My fitness journey using YouTube

    Like million others during the pandemic, I browsed YouTube for easy workouts. My fitness experience prior to the pandemic was just walking and dance classes when I was a child, encountering outrageous promises like 'Get Abs in Two Weeks' and 'Lose 8 Kilos in 30 Days' caught my unexperienced eye. One of the first workout channels I used was Eva Fitness, their aerobics inspired workouts seemed easy enough for an uncoordinated beginner. 

One of the first videos I tried from Eva Fitness

   Yes, I didn't lose 8 kilos doing these workouts but the easy repetitive moves and positive vibe from the instructor helped me with consistency. Their workouts range from 20 minutes to one hour, making them approachable enough to fit into busy schedules. After a few months, I got bored from the aerobics format and decided to switch it up, so I found Grow with Jo and tried her popular walking workouts.

Jo's signature workout style: walking workouts

   I was pretty skeptic about walking workouts at first but Jo's combination of simple standing moves and walking intervals feels very effective as a beginner, her contagious positivity and easy to follow steps make her workouts feel less like a chore and more like a fun Simon Says game. Jo not only creates walking workouts but also has some strength training inspired workouts and traditional bodyweight cardio workouts. I stuck with Jo for almost a year, got my first set of dumbbells and tried her dumbbell workouts. Her personal emphasis on supplementing cardio workouts with strength training inspired me to take the next step and search for specialized dumbbell workouts, and that's how I found the wonderful Sydney Cummings.

Sydney has a great variety of workouts with all types of equipment. Bodyweight workouts too

   What makes Sydney different from the majority of YouTube instructors is that she gives vocal instructions during the workouts, giving cues about proper form, exercise variations and suggested dumbbell weight. With an immense catalog of varied workouts ranging from pure strength to pilates inspired cardio, Sydney helped me step up my fitness level tremendously. I learned about range of motion, lifting until failure and different workouts formats like Tabata (a form of short interval training) and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) from Sydney, while also improving my workout form with her detailed explanations. I didn't follow her suggested programming, just choosing random workouts according with how I felt that day which might've affected my results. After about a year, I started seeing Caroline Girvan and her programs being suggested around the home workout sphere so I tried her Iron Series program.

Caroline has carefully planned programs with intense workouts and an emphasis on strength training

    The first time I tried one of Caroline's workouts I practically rage quit halfway through. Unlike Sydney's videos, there are no vocal instructions, just small paragraphs about form sometimes. Even if it felt like absolute torture, I started the Iron Series with my lightest weights and managed to finish it with amazing results. Every exercise is selected to truly challenge the muscle and reach fatigue, often making use of half reps and pulses to push every fiber to the max, her cardio workouts being by far some of the hardest available on YouTube. I completed Fuel, Epic III, Epic Heat, Epic II and some her shorter programs, Caroline's experience as an ultra runner also inspired me to start the Couch to 5K running program. Pairing up her intense workouts with running got me too carried away and I got burned out after some months, I took a short break and changed my approach again. 

  I stopped running and alternated between Sydney's and Caroline's workouts, changing my primary cardio to dancing workouts. Browsing for dancing workouts is how I found one of my favorite creators Emkfit, her Wrong is Strong approach and creative dance choreography are the most fun I've had during a workout.

The first Emkfit workout I tried

   Emkfit's HIIT dance workouts combine the Tabata interval format with workout inspired dance moves, with songs from popular artists, musicals and movies to motivate you to do your best. Her channel also has strength workouts, cardio workouts and pilates inspired sequences with tons of variety. With her approachable attitude, good humor and awesome soundtrack, Emkfit workouts have become a weekly staple to my workout schedule to this day.

   At the beginning of this year, I decided to include running in my routine again, this time tackling the Bridge to 10K program. While I tried to maintain my strength training workouts, my body wasn't reacting too well to the lifting plus running routine. So after doing some research, I switched from strength training workouts to pilates with weights. After finishing the 10K program in February, I returned to dance cardio as my primary cardio source. My current routine is following Pilates Body Raven, with added LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) cardio in the form of dance workouts, barre and the occasional run.

Pilates Body Raven has fully guided Pilates and Barre workouts with all types of equipment

    Pilates workouts are currently extremely popular online yet many online coaches aren't properly certified, not providing the correct cues and performing the exercises with improper form. Raven is a certified Pilates instructor with many years of teaching experience, her cues and programming have helped me increase my core and upper body strength. I've always avoided ab workouts but Pilates is the only workout that makes me properly engage my deep core muscles.

    I think switching up my routine has been key to keeping me motivated, working out alone at home can get boring really fast so bringing new stuff to the table helps with monotony. My current routine is far from perfect but I've been consistent without punishing my body that much and that's what matters. As for my future plans, I want to keep practicing pilates and bring back strength training soon.