No Gym, No Problem: How to Workout from Home

If the past few weeks has seen you engaging in some intense circuit training (between your bed, laptop and kitchen), then this one’s for you. Knowing how many (free!) resources there are to substitute the gym really helped get me moving more this quarantine period. Here are some ways to get those endorphins going: 

Join a challenge

This one is for all of us with commitment issues: challenges take the 'work' out of working out by providing you with a complete training schedule. 

While pretty much every fitness influencer/former athlete has some at-home workout guide you can purchase, there are several fantastic free challenges out there. I've just completed the 14-day challenge by Shreddy, which I highly recommend (scroll through their Insta for the challenge and workouts). Having a number of reps or time that I had to hit prevented me from just checking out as soon as I felt a little tired. You can also find challenges more tailored to your goals. For killer abs, check out Max Whitlock's 7 day ab challenge, for arms a simple push-up challenge, or mix it up and create your own! 

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On demand/live workouts 

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Something that I really miss are group classes (shoutout FitChicago HIIT), but fortunately a lot of my favourite studios have been moving their classes online. You can choose between on-demand workouts to complete whenever you wish, or live-streams where you get to workout with others and the instructor cheering you on. Another benefit is knowing exactly how long your workout is going to take you, making them easier to slot in, especially since the quarter has started. Check out CorePower Yoga and Title Boxing for on-demand workouts, and Physique 57 and Digme Fitness for live-streams. 

YouTube 

YouTube is your saviour when it comes to finding workouts. Low-impact, high-intensity, full-body workout? Thirty-minute barre workout? Search and you shall find. This is perfect if you know what you're looking for, but if you're not sure where to begin, I recommend any workouts by FitnessBlender and MadFit, which both have a lot of equipment-free options. For some killer cardio the Jump Rope Dudes and PopSugar Fitness are my go-to. 

Invest in some equipment 

Most of the workouts above don't require any equipment at all, but some relatively inexpensive equipment that can take your workout just that bit farther include:

Resistance bands :Take you butt workouts from meh tier to god tier. I use a set I got off Amazon for less than $10. 

Jump rope : If I could pick only one thing to be quarantined with it would maybe be my jump rope. I think that says a lot about me. Get a jump rope. 

Hand weights: Pretty self-explanatory. There are lots of workouts on YouTube for weights, or just add a set to whatever workout if you are feeling extra. Substitute for canned food or pick up your SOSC books for the first time. 

Good music : I like to say that it's grit and determination that gets me through leg day, but it's really just a good Spotify playlist. Time moves faster with Kanye blasting through your ears. 

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Why are Supermodels Taking to the Vertical Screen?

Naomi Campbell, Karlie Kloss and Doutzen Kroes may be known as some of the world’s most illustrious and influential models of our time, walking for houses like Louis Vuitton, Chanel and YSL to name a few; but these long-legged ladies are now catwalking off the runways and strutting straight into our homes as part of Youtube’s grand endeavour to bridge the gap between luxury and lifestyle: Slash Fashion.

Fashion Model Karlie Kloss was one of the many supermodels who launched a Youtube Channel for Slash Fashion, featured here with Makeup Guru James Charles and Designer Alexander Wang. Image via

Following his appointment as head of fashion and beauty partnerships at YouTube, Derek Blasberg has launched YouTube.com/Fashion, which he refers to as /Fashion or Slash Fashion (I suppose it sounds more chic). Slash Fashion is a curated network of channels, creators and content that focuses particularly on Fashion and Beauty; with the occasional blast of comedy. In addition to picking what content is featured on the network, Blasberg has launched and relaunched several large creator bases. Renowned creators include the aforementioned supermodels, but also designers like Alexander Wang and Marc Jacobs and fashion icons like Alexa Chung, who have taken to using the platform as a means to showcase their brand and curate their narratives in their own way - think: incredibly glam vlogging, makeup tutorials and story telling.

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With this launch, Blasberg himself has been making quite the effort to curate and inspire more fashion-centric content across the channel, assisting in the launch of quite a few industry-adjacent channels (Klossy, Being Naomi, and Doutzen Diaries to name a few), while also inviting regulars of the YouTube scene to partake in the industry themselves: take the Dolan Twins and Emma Chamberlain attending Louis Vuitton shows next to James Charles and Liza Koshy walking the red carpet at the Met Gala.

