The Magic Of The Better-Than-Nothing Workout

I used to consider myself "active," but after living in San Francisco for 7 years I started checking the "somewhat active" box on those doctor's office forms. This city and all it's over-achievers with their charity 900-mile bike races and sunrise 10K Instagram photos. I'm more of a "Sunday Funday" kind of millennial than a "Weekend Warrior."

And according to 10 years of performance reviews, I struggle greatly with "consistency." Apparently I lack the willpower to "crush it" day after day at work and similarly, I lack the willpower to consistently workout three times a week. I tend to follow a pattern of becoming momentarily obsessed with and then quickly quit things like Orange Theory, Soul Cycle, Core 40, *all* the boot camps...

And when traveling? Forget it. I admire people who use hotel gyms, but I feel like it must require a god-like amount of willpower. I stopped packing "workout clothes" after the 100th time I shamefully unpacked my running shoes without having touched them during a trip.

And yet! I managed to drop all (okay, most) of my pregnancy weight *WHILE* traveling *AND* during coronavirus when my beloved ballet studios had to shut down.

So, as we head into what's likely to be another quarantine, I wanted to share one of my greatest life hacks I like to call "the better than nothing workout."

You've actually already probably heard about it, especially with everyone sheltering in place and looking for ways to stay in shape. I stole most of it from the infamous "7-minute workout." It's a simple circuit training routine using your body weight as resistance. But do not mistake this article clickbait. I'm not saying "try this 30-second trick to lose 100 pounds by the weekend." What I am saying is that ditching the "all or nothing" and "go big or go home" attitude when it comes to workouts changed everything for me.

How It Works (For me at least)

1. The real heavy-hitter here is the massive reduction in willpower required. It's fairly easy to commit 7 minutes to anything in the morning. I initially started doing it as a "just in case I don't make it to ballet after work today I'll at least have done something". But because it required so little willpower, I just kept doing it. And it quickly became a habit.

2. Consistency > Effort when it comes to results. My completely unverified theory is that doing 10 pushups every day will yield greater results than doing 70 pushups once a week. I'd love to link you to a study that proves this but I'm don't want to pretend that I know this is true. The great tragedy about fitness is that people respond very differently to different diets and exercise, so you have to figure out what works for you. That said, consistency is vital to getting results so whatever gets you doing anything is, well, better than nothing.

3. It's really hard to find an excuse to skip it. This is especially important when you're traveling. There's no gear and you can do it anywhere with very little space. I've done plenty of these in tiny hotel rooms and shared Airbnbs.

The Secret Sauce

After I started to see results, I decided to make it part of my mourning routine and took the opportunity to "Kari" things up a bit.

1. First, I produced my own custom 7-minute medley in GarageBand with music that got me all pumped to workout. Currently (as you'll see below) I'm using Beyonce's Get Me Bodied and Higher Ground by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Past iterations have included: Nails, Hair, Hips Heels- Todderick Hall, 24K Magic- Bruno Mars, Marco Polo- The Relay Company, Work Bitch- Britney.

2. Then I added (and this is pretty clutch) a few exercises that my Physical Therapist told me to do daily (but I always forgot to do). Instantly making me an excellent PT patient and relieving a shit ton of back problems.

3. Then (and this is even more clutch), I got my friends to record themselves calling out the exercises so I get to hear them motivating me every morning.

4. THEN because I was so excited about how well it was working, I started making more exercise songs. I made a "Psychopath Ab Routine (also shown below)" that I stole from the US women's gymnastics team (because I am weirdly obsessed with women's gymnastics). I have two for ballet-specific conditioning workouts (think lots of weird feet exercises). Then I made one for stretching. And most recently, I made one with all the exercises and drills you need to do a press-to-handstand (one of my 2020 goals) . (Because I decided I want to learn to do a press to handstand. Again the gymnastics thing, I really don't know...)

So. Now while we're waiting for gyms to open back up, I shot some videos of my 2 favorite workouts. Intentionally done in pajamas, to really drive home the point that they are _so_ easy_ to _do. Special cameo by my 8-month-old, for extra authenticity.

If you want the audio to these, you can download them here.