Hi, my loves.
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
Today, I'm gonna share my workout routine
that I've been doing for the past month and a half,
which are all YouTube workouts that you can do at home.
It's the first time I've been this committed and consistent with working out,
and I'd like to share my process,
in case it might help you in your own health journey.
If you wanna get motivated to workout again,
I'll share my favorite tips and resources to get you started.
Hey, my loves.
To recap, I have been working out consistently 6 days/week since June 1.
So, it's about a month and a half that I've been doing this,
and I'm actually surprised that I've been doing it for so long,
because I've never committed to working out this much for this amount of time.
It's my first time being this consistent.
If you're curious about why I started
and how I got motivated to work out again,
I talked about that more in my “How to Get Motivated” video
that I'll link here and down below.
But to recap the general points, I kind of hit like a low point
in terms of my confidence with myself and my body.
I really let myself be lazy and I didn't work out for a while.
And I just decided like,
"Enough is enough."
and I was ready to bounce back.
A couple things that I'll attribute my consistency to is:
#1: I started tracking my health progress in my Day One app.
Every day, I have this template that I fill out with my mood,
what workouts I did, what food I ate, and just gratitude--
all these little notes.
And I've been doing that consistently every day since the beginning of June.
#2: I kind of swapped out an old unproductive habit for this new, more productive habit.
I deleted Twitter from my phone.
I used to spend a good 1-2 hours on Twitter in the evenings,
just reading up on just everything--
news, articles, what people are saying.
And I realized that that was not really healthy.
I thought I was doing a lot of learning and researching,
which I was.
But at the same time, you're absorbing so much noise
that was not good for my mental health.
I kind of swapped that time for workout time,
which has improved my mental health drastically.
In general, the benefits that I've experienced in these past 1.5 months of consistent exercise:
I definitely have more strength in my body.
I feel more energy.
I feel like I have a better routine.
I have this thing, this goal that I can focus on,
so that I don't spend my time doing other things,
like being on my computer too long or watching too much TV.
I've definitely noticed changes in my body as well.
I measure different parts of my body once a week,
and I notice changes there.
The funny thing about this experience was I was really frustrated
because the first two to three weeks I wasn't losing weight.
I was like, “Why is this number not going down?”
But I noticed that my body was changing.
It was just staying the same weight.
This is just a reminder to not focus on weight.
Just focus on how you feel and how you feel in your clothes,
how you look in the mirror,
and just your self confidence.
The most important changes that I've really appreciated is
my mental health is so much better.
I'm more confident in myself and I have more energy.
Today, I actually plan to show you a full workout routine and what that entails.
But before I get into it, I do wanna share a general outline,
so you get the bigger picture of my routine.
Another thing is I wanna share all of my favorite YouTube workout videos
and down below, I'll put it in my blog post, so you'll have all the links in that blog post.
It's too many links and playlists to put in the description,
so I'll just organize it on the blog.
All right, here's the basic outline of my workout routine in general.
Like I mentioned, I try to work out 6 days/week,
but that's not set in stone.
I think anywhere between 4-6 is good.
I alternate between a lower body day and an upper body day.
The lower body workout day tends to be harder,
and the upper body workout is just arms and abs
and it tends to be easier.
I let myself go a little easier on the upper body day
and I kind of remind myself,
“Okay, let's work harder for the lower body day.”
I always begin my workout with 15-45 minutes of cardio.
This is just depending on my mood, my energy level, and how much time I have.
If I have a lot of time, sure, I'll try to do more cardio
because I'm here to sweat and get my heart rate going.
But if I don't have that much time,
One video, 15 minutes, just some cardio to get my blood flowing
before the strength type of workouts.
After cardio, I'll do a little light stretching
since my body is already warmed up.
And then, I will choose 2-3 YouTube video workouts
that focus on the specific body part that I'm working out that day.
For legs day, I might do a total legs workout, butt workout, or inner thigh,.
I'll just like pick and choose between the playlists that I have.
And I might do some ab workouts,
maybe just like two minute abs,
something simple where I'm activating a little bit,
but not working that hard on my abs.
And then the next day, which is the arms day,
that's when I'll do arm exercises and ab exercises.
Typically, those days are easier than my lower body days.
After the strength workouts, then I'll do like a full body stretch.
Because I love yoga, I just get into my yoga flow
and I just have specific flows and stretches
that I always really like to do.
And me, because I love stretches,
I could spend 30 minutes to even an hour of stretching
if I have the time.
That's just me, but I love that cool down.
It's part of my meditation and connection with myself.
There's something really fun I wanna share later at the end of the video.
I'll let you stick around to the end so you can find out later
because I feel like I've been explaining a lot
and we wanna get into the workouts.
Today, I'm showing you the entire flow of a lower body day.
I mentioned that,
that is typically a harder day in my workout routine.
We are starting with cardio
and I'm starting with a video by Thankyou BUBU.
You're gonna learn that all the videos that I use to work out have been Korean workout videos.
