Stay healthy at home with virtual workouts from local fitness studios and gyms
There's nothing like a quick midday workout routine or a morning ashtanga class to boost your energy and clear the mind. Local gyms, yoga studios and other organizations are doing their part to help us adjust to our new stay-at-home situation by pivoting to online classes that can be joined any time of day, whether it’s between Zoom meetings or between Lunch No. 1 and Lunch No. 2. So whether you're a yogi or a yoga newbie, you can stay active and try a virtual vinyasa session (or a do 7-minute Desk Detox or take a hip-hop class courtesy of the Sacramento Ballet), with no one watching and without leaving your living room.
Sacramento Ballet
The company recently released a series of SB @ Home classes via Zoom ($10 drop-in fee) that take aspects of the professionals’ rigorous training to create streaming workouts for the public. In Ballet Conditioning, some Pilates work is incorporated to align joints and power up the core, and during Adult Ballet, instructors rely on the classical form’s seven movements, from pliés to pirouettes, for their challenging exercise routines. If you’d rather pop and lock to rhyming and record-scratching, sign up for the offbeat option, a twice-weekly hip-hop class. sacballet.org
Sacramento Kings
As part of its “In This Together” initiative, created to support the community during the coronavirus pandemic, our hometown NBA team is sharing Nike-approved exercise videos free of charge. Kings emcee Kat Kountouris (also a nutritionist and athlete) leads short weekly workouts geared toward homebodies. Here’s a taste of the muscle shred in store: A 12-minute ab routine puts more than one twist on the core-firing plank pose; a 20-minute bodyweight session includes such pulse-racers as pop squats, crab toe touches and inch worms; and a 7-minute Total Desk Detox starts with shoulder gators to counteract the dreaded computer hunch. kings.com
The Capital Athletic Club
This popular downtown Sacramento gym isn't requiring a membership to take part in its varied workout videos, which are posted to Instagram. “Explosive power drills” keep your muscle fibers “twitching,” as only relentless reps of weighted jump squats and speed burpees can do, while a more relaxed Yoga Breath and Warm-Up class gently juices the joints and gets your respiration full and flowing. What the free videos lack in production quality, they more than make up for in the instructors’ enthusiasm. Find workouts on the gym's Instagram
Auburn Fit1
To members who have unfrozen their dues to help this small gym survive the shelter-in-place mandate, owner Micah Brosnan has lent 14 spin bikes and various sets of hand weights and kettlebells for their workout-from-home pleasure. But for anyone with internet access, a series of free online fitness sessions led by the gym’s instructors has recently populated the studio’s blog, from a three-part Body Sculpt class to a 50-minute Spin and Strength challenge to a refreshing half-hour of yoga, perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up. auburnfit1.com
Zuda Yoga
You’ll need to reserve a spot for Zuda’s live-streaming one-hour Zoom yoga classes, which take place four times daily ($10/drop-in; $50/month unlimited). Or you can sign up to access the locally based studio chain’s library of yin, vinyasa or ashtanga video sessions on its Vimeo channel ($25/month). There’s a smattering of shorter guided meditation sessions included in the stash as well, but if your asanas are on lock, hone your introspection during Zuda’s 21-day meditation challenge, also on Vimeo ($21 to purchase; $9 to rent for 30 days). After all, there’s no better time like the present to practice presence. zudayoga.com
Solfire Yoga
This midtown yoga studio is hosting two to four Zoom sessions daily ($15 for drop-in, $69 per month for unlimited live streaming or $99 per month for additional access to the video library). Since the sessions are suitable for all levels, you’ll not only get plenty of suggestions for modifying your practice, you’ll also gain inspiration by seeing how fellow yogis work at their own pace. “Our Zoom classes give people a chance to virtually roll out their mats next to each other,” says Solfire owner Ellen Moe. “This online format has created a more far-reaching community than we could have ever imagined.” To check out Solfire at no cost, everyone can tune in for free to Instagram Live on Fridays at 9:30 a.m. for a pandemic-era spin on a community class. solfirejstreet.com
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