With everything still unclear about our situation, all we know is we need to stay at home now more than ever. That being said, people have always found time on how to be productive in many ways while on quarantine.
I’ve noticed that many people have also tried out fitness now and how the comfort of their homes have turned suddenly into a mini gym. But I truly get it, it’s not that you always have motivation to exercise (unless you’re really a gym rat). There is always a battle of push-and-pull when trying to be consistent in this practice. But do we need to really give in and skip a day without it?! I don’t think so.
Since exercise is vital now to incorporate in your lifestyle to maintain your sanity, I’m sharing my 3 go-to routines whenever I feel lazy for a vigorous HIIT or heavy cardio. These have proved to work for me and I hope it actually works on you too!
Restorative Yoga is usually done on mid-week of your workout sequence. It is performed as part of your entire routine so that muscles can recuperate from the wear-and-tear that’s actually happening during vigorous exercises.
The sequence is a series of stretches and proper breathing that follow the Asana practice in yoga. It helps improve posture and relieves any form of anxiety and promotes clarity of mind. The stances are very slow and uncomplex so you can perform this without hurting yourself in the process.
When I started to add this in my weekly workout routine, I noticed a significant change on how I deal the exercise the day after and how my body was feeling overall. Usually without this, my body would feel stiff and sore but all of that were history once I do this. 🙂
How effective is this restorative yoga? How many calories are usually burned ?
The calorie burn will vary for each person depending on their weight and the duration of the exercise was performed. Since restorative yoga is a practice that is basically done to help heal your muscles, it will burn lesser calories than the vigorous exercises. So let’s say I’m a 125-pounder person, and I spent 30 minutes doing this practice, I basically burned about 120 calories or so.
I’m pretty sure you have heard of Pilates as much as you’ve heard Yoga. Pilates is known as a “rehabilitation exercise” which was used long before to alleviate certain body pains. Although there were only limited known facts that this exercise does actual medical benefits, it is still being practiced by a lot of people (I myself included!). It is by far, my most favorite form of exercise! ❤
Pilates has helped me improve my posture and manage my back pain in the most surprising way. The sequences are a lot vigorous than restorative yoga but will definitely burn more calories by far! Pilates breathing is known as a posterior lateral breathing, meaning that the air is breathed deep into the back and sides of his or her rib cage.
The sequence will involve a lot of core strengthening, with emphasis on alignment, coordination and balance. It’s commonly mistaken as a Yoga copycat but the two have very distinctive differences. Pilates focuses on making the mind and body strong. The creator, Joseph Pilates, believed that the mental and physical health were “interrelated”. This exercise is believed to be a “corrective exercise” and is widely used by athletes as a form of rehabilitation activity.
How many calorie burn does a Pilates class/session make?
There are two types of Pilates that are being practiced widely. The mat classes or the beginner burns about 175 calories in a 50-minute session. Though the advanced type, which uses a reformer machine usually burns about 254 calories for the same length of session. Though these numbers could still vary and could sometimes burn higher amount of calories as high as 450 cal. in one session. Basically, any exercises that will elevate your heart rate will produce in more calorie burn. 🙂
Here is actually a picture of my waist where I lost some belly fat recently by just practicing Pilates and with a help of HIIT as scheduled weekly.
If you want to try the basic ones, head over to Cassie Ho’s Youtube channel. There are a lot of exercises to try on ! Here’s the link!
Blogilates: https://www.youtube.com/user/blogilates
Dance Cardio is something I have tried before but never really taken seriously since when I was younger, I considered dancing as a form of art. I also overlooked the fact that before when I was a part of our school’s dance troupe, I was definitely way thinner and lighter and that may have contributed to my physique back then (plus my age at that time!)
I revisited dance cardio recently when I joined my mom in her Zumba class. Zumba is what they call the dance workout that actually burns a ton if you’d ask me. The last time I tried, I burned 480 calories in 40minutes! And it’s not as vigourous as HIIT or advanced Yoga or Pilates, you actually get to enjoy this one since, technically, it’s as if your just in a dance class!
Dance Cardio is also advised if you want to lose weight and hate the hard work in exercise.
There is actually a ton of dance workouts you can follow on Youtube! I’ll leave some links below if ever you want to try them out!
MyLee's Dance Workouts : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0G3ShKXy9
PopSugar Fitness Dance Workout : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV9GYSWij84UC0G3ShKXy9
All these stuff are already available online and FREE! Never second guess that this will not actually work for you ‘cos it is that very mindset that is!
I hope you learned a bit or two from this and find your go-to workout. If there’s a proper time to dive in it, now is that time while we have still a lot before we go back to normal!
Until then! ❤
Kissed by Fire 