Amidst all the glitter and feathers, one has to ask why this is all happening now. Why bring this mysterious world of couture and catwalks to the general viewing audience?

Well, considering the near 2-billion strong crowd of content consumers at YouTube, we can consider marketing as a possible reason, particularly when we think of brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton trying to expand their consumer audiences; however, we must also consider the inconsistency that a huge percentage of that 2-billion consumer audience can’t afford Chanel or Louis Vuitton.

Youtube Content Creators Lily Singh, James Charles and Liza Koshy attended this year’s Met Gala. Image via

So we enter the pseudo-democratization of fashion.

Fashion is a very mainstream topic: it’s been covered in the news, in magazines, and we consume it on a day-to-day basis. Yet regardless of its mass-media appeal, fashion is also often labeled as unattainable, unrealistic or perhaps mysterious to industry outsiders. That mystery, in many ways, seemed to perpetuate the aspects of luxury that go hand-in-hand with high fashion. The exclusivity of a Chanel Fashion Show makes it all the more fashionable, right? But at the advent of the internet, we got the privilege of streaming fashion shows as they were going on, allowing everyone to see the looks from Paris from the comfort of their own home. This rapid accessibility of what once was deemed exclusive has not only changed how we consume fashion, but how the fashion industry markets, produces and distributes its goods. Haven’t you seen a rise in designer tees? In teeny-weenie bags and in flip flops too? Though not anywhere near the price of real t-shirts and flip flops, the production of consumer goods that are just inexpensive enough to appeal to a new generation of bourgeois youth seems to move hand-in-hand with this push towards Slash Fashion.

After realizing that goods like coats, bags and shoes weren’t selling quite as well post-recession, many brands started producing cheaper goods, which the rapidly expanding middle class could attain. Bring in instagram and its armada of influencers and you get a highly saturated marketing team that makes it impossible not to catch a glimpse of some Gucci logo tees or Balenciaga sneakers scrolling down your feed. In that sense, fashion met the everyday man without Derek Blasberg’s help.

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Emma Chamberlain and the Dolan Twins are notable content creators on YouTube who have been inducted into slash fashion by filming their experiences at runway shows.

So why Slash fashion?

It’s possible that this pseudo-democratization or pandering to the middle class has done some harm to the industry on a more ethical level. As more and more consumers purchase more accessible fashion items, not only is there a huge environmental toll, but there is a toll on the industry. Many feel like fashion is losing a type of allure; a fantastic magic that transports their viewers away from their lives, the escapism aspect of fashion. The bridge that Blasberg seems to be making isn’t quite between fashion and YouTube, but really, fashion and entertainment.

I find that the launching of so many supermodels’ channels coupled with incredibly high quality content that has so much viral appeal, is changing how consumers will view fashion and its branching industries. Watching Naomi Campbell scrub an airplane seat in head to toe Alaia, or Emma Chamberlain and Karlie Kloss driving around Paris before the Louis Vuitton Show is taking a recipe for viral content and wrapping it in the umbrella of fashion, leading viewers to associate such hilarious and beautiful content with the already dominant fashion industry. In many ways, alongside its push to democratize fashion, the industry also seems to be trying to reestablish itself as something rare, something pseudo-exclusive. It’s that tantalizing tease that entertainment and YouTube has together: giving you something you can’t experience, but making it feel like you can, like a trip to the movies. This realist-escapism seems to be exactly what Slash Fashion is all about; and in many ways, I can’t really be mad at it. It’s bringing fashion to a large part of the world, and while there is likely some kind of marketing ploy in there, I am glad that industry insiders are bringing their perspectives to us to inspire a future generation of creatives. Slash Fashion is projecting the magic of the creative process from a multitude of perspectives, but it’s keeping the audience at arm’s length, which at the end of the day, makes up a huge part of YouTube’s content. I’m interested to see where this goes, and I’m definitely subscribed to quite a large portion of Blasberg’s Supermodel-turned-YouTuber army, so if anything, at least we’ll be getting some very colorful content in the near future.

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Feeds to Follow: @duyguozaslan

As a Turkish American, I am always fascinated to see what trends both countries are on top of, and what people our age are looking to in terms of style. Prominent Youtube vlogger Duygu Ozaslan is known in Turkey for her profoundly bougie tastes, makeup videos, and almost religious adherence to any mainstream trend. Check out her style below and a few of her videos (all in Turkish, but hey, good makeup techniques are universal).

