How I’m Working Out At Home During Covid

JULY 2022 UPDATE: I’ve been using this program for 2 years and wrote an updated review. You can read my new review here. Also, The Balanced Life is now Lindywell! New name, same awesome Pilates :)

We may be stuck at home during this time, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work out from home! The Balanced Life Sisterhood is the perfect way to do that!

But first, let me back up and tell you a story…

During the summers I love going to a local gym and participating in Refit- it’s like Zumba, but with Toby Mac songs! (Okay, not just Toby Mac songs… but when those are thrown in it’s quite fun!) But I love that class for more than just the music or even the actual workouts, the instructor is so upbeat and she makes the class so fun!

The class is held in the mornings, so during the school year, I can’t go. :( When we have time off from school I like to go to Refit if it works with my schedule.

So that’s one of the strangest things about being home from school during this self-quarantine time: not being able to go to Refit.

For the first few weeks of self-quarantine, I took walks around my apartment complex a lot. But eventually, I got tired of just walking for exercise. I wanted to do something else.

That’s when I discovered The Balanced Life.

I was scrolling on Instagram one morning and saw someone recommend The Balanced Life. So I clicked over to the Instagram account and started scrolling there.

I soon realized that The Balanced Life is an at-home Pilates program. I watched a few of Robin’s videos (the founder of The Balanced Life) and found her to be totally charming! Her calm and joyful personality made me think that maybe working out from home might not be all that bad.

I decided to give her program, The Balanced Life Sisterhood, a shot. Enrollment is currently open, so I got a subscription to her site with plans to cancel it if I didn’t fall in love.

Every day when you log on, there is a video waiting for you.

Robin organizes a calendar of workouts each month. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays the workouts are about 15 minutes. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the workouts are closer to 30 minutes. I love that I don’t have to think about what workout I’m going to do. I just roll out my mat, login, and click “play.”

My first The Balanced Life workout was called “Barre on the Beach.” I have gone to one Barre class before and, honestly, I hated it. I was soooooo sore afterward.

However, this 15-minute Barre-Pilates infusion was fun! And even though it was just 15 minutes, I was still sore the next day! I added it to my favorites so I can access it again later.

I joined The Balanced Life on April 13th. Since then, I have done a Pilates workout every day! I can’t remember the last time I was this consistent with working out! (And yes, I realize it’s just been 11 days… but still, baby steps and small wins are key!)

What I love about The Balanced Life:

The first thing I love about The Balanced Life is Robin herself.

She is so genuine and joyful. As she leads the workouts she provides great cues! It’s almost like she’s in the same room as me and not on my computer when she says things like “I see those shoulders tightening up! Go ahead and loosen them.” and my shoulders were totally tight at that exact moment. 😅

Sometimes she says things like “This is hard” and “I feel the burn too!” I love it when she says things like that because it makes me feel normal that some workouts hard for me. If she’s feeling the burn and she’s done this for years, then it’s okay if it’s hard for me too.

Oh! And she films 90% of her videos on the beach in Santa Barbra and so I love getting the illusion of working out on the beach… especially while I’m stuck at home.

The second thing I love about The Balanced Life is that there is flexibility.

There is the daily calendar with workouts as I mentioned above. But there is also a library with tons of videos that you can choose from. I like how on the weekends I can scroll through the library and pick a workout based upon my needs that day. Or, if I decide I don’t want to do the daily scheduled workouts I can choose my own.

I find this is a perfect balance. It’s not too ridged that I feel confined by the schedule every day. Nor is it too open-ended where I find myself not knowing what to do that day.

Another thing I love about The Balanced Life is the workouts.

I figured I probably should talk about what The Balanced Life is all about! 😂

I had never done Pilates before signing up for The Balanced Life. A few years ago, I was really into yoga and I did that a few times a week. However, about 6 months ago I became convicted about the spiritual roots of yoga and decided I personally shouldn’t do yoga. Or, at least, not do yoga all that often.

I find that Pilates is very similar to yoga, except it doesn’t have the same spiritual roots. You also aren’t doing “flows” during the workout (repetitive routines) and so I find myself less bored with Pilates than I was with yoga classes where we did the same exercises week after week.

I really like how with Pilates you do fewer exercises but with intention in each rep. (Similar to yoga.) Because of that, you are able to work out really hard and get results but without doing 100 sit-ups as quickly as you can. I hate sit-ups, so this is perfect for me LOL!

Some videos focus on the abs while others focus on the legs. Others focus on arms and others focus on the whole body. You are able to search for workouts with certain focuses in mind which is nice if you want to customize what you work on that day. I have found that the provided calendar has a good variety of which areas we work each day.

I also love the recipes.

There is a whole recipe section on the website and you can search for new recipes based upon the meal or certain ingredients. There are also recipes that suit different allergy needs, so that’s nice! Robin doesn’t list the nutritious facts of her meals. Instead, she encourages us to eat whole, nutritious food without worrying about counting calories. That’s my kind of eating!

I joined The Balanced Life Sisterhood for the workouts, but I find these recipes as a nice bonus :)

There’s also a meal planning feature and a grocery-list maker, but I haven’t used those enough to fully review them yet.

Lastly, I love the community that comes with The Sisterhood.

There is a Facebook group for The Balanced Life members and it’s been so great to become a part of that. Most everyone uses the daily workout calendar, so there’s a great sense of commodity of “We all did the same workout today from our houses.”

People say things like “Man! That workout was so great! I have noodle legs now!” and “What was the hardest part of today’s workout for you?” or “I finally was able to do the rollup!” and we get to cheer each other on!

If you don’t have Facebook, don’t worry! There’s also a community tab on the website so you’re still able to ask questions and connect with other members. I find that super thoughtful of Robin to provide a way for people who don’t have Facebook to still connect with others.

Want to join me in The Balanced Life Sisterhood??

Yay!

I’m going to share my referral link with you in a second, but before I do, I want to tell you a little bit about that. Robin gives each Sisterhood member a unique referral code to share with their friends. If one of your friends signs up, you get $20 off The Balanced Life store.

Right now registration is OPEN because of the Coronavirus. However, Robin usually only opens enrollment a few times a year. If you become interested during the off-season times, you need to know a Sisterhood member and use their link in order to join. It’s kinda like a secret club in that way. You gotta know someone to slip in. :)

So anywho, enough about that. If you want to join, here’s my link. And if you join, comment below and let me know so I can keep an eye out for you to appear in the community!

There are monthly, 6 months, and yearly plans. I signed up for the year-long plan because there’s the option to cancel within one month and get your money back. However, I’m totally hooked on Pilates now and I don’t think I’m going to want to stop!

Posted by Kara Beth & filed under Health. This post has 4 comments.