My two favorite channels are actually one called 'Vitamin JINY' and one called 'Thankyou BUBU'.
There are a couple others that I like,
but those two are my favorites.
“Why do I love Korean workouts lately?”
Reason #1: they are beginner friendly.
I found some that are really personable and approachable.
The people are really friendly
and they talk to you throughout the entire workout.
I find that most Western YouTubers, they do voiceovers
and you kind of feel a disconnect from the actual person doing the workout.
I actually like when they're working out and talking to you
and they're talking about how hard it is.
It feels fun and actually feels like you're doing it with a person.
By the way, I started out with my hair down
because I had such a good hair day that day that I wanted to keep it,
but that was hopeless.
Pretty soon, I had to like put it up
and my hair is eventually gonna be a mess.
Just like it always is.
Reason #2: I find that the exercises themselves are different.
Because in Korean culture, they're tailoring to a more slender, thin body type
versus in Western culture, they're tailoring to a more muscular and strong type.
This is not an absolute statement,
but I just have found newer types of exercises in these Korean workouts.
For example, they do a lot of leg workouts where you're laying on the ground
versus in Western videos, a lot of leg workouts are standing--
squats, lunges, jumps,
and I prefer the lower impact laying-on-my-back type of exercises.
Reason #3: I like that I don't fully understand the language and I have to read captions
because my brain is doing a little extra work.
I personally get sick of repetition really easily.
I don't like when I hear the same songs over and over again.
I don't wanna watch the same video over and over again.
With Korean workouts I could like not look at the screen
and I don't understand what they're saying,
so I'm not getting sick of it.
During cardio, my goal is to break a sweat and keep my heart rate high.
I really like to put my energy into cardio.
If the TV is doing one thing, I try to do it full out.
I even try to do it faster than the TV sometimes if I have extra energy,
because I'm just trying to burn as much calories and fat as I can during that time.
Sometimes, the cardio videos include strength training as well.
It's not always black and white like,
“This is just cardio,” “This is just strength”
Sometimes, I end up doing abs or legs in those cardio videos.
I just let it happen.
Another thing is Togi is always hanging out with me while I'm working out.
I feel like he waits until I get really sweaty
and then he wants to come and lick me
because obviously I taste salty.
Then after cardio, I'm just doing some stretching
since I worked out a lot of my legs from all those standing exercises,
I'm just stretching them.
Moving on, this is my daily playlist where I keep some of my favorite videos that I try to do daily.
I don't do all of them daily.
I alternate between whatever I feel like doing that day.
Today, I'm gonna do this highly rated, highly popular legs workout from Thankyou BUBU.
This is the first video that I discovered from this channel
that made me really curious for more.
Because like I mentioned earlier,
all of these leg workouts are laying down
and I've never done some of these before.
All the American/Western YouTubers would do other types of workouts.
It was just nice to do something different for a change.
Something that's just as effective,
but that I could do laying down, which I really liked.
Next, I'm doing a video focusing on your hips.
I'm doing a bunch of bridge poses and bridge exercises for your butt basically.
And again, I'll have all of these videos linked in my blog post down below if you wanna try them out.
Next, I'm doing an ab workout video.
I believe this one was a 10 minutes ab workout.
This swimming pose is one of the hardest workouts.
It's so good.
You should definitely try it if you are ready.
All right, I'm done with my workout for the day.
Moving on to stretching.
I wanna show you my entire stretch routine
because it incorporates a lot of great poses.
I'm specifically doing a lot of stretches to realign my pelvis.
There was something that I learned called anterior pelvic tilt.
I will definitely link that video below
because it's basically when your pelvis tilts backwards.
This happens when you sit too long,
and I've definitely sat too long and never worked out.
I had this pelvic tilt and I didn't know that,
that was not normal and not the correct alignment.
Now during my stretch routine,
I do stretches to try to realign my pelvis so that it is straight.
I also focus on just stretching my legs in general
because the muscles in your legs are the biggest muscles in your body.
Since I did leg workout today, I got to stretch them.
This one is my favorite pose.
This is pigeon and sleeping pigeon.
I love doing the stretch in yoga.
It's so good for stretching your butt.
And it just feels so good
After stretching, I also like to do foam rolling on my legs.
I specifically do this when I have legs day
because obviously the muscles have been worked out
and they can be really tense.
To prevent them from being too sore the next day,
I like to foam roll.
Foam rolling is something I just started doing in the past maybe 3 weeks.
There were parts of my legs that were so tense and painful to roll.
I've really noticed the difference in releasing my muscles
from just 2-3 days of foam rolling in a row.
It's because I've actually physically felt the improvement
that I am motivated to do this.
Plus, it just feels good.
You're basically massaging your legs.
I'll definitely share a video that teaches you exactly how to foam roll your legs.
That will also be included in the blog post.
For example, the first time I did foam rolling on my front thigh area, basically my quads,
it hurt so much because those muscles were so tense and tight
and now they don't hurt as much anymore.
But I learned recently that,
that will happen when you have anterior pelvic tilt
because your body is compensating.
