3 fun exercise alternatives whilst gyms are closed

We know how important it is to stay active, especially now as we are stuck at home (for the third time in England!). Gyms are closed again, oh well. Thanks to YouTube for keeping us active with the abundance of home workouts, HIIT and yoga sessions, you name it. It just gets boring after a while – watching and following the videos, doesn’t it? Today I will share my go-to fun exercise alternatives you can do while gyms are closed, the best part is it doesn’t feel like a work out.

3 Fun Exercise Alternatives to try right now:

Dance as Exercise

You can choose any dance style and reap it’s benefits almost immediately:

• Did you know that dancing is a great cardio workout? While bringing your heart rate up, it helps improve your cardio-vascular health and burn those calories!
• Unlike regular exercises such as running, cycling, etc, dancing engages all muscles in your body, which means no muscle is left behind. Think about dance next time you’re after a full body workout!
• It’s a physical, as well as a mental exercise. Our brains need a workout too! While learning a dance routine you focus on the separate moves as well as changing movement patterns.

Feel free to check out my previous blog post Dance as the Best Workout to learn more about benefits of dance!

How you can dance at home:

Dance classes online

Pandemic has completely changed our lifestyles so now more than ever there’s an abundance of online dance classes: Live Instagram or Zoom dance sessions, pre-recorded dance lessons. There are also online dance platforms with hundreds of dance classes taught by internationally famous dancers and choreographers available on demand for a small subscription fee. One of these platforms is STEEZY.

Get jiggi when washing dishes

I play music 90% of my day, everyday. When I’m down it lifts up my spirits as I sing and dance to my favourite tunes on Spotify. If you don’t feel like joining online dance classes (like me!), simply play some of your favourite hits when doing household chores – the routine will feel more fun and will be done way faster than usual. I promise you, when you get in the groove it’s hard to stop.

Try dance-inspired workouts

Zumba is one of the most popular dance exercise alternatives. Don’t worry about the technique – Zumba is fun and easy to follow for everyone.

Another popular dance-inspired workout you can do at home is Barre (ballet-inspired workout). You can learn some ballet basics while getting your whole body toned. Barre workout will help you improve your balance, core strength, flexibility, and your posture.

Roller Skating Exercise

On TikTok we often see roller skaters zooming across bay-fronts somewhere in California. It looks like a dream, but did you know that you can roller skate practically anywhere? In your neighbourhood, in a park – the smoother the surface is the better it is for skating (at least when you’re just learning). It’s not only a fun activity that you can do on your own, but also quite an effective and fun exercise alternative.

Let’s look at some of the health benefits of roller skating:

Full body workout

Similarly to dancing, roller skating engages every muscle in your body making it an effective workout burning 350-600 calories per hour. We know that roller skates help strengthening and toning your leg muscles including your glutes, quads, hamstrings, shins, hips and calfs. They also engage your core muscles and your arms as you’re constantly shifting your body weight to balance on the skates. These small balancing moves might not be noticeable though they are great for your core and upper body.

Low impact exercise

While skating is similar to jogging or running in terms of heath benefits and calorie consumption, it’s more gentle on your joints and reducing the risk of injuries.

An excuse to get outside

They say stay home, but we need to get fresh air once in a while. Because you cannot really roller skate at home, it’s perfect excuse to go get some fresh air while exercising.

Beat Saber/VR Exercise

So you always wanted to try sword fighting? Here’s your chance!

Beat Saber is a virtual reality game released by Beat Games in 2019. Simply put, it’s about crushing light blocks with 2 swords (lightsabers) to the beat. Each block has a colour corresponding to the colour of a lightsaber and the arrow that tells the direction you need to hit it from. It’s easy to pick up, thanks to various difficulty levels and the game literarily draws you in when you play your favourite songs!

“A VR workout for people who don’t like exercise” as called by Wired, Beat Saber is another excellent exercise alternative you can do at home. Here’s why:

Cardio

Moving to upbeat songs is already a good cardio. Add some fast arm moving when hitting the blocks, leaning back and forth and squatting occasionally while dodging the obstacles, and you have a fun cardio workout! If you add some weights on your arms or/and back – that would be even more effective workout!

Some routines are specifically made for working out such as Zumba routines – they are more repetitive and slightly more intense.

Arm workout

You will feel your arms after doing just a couple of songs. Depending on a song and its difficulty level, the range of movement will differ: some routines are super fast and precise, other routines has blocks slightly more spread out making you extend your arms in order to reach them.

Similar to dancing

Dance is all about moving to the beat! Add a little groove to block slicing dance routine and work up the sweat!

That is all for today. Thanks for checking out this week’s blog post! I hope you found it useful. How do you exercise at home? Do you have any favourite fun exercise alternatives to do while gyms are closed? I’d love to hear in the comment section below!