8 Ways to Stay Active During Quarantine
How to keep the endorphins flowing in spite of our circumstances
While nearly everyone’s routine has been interrupted by social distancing measures and the impact of quarantine, many of us still crave normalcy and are seeking ways to stay positive despite this current situation. Whether you incorporated exercise into your daily life before lockdown or not, keeping active is a great way to boost your mood, stay healthy, and increase your quality of life during this time. Even though gyms and fitness studios are closed for now, there are still plenty of ways to keep moving and stay active at home. From streaming workouts from your favorite instructors to in-home equipment solutions, here are ten ways to keep the endorphins flowing during quarantine.
Walk When You Would Otherwise Sit
For many, being isolated at home means a lot of time spent sitting. Whether on conference calls, working, helping homeschool children, or just watching TV, we are spending more time than ever seated, which can lead to more back, shoulder, and neck pain as well as overall decreased activity. To reduce sedentary time and keep your muscles moving throughout the day with minimal impact, try to stand or walk around at times when you would otherwise sit. For example, if you have a call that can be taken from your cell phone, pop in earphones and take a lap around the house, yard, or block. You can also set a timer on your phone or place a hold on your calendar to get up every hour and stretch your legs.
If you’re looking for more of a challenge, use these breaks to get your heart rate up with some jumping jacks, lunges, burpees, crunches, or other bodyweight exercises to break up the day and burn off some energy. Standing, walking, and brief active breaks are an easy fix for keeping your body moving throughout the day since they can all be performed in even the smallest spaces and can be seamlessly incorporated into your existing routine.
Streaming Workouts
While at-home workouts have been a popular solution for those with busy schedules and limited time or access to gyms since the time of the “Jane Fonda Workout,” there has never been a better time to hop on the streaming workout bandwagon than now. Before quarantine, a number of gyms and studios—from barre and yoga to cross-training and HIIT—offered online streaming options to make training in and out of their facilities accessible at all times. However, with nearly all physical locations closed, even those who didn’t have online subscription options available— including LA and Beverly Hills favorites—are bringing their classes and services into your living rooms, bedrooms, garages, driveways, and wherever you can find the space to move to make staying healthy and active during this time easier than ever.
Celebrating ten years on Rodeo Drive this summer, Physique57 is a Beverly Hills icon focused on offering low-impact, muscle-sculpting barre workouts beloved by dance enthusiasts as well as a number of high-profile celebrity clients, including Chrissy Teigen, Demi Moore, and Alessandra Ambrosio. Founded in New York in 2006 and opened in Beverly Hills in 2010, Physique57 quickly made its way onto the list of the fastest-growing companies in America, servicing clients seeking long, lean, strong muscles with the tools they need to get them. In subsequent years, the studio and its founders released a DVD program followed by an online workout portal, giving clients around the world access to their award-winning and critically-acclaimed workouts without needing to visit one of Physique57’s studios.
Now, you can continue to stream Physique57 classes anywhere anytime with expert guidance from your favorite instructors. Regulars won’t fall behind or miss a beat and newbies can choose from over 100 videos across core, dance cardio, HIIT-focused, and beginner classes to get started. At the price per month of an average in-person class, plus new classes added to the platform every week, Physique57’s on-demand program is a steal.
Those looking to blow off some steam with an intense workout need not look much further than Burn 60, another LA area favorite that will leave you sweaty and exhausted but stronger and more motivated by the end of it. Burn 60’s 45-60 minute HIIT workouts attract adrenaline junkies and fitness aficionados alike but are truly open to all levels. Cardio bursts are complemented by floor work that keeps your heart rate lifted and boosts your metabolism, leading to increased strength and leaner muscles within two weeks of consistent classes.
Burn 60’s classes are a unique experience, mostly due to the energy of participants along with the pumping music, motivational instructors, and mood lighting. During this time, Burn 60 is bringing this experience online with its live stream classes and personalized live classes hosted through Zoom, enabling participants to see and interact with each other and the instructor throughout the class. Single classes cost just $10 and six-packs are available for $50, and all can participate whether you have at-home gym equipment or not. Check out the Burn 60 site for tips and recommendations on simple household items you can use in the place of weights and other equipment.
