Let’s Get Physical

When in doubt... You-Tube. BY JENNIFER FRANKS

In the midst of the pandemic chaos, how do you stay on your toes and active? With “social distancing,” and for some, complete quarantine protocols in place, the gym or your local pilates class may not be feasible at the moment. So what do you do? Luckily, we live in a world that goes live through digital platforms and that offer many great at-home fitness options! From mommy and me workouts to POPSugar’s dance classes, you can bring you favorite workouts right to your home!

You-Tube has great free channels and subscriptions. A majority of them offer videos, playlists, communities and more for FREE!

Well + Good offers workouts, health and beauty tips and recipes to follow. The workout videos range from yoga and pilates, to dance and intervals on the treadmill. My personal favorite has been the “You Versus Food: Nutrition Facts with Tracy Lockwood Beckerman, MS, RD.” She explains the behind the scenes of foods and nutrition that will help with your balanced lifestyle. The nutritional videos cover all areas; “Reading the labels,” “Alternatives to yogurt”…even down to “What makes you poop!” Well + Good covers all the bases for nutritional feed.

Another great find I love is POPSugar Fitness workout videos. These offer dance, Zumba, pilates, yoga and many more classes for getting your heart rate up. I personally did the Hip-Hop Fit workout and broke a sweat as well as learned some updated dance moves. This mamma bear hasn’t had dancing shoes on for awhile! After that, I jumped over to the thirty minute STRONG by Zumba video and worked those upper cuts and jabs. Nothing like toning those arms for your new summer clothes. The POPSugar Fitness subscription has been great for different ranges in cardio as well as time. Not everyone has thirty minutes or more to devote to your workouts, so an easy fifteen minute activity can help get your day started or winded down. It’s approachable for all ages and stages of life.

For a more stretching and breathing focused workout, Lululemon offers a full channel of workouts, breathing techniques and practice poses for those striving to become more advanced in your yoga and stretch. This is a great channel for your calming yourself down before bed or needing to reconnect after a chaotic day stuck at home with kids.

Speaking of your littles…they should be moving and jumping too! There are a lot of great ways to incorporate your little ones into your exercise with you. The younger ones make for great “weights” and the toddlers or older kids make for great teammates in active movements. This is just another way to be silly and bond while creating movement and teaching them healthy habits. For infants, it’s a good time for mommy to be taking care of herself while being creative with how you interact. You can have your little one laying on the floor beside you while you plank, hold them while doing lunges for your “weights,” or do baby bench presses with smiling faces looking at you. Doing your calming stretches and pilates can be a fun yet realistic way of keeping a healthy balance of exercise and life.

For the active toddler and up…it’s all fair game! I’ve found that dance cardio workouts tend to be the most fun for my kids and they don’t give up as easy. With them, there is always a lot of music, movement and silly time while I am working my core! You can find a lot of mommy and me workout videos through POPSugar Fitness, Fabletics, Smile and Learn and many more. The best thing to do is find a workout that suits your needs AND your family’s. Jumping, bicycle kicks, bear walks, crab steps, donkey kicks - all are great ways to create teachable moments and movement.

There are literally hundreds of You-Tube channels and Facebook pages that give you the FREE exercise you need during these challenging times. I encourage you to explore them and find which best fits your lifestyle and in-home crowd!