Group fitness classes are great, but not all of us are big on the exercising-with-a-bunch-of-sweaty-strangers thing. Plus, it can be tough to rely on a Sunday morning boot camp class as part of your weekly exercise routine. Sure, everyone loves FlyWheel, Uptown Yoga, and PureBarre around Dallas, but when you don’t want to venture out, can you still stay fit?
That’s why I love exercise videos. You can choose a video suited for your fitness level and the amount of time you have available. You can do it anywhere, at any time, and there are hundreds of great videos to choose from. Best of all, they’re free – if you spend a little time poking around on YouTube, that is. Here are five of my favorite fitness channels.
1. BeFit is, in my opinion, the best fitness YouTube channel out there. Actually, they have so many videos that it’s a little overwhelming. You can find everything from yoga to boot camp, and they host free work outs by famous trainers like Jillian Michaels and Denise Austin. Check out their BeFit in 30 extreme videos.
2. Yoga with Adriene is the most charming fitness channel I’ve ever stumbled across. In fact, I think I might be a little in love with the titular yogi. If you’ve ever been curious about yoga, this is a good channel to start with: Austin-based Adriene has plenty of relatively long videos (30-45 minutes) as well as a Foundations of Yoga series that helps viewers grow their yoga poses. Most of her videos are low-key and feel-good, but she does have some weight-loss videos that will surprise you.
3. SparkPeople is the YouTube channel of the popular health and wellness/weight loss website. This channel provides a collection of fitness expert-hosted workouts for short, bite-sized sweat sessions, mostly beginner-focused in nature. Their videos also teach specific exercise moves, provide wellness tips, and offer ideas for healthy cooking.
4. Psyche Truth is a strange channel with its blend of massage, health tips, and psychology (!!) videos, but they also have a great selection of exercises. Also, a lot of channels tend to specialize in super-short videos, so I like this one for its 30+ minute videos (like this abs workout or this detox yoga flow). Also, gotta love videos that reiterate how bad fast food is.
5. PopSugar Fitness has lots of videos that are both fun and challenging (though make no mistake, this one’s less about mind–body health and more about looking good naked). Still. Take a look at their Class FitSugar playlist and find a video that works for your fitness needs: PopSugar fitness host Anna Renderer brings on different experts to guide viewers through a variety of workouts (check out their 10-minute P90X workout).
That should get you started. Have fun!