One thing I do wish is that there were more Duygu-level popular Turkish insta baddies who were more accessible to the Turkish public as a whole: with the Turkish economy in relative freefall and goods harder and harder to attainably get ahold of, I can understand why Duygu’s feed can be aspirational, and maddeningly so, but until that void is filled, Duygu has the hold on this authority.

Check out her content below:

MAC çekiminin kamera arkası kanalımda yayında, linki bioda! Benim için çok anlamlı bir video oldu, izlerseniz çok mutlu olurum🕊

51.7k Likes, 196 Comments - Duygu Özaslan (@duyguozaslan) on Instagram: "MAC çekiminin kamera arkası kanalımda yayında, linki bioda! Benim için çok anlamlı bir video oldu,..."

T G I F 💥 Bir haftada neler giydim vlogum kanalımda yayında! Hepsi uygun fiyatlı ve size özel bir indirim kodum da var!

62.2k Likes, 194 Comments - Duygu Özaslan (@duyguozaslan) on Instagram: "T G I F 💥 Bir haftada neler giydim vlogum kanalımda yayında! Hepsi uygun fiyatlı ve size özel bir..."

Bir önceki uygun fiyatlı ürünlerle makyaj yaptığım videoda uzun zamandır kullandığım ürünler olduğunu ve de yeni şeyler görmek istediğinizi söylediniz. Ben de sizin önerdiğiniz listedeki uygun fiyatlı ürünleri aldım ve bu videoda denedim. Her zamanki gibi bilgi kutucuğunun devamında kullandığım ürünleri bulabilirsiniz.👇 Benzer şekilde bu videonun altına görmek istediğiniz pahalı ürünleri yazarsanız onlarla da bir video yapabiliriz.

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Beauty YouTubers to Check Out

Ah the perfect world of makeup tutorial videos, where life is peachy and the lighting is always good. You can practically breathe in the aloe and rosewater scents wafting from the screen. These videos are perfect for getting ready to or winding down after a long day, when I feel like glimpsing into somebody else’s polished daily routine. Here are my go-to beauty YouTubers, each skilled in their trade and representative of a distinctive style.

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Maddie Ziegler

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Age: 15

Location: Murrysville, PA/Los Angeles, CA

Style: Cali-casual, sporty

Subscriber Count: 2,417,954

Maddie intermixes more affordable, cult-favorite products like the Benefit 24-hour Brow Setter and Mario Badescu rosewater spray with higher-end products, like the La Mer moisturizing soft cream and Chanel bronzer. In her videos, she sometimes shares advice from her dermatologist Christie Kidd (such as avoiding tinted moisturizer for clearer skin!). She uses concealer and powder instead of foundation, and her makeup is natural and minimalistic, which I love. Link to her YouTube channel here.

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Amanda Steele

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Age: 18

Location: Huntington Beach, CA

Style: edgy, sophisticated glam

Subscriber Count: 2,809,295

Amanda’s makeup looks lean towards the heavy side, with lots of contouring and foundation. If you're one for more daring looks, definitely refer to her tutorials, as she's always experimenting with different hair colors and upping the ante of her makeup looks. Link to her YouTube channel here.

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Jenn Im

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Age: 27

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Style: chic, boho, Korean fashion

Subscriber Count: 2,169,425

Jenn was the vlogger who first got me into YouTube beauty tutorials, when I was just learning how to apply makeup. She's so cheerful and energetic, and occasionally I just leave her videos on in the background when folding laundry or doing busywork. I like watching her “empties” videos, where she takes empty product bottles from a prop trash can and gives reviews. In her "monthly favorites" videos, Jenn compiles makeup, diet tips, song recommendations, etc. She also travels a lot and documents the trips in her vlogs. Link to her YouTube channel here.

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Extra tip: This is old news, but never let your guard down against new beauty products, be it makeup or skincare. Be cautious about trying new products on your face. Almost every dermatologist recommends products that are labeled “oil-free” and “non-comedogenic” to treat acne-prone or sensitive skin. That includes anything from face-wash, face creams, and makeup. For oily skin, opt for serums or light gels instead of lotion and cream. Always wash your face with a good cleanser at least twice daily, and preferably once more at noon on hot days. Avoid fast-acting products, such as those containing steroids or chemical brightening/whitening agents. Also, you can research natural and organic remedies, such as aloe or cucumber slices. In the crazy world of skincare products, less really does mean more.

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