I love to work out. Working out carves a specific portion of my day to just focus on myself. The hardest part — getting off TikTok, getting out of bed and simply doing it.
Recently, I have found myself in a workout rut, so I turned to Youtube. The workout content on the platform is endless. I tried four different YouTubers for a week of workouts –– or fitness gurus, as some people may call them. Here are my thoughts.
Day 1
I kicked off my workout fun with a YouTube video from Maddie Lymburner’s channel, MadFit. I had done a few of Lymburner’s workouts before, so I knew this would be a good place to start. A lot of her videos are dance exercises where she blasts a specific few songs or genres and asks you to copy her moves. I felt a little awkward at first, but once I let my hair down and got into the groove, it was so fun. One workout was to the song “Driver’s License” by Olivia Rodrigo and I felt like I was right there in the music video. That, along with one of her full-body workouts, was the perfect workout.
Day 2
Next up, Lilly Sabri, a British fitness queen. This one was by far the hardest but in the best way possible. I was left dripping with sweat and out of breath after the workout. Fair warning, though, Sabri is obsessed with burpees. Most workouts with her will include at least one set of burpees. By the end of the day, I had the strongest love-hate relationship with burpees. But, Lilly pushed me through each round with motivating works. I felt energized.
Day 3
On day 3, I entered the black hole that is Blogilates, a channel run by Cassey Ho. The first workout I did with her rubbed me the wrong way. I should have known from the title of the video “10 Minute Anti-Bloating Cardio.” When I work out, I want to be motivated by positive stories. Cassey talked about how bad she felt after indulging in certain foods and said that this workout was the cure. I was just there to feel healthy and push myself, not to feel guilty about satisfying my sweet tooth. After that first video, I did try a few more of her short workouts but I just couldn’t shake the weird feeling I was having. The exercises were good, and it was nice to do a stint of pilates in my challenge, but I probably will not be going back to Blogilates.
Day 4
Of course, I surrendered to Gen-Z and pop-culture’s favorite fitness guru, Chloe Ting. Everyone and their mother was working out with her during quarantine, so I felt obligated to hop on the bandwagon. I was a bit apprehensive in the beginning when I got a Blogilates vibe with some of her video titles like “Get Abs and a Flat Stomach.” But to my surprise, she was nothing like Cassey. Chloe’s videos were positive and motivating and made me focus. I was focused on just having a good workout, which was my ultimate goal. I also appreciated that she rarely repeated exercises, so I never got bored.
Overall, it was a good week of workouts, and I felt stronger by the end of it. Even though I completed a full week of workouts, I am going to keep doing some YouTube workouts. I’ll keep dancing with Madfit, doing my burpees with Lilly Sabri and maybe some ab challenges with Chloe Ting — sorry Blogilates, it’s a no from me.
