For the past year, we have all been through weeks and months of lock down. And that also has put a pause on active lifestyles considering the work from home setup that locks us on our chair for most of the day and too exhausted to even stretch a little at night. And without gyms and personal training with fitness coaches, it’s like the sedentary lifestyle just set in.
Thankfully, there are many fitness YouTube channels that can help you get you up on your feet and start to get fit in the comfort of your own home. Most of these videos don’t require heavy gym equipment so you will be able to follow them with just a mat and comfortable workout clothes. And if there’s anything that you would probably need, there are a lot of portable training gear now that you can easily purchase from online shopping.
If you haven’t been working out the past months, that’s okay. The important thing is you’ve decided to be active now (hopefully since you clicked it). We compiled a list of workout channels as well as healthy meal planning ones (because fitness is not just about exercise) to jumpstart your active adventure.
Yoga
While most workouts have their own stretching routines, you can also try some yoga routines after you wake up.
Yoga is an ancient practice that incorporates breathing exercises, meditation, and poses. This is designed to reduce stress and also encourage relaxation. Aside from the mental health benefits that yoga is very popular for, it also has several science-backed physical benefits.
So here are top 2 yoga channels that you should definitely follow. (Variety is good for your routine so you can opt to try different videos from these channels for each work out day.)
Yoga with Adriene
Ever since starting her YouTube channel in 2012, Yoga with Adriene has amassed over 9.65 million subscribers. In fact, she is the most popular yoga channel on the platform with over 550 videos uploaded and a total of 896,779,674 views.
Her channel is very beginner friendly with a collection of videos on how to start doing yoga. And as you go along the way, you would find more challenging ones that cater to every type of athlete or fitness goals. All of her videos can be easily mimicked from home ranging from short 10-minute ones to an hour of intense yoga workout.
If you want to start on yoga, then start from the best.
Body Positive Yoga
Amber Karnes started her YouTube yoga channel back in 2012 as well but unlike Yoga with Adriene, she did not have as much audience with just a little over 25,000 subscribers. Her last uploaded video was around 2 years ago and there’s not a wide collection of videos as well.
Nevertheless, she offers high quality yoga videos and is perfect for anyone that has confidence and anxiety issues about their size. If you have seen yoga channels, most of these are run by slim women and even in exercise, it’s very important to have that representation.
Amber described her channel as “for big bodies, creaky joints, and beginners”. Apart from the conventional yoga exercises, Amber also shares with her viewers her own emotional journey through yoga and also demonstrates some tips and tricks that larger-sized people could use to fully maximize the yoga experience.
Workout
We’re sure that you already know that exercising is an integral part of staying healthy. If you’re sitting on a chair all day with just minimum movement, you’ll soon find yourself exhausted with activities that are supposedly easy.
Working out at least twice or thrice a week as long as you’re doing it consistently can help your body become fit and stay fit. So here are top 2 workout channels that will definitely help you start exercising.
MadFit
As far as recommended workout channels, MadFit is always part of the top 10 lists. She started her YouTube channel in 2018 and now she has 5.7 million subscribers with 482,686,625 views. Many have mentioned how her workout routines really helped them reach their fitness goals
She has an arsenal of videos from beginner playlists to targeted body workouts. She even has dance party workouts, apartment-friendly, no equipment, and partner workouts. If you want more long term workouts to follow, she also has marathon workout plans that you can try.
If you want results, then MadFit can really help you get to that body you want.
The Fitness Marshall
Since joining the fitness community on YouTube in 2014, The Fitness Marshall has now 3.18 million followers and 491,335,350 views. And if you want to be entertained while you sweat then this is the channel for you.
Caleb Marshall has created workout videos designed to be heart-pumping but beginner and user friendly as well as very entertaining. Each video, you get to sweat and dance your heart out to a different tune featuring Marshall’s comical interjections and really funny and silly facial expressions.
The exercises are usually short but it’s easy to make a long playlist that you can use depending on your preferred length.
Eating Healthy
Being fit is not just all about exercising. It’s also very important that you take in healthy, nutritious meals. A healthy diet should always include fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low fat dairy. This way, you reduce the risk of many diseases especially heart diseases.
Eating healthy has been proved to help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight which is also one of the main reasons that you exercise. It also improves memory and brain health and also your mood and energy levels.
HealthNut Nutrition
Meal preparation can be a very daunting task especially if you’re not one who likes to cook (like me). Don’t worry because Nikole got your back with her stress-free recipes that are perfect for newbies. Not just that, she also has an introductory video on everything you need to know about prepping basics.
She offers easy meal prep videos that turn tasty dishes and add healthy into it. There are also seasonal recipes as well as recipes you could do for certain occasions like Valentine’s! She also got some prepping hacks that will definitely help you out.
If you’re not good at cooking but you’re good at following instructions then this is the best place to start eating healthy!
Fit Men Cook
This channel is created by Kevin Curry with the goal of helping people cook meals that are good for their body and their wallet as well. Of course, there’s always the budget concern in eating healthy and Kevin got you on that front.
He has an arsenal of recipes for every meal of the day to help his viewers get the best nutrition while they do their workouts. Not only that, his recipes also contain allergen-friendly and also vegan-friendly alternatives. So if you have diet preferences, you can still try his delicious recipes.
Bottomline
It’s very important to keep our minds and bodies healthy especially in a time of a pandemic. And even after that, it’s good to be consistent with your stretches, workouts, and eating healthy.
For stretches and workout routines, find at least two channels that you are comfortable with so that you can interchange styles to add variety to your exercise. And for food, it’s good to do meal plans so that you not only alleviate getting out and running small errands just because you forgot some ingredients but to also keep your schedule efficient.
