I love dancing since I was little. My mom was a dancer and choreographer, and I remember tagging along in her group rehearsals, trying on my mom’s dance costumes and imitating her. I loved performing at school and church, and even now, dancing while singing karaoke is my number one stress release! But I never had proper training so I’m not that good, and surely far from the competitive level. But if I have to do some “active body movement”, I’d choose to dance. (Or declutter!) When I dance, it’s not just exercise for my body, it also clears my mind, calms my heart and makes me happy.

In my previous post Losing Weight, I mentioned that part of what I was doing in my attempt to lose my pregnancy weight last year, was exercising. My husband has a bench and dumbbell set at home, but I never used them. I never really liked weight lifting/training, though I understand its importance and I probably have to do some eventually. And running outside and cardio machines bore me. (Sorry!) So for home exercising, I was doing dance workouts. I was using videos on YouTube, and I thought to share with everyone the channels that I like:

The Fitness Marshall
https://youtube.com/user/TheFitnessMarshall

I. Love. Caleb! He’s so funny and entertaining. I like his sense of humor when using metaphor for some of their dance moves, and his side comments always crack me up. The routines they do in their videos are quite easy to follow, and they repeat them throughout the song so you get a lot of practice. They dance to the latest popular songs so you get your radio and exercise at the same time! There’s also the backstory that one of the dancers Hayley, was Caleb’s real-life ex-girlfriend, and in some of their older videos, they were dancing with Caleb’s new partner! And there was one time in their video “Wait” when Caleb said, “This is what I wanted to say to Hayley when she broke up with me”, and he turned to her during the lyrics “I wanna be with you”. It might’ve been just a joke or act, but I loved it and felt there’s a bit of tv-like drama there too! One video is about 3-5 mins, so for my dance workout menu, I made playlists of 8-10 videos. They’re really enjoyable and totally recommended to those who like dancing to popular music. I think if you join their club, you’ll get access to their full-length and live workouts.

Popsugar Fitness
https://youtube.com/c/POPSUGARFitness

I also like the dance workout videos from Popsugar Fitness, and was doing them twice a week for a change-up. They have a lot of videos in different genres like Hip Hop, Latin, Caribbean, etc. They also have aerobic, barre and cardio workouts that target body parts for toning and sculpture. They have fun instructors too, and I like how they motivate you to continue. Most of their dance videos are only 30 minutes but doing even just one, will really raise your bpm and make you sweat a lot! I love their Latin and Island Vibes videos, but I always get out of breath towards the end!

Les Mills
https://youtube.com/c/lesmills

They don’t have a lot of full-length workout videos on YouTube. I believe you have to sign up to get access to the videos and fitness programs. The set (studio) and the music they use, and the quality of their videos are awesome! And they seem to do a lot of collaboration with Reebok. The few dance videos they have on YouTube, are more like dance training/lessons than workout, so the routines are more complicated, but very cool! And you will feel cool once you nail them! I like Gandalf Archer Mills’ style of teaching, and when he says “bap bap bap” to describe the rhythm. He’s cool! Everything is just coolness! (Is there another adjective for cool?) The videos are about 15 mins and I like including one in my workout menu, after the Caleb playlist or a Popsugar video.

305 Fitness
https://youtube.com/user/305Fitness

305 Fitness videos remind me of the ’80s “Fame” and “Fast Forward” dancers in leotards, cycling shorts and cropped tees with head and wrist bands. Their videos give the feel of a dance party in a club, with a DJ, dimmed lights, and pink, blue and green spotlights. The dance moves and outfits could be a bit sexy sometimes so maybe they’re not for everyone, but they’re quite enjoyable. I especially like the videos with Ivy Ledon — she’s really fun and hyper, and reminds me of my mom’s dancers in the old days. I was alternating Les Mills and 305 in my workout menu.

Blogilates
https://youtube.com/user/blogilates

Another YouTube personality I love, Cassey! I want to be friends with her! She did a collab with Caleb one time and I was ecstatic to see them together. Her videos are not dance workouts but I was doing them for stretching and warm-up before the dance videos. I also liked doing her abs, butt and legs toning videos on weekends, as a “tone down” from all the bpm raising workouts on the weekdays. The way she talks while doing the exercises made me feel like I’m listening to one of my girlfriends, so I wasn’t minding the time. You know how sometimes you get to the last part of the exercise and your counting gets faster coz you just want to finish it? Especially when you’re doing a plank… Haha! I didn’t feel that way with her videos at all.

Marina Takewaki
https://youtube.com/channel/UCw7HTQv0F4CB9zGRhqosYsg

I found her when I was searching for the fad “Clap Dance”. She looked like she was having so much fun doing it that it was “contagious” to me. So I checked out her channel and found she has many home training and workout videos. I believe she’s not a professional trainer; I hope I’m right about this, coz that’s why I liked her — she’s just like me, a normal person doing her best to be fit. Her reactions and expressions during the workout were similar to how I felt when feeling the burn and losing breath, so it was like working out with a friend. I liked doing Marina’s videos on weekend mornings whenever I needed a pump up, so I was alternating her and Cassey’s toning videos.

So that’s my list. Phew! It’s been a very long time since I’ve written reviews, so apologies for my lack of adjectives. Making this list and checking my half-a-year untouched playlists made me miss those days when I was working out. My son would dance with me or just sit and watch me while bobbing his head or pumping his chest to the music. He also loves dancing by the way, and started doing some dance-like moves a little after he turned 1 — proud Mama! I hope I can go back to my dance workout even with the new baby… I’m sure it’s going to be, a challenge!