Stream & Sweat: Staying Fit and Stress-Free On-the-Go

The holiday season, while joyful, is also one that brings with it anxiety, stress, and high-expectations that can lead to feelings of depression when not met. But there’s a trick that can keep your spirits merry and bright and your stress and anxiety at bay – exercise!

Besides letting you enjoy guilt-free second-helpings during holiday dinners, exercise is incredibly beneficial for our mood, helping us to beat anxiety, depression, and even fatigue, naturally. Dr. Jim Nicolai shared, “Like laughter, regular exercise can be a treatment for depression that is just as effective as medication, with less relapse.” But, during the season where schedules are packed with errands and obligations and temperatures often keep us indoors, getting in that daily sweat session, no matter how beneficial and needed, can feel impossible. Leading to more anxiety and stress during a season where they run rampant. But there’s an easy to way to still get in your workout even if your schedule doesn’t allow you to get to the gym, streaming fitness.

Yes, you can find workouts all over the internet, from lists of exercises to tone your inner thighs to moves to get fit in 10 minutes or less but some of us need the instruction of being in a class setting or being guided by a personal trainer. Enter, streaming fitness, online classes available when you are often taught by the same instructors at your favorite gym! In the last year more and more gyms and studios have created their own streaming fitness classes where their clients (or new clients) can join, often for just 10 dollars a month, and gain access to fun guided workouts that they can do anywhere at anytime – perfect during holiday travels and when below-zero temps keep you from wanting to venture outside!

We’ve rounded up some of our favorite streaming fitness classes below and hope that this year you’ll beat the winter blues with some winter workouts!

Crunch Live

I tested out this $9.99 a month database of online fitness classes from Crunch earlier this year and loved it! It’s great for those of us that love the energy of group fitness classes but don’t have the time to make it to the gym or perhaps don’t feel super confident exercising in a group setting. You get access to Crunch’s most popular classes, taught by actual Crunch instructors, including Yoga Body Sculpt and Brazilian Body Blast. You can select a full-length hour-long class or opt for a 15-minute quickie. Get your FREE 3 day trail and see if it’s right for you here

Ballet Beautiful

Celebrity favorite, and the very woman who trained Natalie Portman for her role in Black Swan, Mary Helen Bowers took her Ballet Beautiful workout to the web in 2010 and has been providing online, real-time workouts for her clients ever since. The classes are accessible worldwide, are live, and full-interactive so you will be corrected on your form, giving you a truly personalized experience in the comfort of your own home, or wherever your travels may take you. You can purchase group classes or private training as well as simply trying it out with workout videos that start as low as $8. You’ll burn fat while sculpting that perfect long, lean, and toned dancer’s body! For $39.99 a month you’ll get the Custom Workout – where two new workouts are added each month, you’ll gain unlimited access to the streaming library (which even includes prenatal workouts!), personalized workouts tailored to your goals and schedule, and the ability to update as you go! Learn more here

Daily Burn

Available on all of your devices, Daily Burn tailors a fitness program to you and offers a one month free trial so you are truly able to see if the program is a good fit! With workouts ranging from yoga to Pilates to kettlebells, and even nutritional advice, Daily Burn allows you to select your level of difficulty and the amount of time you have to spare for a sweat sesh, from less than 15 minutes to a full hour. Plus further personalize by selecting what your fitness goals are and what they look like and Daily Burn will come up with the right program for you, while giving you access to their full range of workouts and classes!

Gaiam TV

Yoga Download

Give your body and mind what they need and give back while you’re at it! Yoga Download gives a portion of its proceeds from classes to a variety of charities, so it gives you an even better feeling after working out. You can download and stream over 500 classes on your devices that range from 5-110 minutes to they can adapt to fit into your schedule. You also get access to meditations and music! Join for $18 a month and enjoy unlimited classes!

Tighten up with Tim

Don’t want to pay but still want to stream fitness classes? Try our very own Tighten up with Tim series that we filmed last year (before we evolved to Spafinder Wellness 365!)