Hello everyone,
I am not necessarily new to blogging as I did try and blog about my work as a conservator, but as I now changed careers, and am now working in libraries I stopped writing about conservation projects. But seeing as there is a global pandemic and a lockdown, I thought why not start a blog about everything and anything. Although perhaps more about what matters to me. Or much better said, what matters to me in lockdown. At the moment, it's staying physically fit, mentally healthy and cooking and baking healthy foods. How to stay fit during a lockdown? Well, that one is simple: Online studio.
I love a lean, long and toned looking body for myself. Which means I avoid bulkiness by not lifting weights or using bulk building whey protein. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with that, just that I am working towards a ballerina looking body.
I do not like going to the gym. Mainly because I just don't enjoy it. So in desperation, as I needed to lose some weight, I started a few years back to exercise from home. After the death of my mom I put on a lot of weight and it was affecting my mental wellbeing as well as how I was treating and speaking to myself. I wasn't kind. I was negative and harsh.
So, I bought a DVD called X-tend Barre and I soon started losing weight. I then swapped to doing Mary Helen Bowers Ballet Beautiful. For those who are unfamiliar with Mary Helen Bowers she is a former NY ballerina and she trained Natalie Portman for her role in Black Swan. She also trains some Victoria's Secret Angels. I bought her 60 Minute Ballet Beautiful Classic workout and her Backstage workout. A lot of sweating and swearing was going on in my living room while doing her workouts. But after a while they became to easy to do. Now Mary Helen does have an online studio and you can join her studio and do group classes or do private training. You can stream her workouts as well. So if you would like a taster of her sessions head to IPlayer, and you can purchase some of her workouts or join her here https://www.balletbeautiful.com/
Being a part-timer, recently divorced, having to be financially independent, I couldn't afford her online classes, even though I enjoyed doing them a lot. Because I had now been doing Ballet Beautiful the Classic Workout for a few years, I could do them without breaking a sweat, making me a bit annoyed. So I decided to scour YouTube, as it is always full of something for everyone. And that is where I found her: Bailey Brown. So I tried to get myself into a routine. Ballet Beautiful Classic Workout 2 times a week, Ballet Beautiful Backstage once and Bailey's workouts the rest of the time. It turned out Bailey's workouts made me sweat but also notice a change in my body.
Fast forward to the end of January 2020, Covid-19 just hitting the news, Bailey announces she is doing a Body Love Challenge in her BBFIT online studio in February, all I had to do is sign up for her online studio. As I had major issues with body image and consequently self-love and body love, I thought why not. Her online studio is really cheap compared to a gym and you just need the basics of equipment: hand weights, ankle weights, resistance bands, pilates ball, pilates ring, gliders a working wifi and you are all set.
Every end of the month she sends out an ebook with journal prompts, recipe ideas and a full workout calendar. You can choose to work out 3 or 5 days a week. She creates the workout calendar based on how she reached her goal body and also tailering it to a woman's cycle. The workouts are barre, Pilates and HIIT inspired and there are toning and sweat sessions, and let me tell you, the toning sessions are a killer.
I love her energy and the workouts are fun, although I do tend to shout at her randolmy, when an exercise is especially hard. You can check out her YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSld2X4CREfM9J3f485kEgQ or her BBFIT online channel https://www.bbfit.co/. She also has recently launched a BBFIT app, and there are new and exciting workouts being added to the online studio. Yes, I know, I am excited about it, never in my life have I been so excited about working out. I guess the reason is that it makes me feel good, both physically and mentally (as an example, I had not run for at least 2 years, and managed to do a 4.5k run without stopping or getting too tired).
But I also love her energy and positivity and the fact that she makes the workouts fun with her comments. Another plus point is the fact that a lot of the workouts are filmed at the seaside near Bondi in Australia. I mean that should be an incentive in itself to start exercising.
Hope you guys have enjoyed my rantings on home exercising and hopefully I have given you some ideas on home workouts. Stay safe!
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