Basically it's putting a lot of extra pressure on your quads,
making them work harder because the muscles behind are working less hard.
If you have anterior pelvic tilt,
you'll also have really tight quad muscles,
which are those muscles in the front of your thigh.
Now I wanna fast forward a couple days,
because I actually discovered something new that I could add to my foam rolling routine.
Typically, I would just have nothing playing while I'm foam rolling or stretching.
Sometimes I might play relaxing music.
But I recently had the idea to start playing affirmations
while I am foam rolling.
Since I'm just relaxing & de-stressing, I'm kind of getting into that meditative state.
I'm like, “Oh my God, I could just use this time to also do affirmations or any like law of attraction related stuff.”
I started playing my own Lavendaire affirmations,
which look beautiful on the TV if I do say so myself.
That was just something where I'm like,
“Oh my God, this is gonna be my new routine.”
If you don't just wanna do Lavendaire affirmations, you don't have to.
You can put on anything that is law of attraction or manifesting related
because it's a perfect time to just set intentions or repeat affirmations
or listen to something that can help nourish your mind or soul.
For example, this reminds me of when I used to listen to Deepak Chopra audiobooks before falling asleep.
Another audio that I was listening to after my affirmations was a Wayne Dyer audio.
It was one of those where it was like 3-4 hours long
that you're supposed to listen to reprogram your mind while you sleep.
I'm like, “Okay, I'm just gonna listen to this while I'm foam rolling
because it's literally just these positive messages and thoughts on repeats.”
And I'm like, “Okay, I might as well do something good for my brain as I'm stretching and foam rolling.”
That's a little extra tip if you wanna infuse some extra intention
and manifesting power at the end of your workout.
Last but not least, I also wanna share clips of what an upper body day looks like
since I did get to film both days.
Obviously the leg day is longer, more intense,
and the arms day is a little more chill.
There's just one video that I always like to do.
It's a Vitamin JINY 15 minutes arm workout video.
That's the first video I did from her that made me fall in love with her channel as well.
Because like I mentioned, these types of workouts,
I've never done these movements with my arms.
Some of them were silly, like slapping your arms like a swan.
And they look simple, but they actually do hurt
and they actually do work out your arm strength.
I really enjoy doing that one.
And it's also really rewarding for these workouts.
The fact that I've been doing them for a month
to notice how much easier they've gotten over time.
For arms day, I did that Vitamin JINY arms video,
and then I did another Thankyou BUBU arms video.
And then, I ended it with an abs video.
And that was my arms day.
I hope you guys understand what's happening in my workout routine.
I just basically alternate between those two types of days.
And then I take one day off, which is typically Sunday
where I just tell myself,
“Okay, I'm not working out. I can just have a break.”
So far, I've still been keeping up with 6 days/week.
But like I mentioned, I'm not set on that.
It's just that I happen to actually look forward to working out every single day.
I know that might sound weird to some of you who are not in that mindset of working out.
I definitely was not always in this mindset.
It's just that now that I've found a good flow,
I found a workout routine that is super accessible.
I have all those playlists ready for me to go on YouTube.
I can just turn on my TV,
click the cardio playlist,
click the daily playlist,
and my videos are playing in the right order that I want them to play at.
I get to choose.
I have a variety of selection.
I'm not doing the same videos every single day.
I need to have some level of variety.
Also, I found in these videos a level that is perfect for me.
Of course, there are some videos that I find are too easy.
Then, I'll take them off my playlist if they're too hard.
I have a 'Level 2' playlist,
that I only do those videos if I really have energy and I'm in the mood.
For the most part, these videos don't push me too hard.
They push me just enough for me to be able to finish the video.
And then, that's how I'm able to do these workouts,
and complete the videos, and I feel good about myself.
The way that I'm working out, I don't like to work out until my muscles are super sore the next day.
I don't wanna have trouble walking and lifting things.
I'm not going that hard.
I'm just breaking a sweat, moving my body consistently every single day.
That in itself makes me feel good about myself.
It makes me feel good that I can show up.
I can do it anytime.
I typically do it in the evenings.
I think I just made it so seamless and easy for me to show up,
to work out every day,
which is why I've been staying consistent with it.
I've literally built the habits since June.
I do admit that my workouts have cut into my free time in the evenings,
my K-drama time, my Netflix time, my just-browsing-the-internet time,
but I feel more productive.
On the days where I am don't have that much energy to work out,
what I do is I play my K-drama,
and then I have my iPad/phone as the second screen that shows the cardio workout.
And I'll just be loosely watching the video while watching a K-drama.
And so, I'm still moving my body in that way.
I do find that I focus and work harder if I just watch the workout video.
But sometimes I do both.
I like to multitask.
I don't know, my brain gets bored at the same things, like I told you.
All right, I hope you got something out of today's video.
Let me know if you have any questions down below.
Make sure you check out my blog post for all those videos and recommendations.
And I will see you in the next one.
Sending you so much love.
Bye.