air Squats – 50 repetitions
  • Shadow Boxing – 50 repetitions
  • Plank – 50 seconds
  • Slow Burpees – 50 repetitions
  • Tricep Dips – 50 repetitions

If you’re serious about working out at home and want to take things to the next level while still keeping things quiet then have a look at some of these quiet gym products you can use to help build an effective albeit quiet home gym:

As an Amazon Associate I may earn a small fee from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. This helps us run the site, so thanks for your support!

Leave a Comment