Going to the gym is not only about personal supervision and better equipment. It is also about the banter and the mass effect of exercising together. Nothing greases your limbs better than seeing someone older (or younger) than you putting in the hard yards. But sometimes busy lifestyles, erratic schedules, travelling on the road, economics, and downright laziness make home workouts a necessity.
Some Benefits of Exercising At Home
- Exercising at home could be comparatively convenient for you instead of going to the gym in terms of your schedule and time saved.
- Home workouts need minimal equipment. Buying some simpler home equipment like exercise mats, dumbbell sets, kettle balls, and even an elliptical trainer can be easily covered with the money you save in gym memberships.
- For the socially shy – you may not feel comfortable with your self-image. Start exercising at home to shoo the awkwardness away.
- You don’t need to get dressed up and your own private shower is just a step away.
- You have your own personal trainer thanks to the television, the web, and the many YouTube channels.
Using YouTube workout channels is what we will focus on in this article. Please bear in mind though that I am not fitness guru. I am a work-from-home guy who uses the web and these channels to bring variety to his fitness regimen when he can drag himself away from the bed, the work desk, and the latest novel he happens to be reading.
If you ask me which is the simplest but single most effective exercise one can do at home – do the burpees. It is a full body workout which will make you weep for a place to lie down. But then, these seven YouTube home workouts may make you shed more buckets of sweat.
Switch On These YouTube Channels for Your Home Workouts
I have selected YouTube exercise videos where you need minimal equipment and can do the exercise without any supervision. Or channels with a greater variety of that. It is the rule I apply to myself, and I hope it applies to you as well when you go searching for home workouts.
Frugal Fitness
The fitness show is hosted by Mike Schiemer. The YouTube workout channel’s main theme is to do it cheap. And Mike Scheimer defines himself as an exercise physiologist, personal trainer, nutritionist, fitness model, writer, and epic cheapskate. Following that philosophy, many of the exercise videos on this fitness channel are about using no equipment, just your bodyweight. There are about 290+ videos in different playlists. Nutrition and product reviews are also covered. The exercises are of intermediate level, but not too difficult with a moderate level of difficulty.
Fitness Blender
The fitness videos are well produced. The Fitness Blender website is more comprehensive. I was a bit surprised to learn that a husband and wife team are alone responsible for maintaining the site and the YouTube channel. You have full-length home workout videos. The menu has Pilates, boot camps, strength training, HIIT, kettlebell, stretching, sports-specific training, cardio, injury rehabilitation, and programs geared for weight loss. There is a 12 video length playlist where the couple answers fitness questions.
BeFit
BeFit is one of the better known fitness channels on YouTube. 37 million plus views attest to that. High-caliber professional trainers like Jillian Michaels, Denise Austin, and Jane Fonda among others feature here in the many exercise videos. If you like to groove try out the dance fit workout videos for some fast paced cardio burning. There’s also the series of 15 (hopefully growing videos on 5-minute workouts – great for times you are short of time and need some quick mood lifters.
My Trainer Bob
Bob Harper is a personal trainer who is in the reality television series “The Biggest Loser”. The show gave him a profile in the United States as a fitness expert. Like him I also believe that a major part of fitness and losing weight is about diet; something I haven’t been able to impress on my mother who feeds me carbs. The YouTube channel seems to be a plug for his book. But I like the fact that his approach towards fitness is “inside-out” and he concentrates on diet, the mental and the spiritual aspects as well. There are no complete workouts here, but if you are looking for some challenge and variety give the videos a try.
Passion4Profession
Passion4Profession is another well-produced YouTube workout channel. The motto is – train where you want, how you want, and when you want. I guess that’s the perfect definition of a home workout. The videos are nice animated depictions of exercise movements and postures. Most of the exercises use your bodyweight. Using the playlist is convenient because the videos playlists address specific parts of the body among other things. On the website, you can check out the exercises by clicking on a spot on the body map. Then list video exercises you want to follow using a filter.
Blogilates
POP Pilates Instructor Casey Ho takes you through workouts that might get you to think of doing them the Gangnam style way. But they are peppy and colorful. And Casey Ho treats the seriousness of getting fit with fun. You can’t scoff at nearly half-a-million subscribers. She is always chatting and that should help to keep your own energy levels up as you follow the exercises in a corner of your home. The hits playing in the background help too. I don’t doubt her qualifications after seeing her do the burpees while chatting up the viewers. That takes some doing.
The Daily HIIT
High-intensity interval training is supposed to be better for burning more calories. There are both sides of the argument. But it is short, intense, and can really get your heart pumping in the shortest time possible. The Daily HIIT videos are high-intensity all right, and you should try them if you have an intermediate to advanced level of fitness because they can take a lot out of you. If the pace is too much, try the HIITlite series which is of lower intensity but still sapping. The Daily HIIT is a companion series and a successor to BodyRock.TV another fitness channel on YouTube.
A Word of Advice
The statutory warning remains – if you are physically inactive or have a medical condition, do consult a physician before you start exercising.
There are lots of YouTube workout channels with thousands of YouTube videos on fitness and health. But what’s true of the physical world is also true of the online one. Perhaps, more so. YouTube is the Wild West of online videos. There are good videos and there are also umpteen bad ones. When it comes to exercise and health, wrong instructions could be detrimental. Examine the sources more closely. Take the comments under the videos into consideration…even the seven video channels I have profiled here. It’s very difficult sometimes to make out who is an expert and who is playing make-believe.
These seven YouTube workout channels aren’t the only ones of course. But they are definitely among the best I could find. Being the lazy types we are, always glued to our workstations, we have looked at different ways of keeping our myofibrils together. You can take ideas from 5 Effective Ways To Workout At Home With Online Videos or watch a few from 6 Must-See Exercise Videos For Those Of Us Who Spend Most Of The Day Sitting. If you have a Wii then Top 5 Wii Fitness Games To Get Into Shape From Home could be more fun than any gym with a free spa.
Do you workout from home? Tell us about your reasons – it is a conscious choice or one due to the stresses of urban life? What sort of fitness habit do you follow? Which are the YouTube workout channels or online resources you would recommend?
Image Credit: Young woman training via Shutterstock
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