We could all use a little fun right now, and what better way to kill two birds with one stone than turning your workout into a dance party. Created by former professional Broadway and West End dancer Simone De La Rue, Body By Simone is a fun and challenging workout that combines the joy of high-impact dance cardio with resistance and tone workouts that assist in creating long, lean muscle. Following her career as a professional dancer, Simone became a licensed NASM personal trainer and quickly amassed a healthy following of celebrity clientele thanks to her beaming personality and fun approach to fitness. Thanks to her success as a trainer, she was able to expand her business into fitness studios in Los Angeles and New York, spreading her revolutionary technique of using dance to safeguard against injury across the country.
In the years since opening her studios, Simone has created workout DVDs and launched a fitness app to make her expertise accessible to all. During this time, more and more videos are being added to Body By Simone’s streaming platform, featuring videos of various lengths— from quickie targeted core, arms, and legs clips to full-length dance cardio classes up to 60 minutes long—to keep you engaged and having fun. The app also serves as a personalized training tool, incorporating nutrition advice from celebrity nutritionist Kelly LeVeque as well as functionalities to track weight and measurements for those looking to track progress. As well, new videos are added weekly.
If you seek to achieve Jennifer Aniston’s toned arms during quarantine, look no further than Rise Nation, a low-impact yet incredibly impactful workout rooted in climbing. Rise Nation’s classes make use of Versaclimber machines, a vertical trainer that combines upper and lower body work driven by only your own momentum. Known to help you reach breathlessness and challenge nearly every muscle in your body at once, the Versaclimber and Rise Nation’s classes torch calories and help align your spine—all with minimal impact.
While Rise Nation’s studios are closed during this time, its star trainers are regularly posting challenging bodyweight exercises on its Instagram account to mimic the benefits of a Rise Nation workout at home with little or no equipment. Offering easy-to-follow circuit workouts, the Rise Nation team makes it easy to continue your Versaclimber training at home without the machine. And the best part is—the videos are free.
In-Home Equipment
If the unpredictability of when gyms and studios will reopen has you stressed and you can’t seem to stay motivated by at-home workout videos, you may consider investing in a piece of workout equipment for your home.
For years, SoulCycle has been an LA cult-favorite workout studio that has bridged the gap between community and fitness and taken the indoor cycling market by storm. With studios across Los Angeles and in major cities across the country, accessibility has never really been a problem except when we can’t work with our favorite instructors and experience the overwhelming joy many feel after their weekly (or daily) SoulCycle class. Until now.
On the heels of the success of Peloton’s at-home bike, SoulCycle has introduced its own, bringing everything you love about SoulCycle—from the music to the energy of their instructors
—into your home. While it comes with a hefty price tag, true devotees will justify the cost to be able to access their favorite workout class anytime from the comfort of their own home. The SoulCycle at-home bike is available for pre-order now with deliveries anticipated in late-May.
Say you don’t have the luxury of a home gym or space to store a bike, treadmill, or elliptical in your home but are looking for a solution to motivate you and keep you engaged in a workout routine. Enter The Mirror—an interactive, nearly invisible home gym that offers everything from yoga and barre to kickboxing and weight training behind the disguise of a full-length mirror. The Mirror’s small footprint and elegant design fit into nearly any home; all you need is sufficient space in front to move your body or for a yoga mat.
The Mirror grants you access to 20+ different types of workouts, 70+ weekly live classes, and over 10,000 on-demand classes available 24 hours a day—all projected behind The Mirror’s full-length frame so you can watch the instructor and yourself at the same time. No matter your schedule, fitness level, or workout interests, The Mirror has something for everyone and provides the convenience of a full workout studio all within less than two feet of wall space. The Mirror is still taking orders and delivering during this time.
