Workout 3: Yoga
Kate’s been a pretty outspoken yogi ever since experiencing some challenges while pregnant with her third child Rani. (She said it was a huge part of supporting her pregnancy.) So while I’m not pregnant (chill), if Kate loves yoga, that means I love yoga, too.
PSA: I’m literally the least flexible human on Earth, which is why I typically steer clear of in-person yoga classes. (It’s super embarrassing when I can barely do beginner yoga exercises without cowering in pain, lol.) But because I’d be doing this workout at home, I sucked it up in the name of all that is Kate Hudson, chose a basic flow and got to #werk.
I’d been feeling pretty sore from the past two days, tired AF from work, and kinda stressed by everything going on in the world. That said, this video was soooo calming and absolutely just what I needed. I felt centred by the breathing and gentle stretching throughout, and there were no moves that made me feel like the uncomfortable-looking pretzel I usually am during yoga. Basically, this was pretty much the best possible way to relax and cap off my day.
Workout 4: Peloton Run
Kate’s got both a Peloton treadmill and bike at her house right now (I’m very jealous), so it’s safe to say she’s covered in terms of doing indoor workouts. I have neither of those fancy pieces of home gym equipment, but I do have an iPhone, so I downloaded the Peloton app and started a free trial for access to the company’s online classes. I chose a 20-minute outdoor running class, so all I had to do was put in my earbuds and jog to the trail near my parent’s house — yes, I’m quarantining with my fam. (Pray for me.)
I started with a 10-minute warmup run on my own (which the app recommends) to get my legs moving before pressing play on the Peloton audio. My workout was guided by fitness instructor Jess Sims and had a 90s music theme, so with each running “push” Sims initiated, I found my feet easily increasing pace to the beat of whatever Britney Spears or Q-Tip beat was playing at that time.
Toward the end of the intervals, though, my legs were dragging and I was breathing veeery heavy. (Basically **dry-heaving**, hah!) Once I finished, I walked back into my house and collapsed on the floor, shirt totally drenched from the workout but thoroughly enjoying the runner’s high everybody’s always going on about.
Workout Five: Wine Bottle Arms
There’s one thing I’ve made sure to always keep stocked during quarantine: wine. It turns out this (very important) precaution came in handy for modelling Kate’s routine, too, since she demoed a special lil’ wine bottle-arms workout on Instagram that was just begging to be copied. I used these upper body-toning exercises, grabbed two of my (many) wine bottles, and got moving.
For a quick, 15-minute arms workout, I gotta say, it was a bit harder than it looked. Wine bottles may not be the heaviest thing in the world, but my balance was kinda thrown since the wine sloshing around made the weight distribution uneven.
Let’s just say that by the end of this week-long Kate Hudson workout experiment, my arms (especially my triceps) and my abs (it hurts to breathe) were pretty much dead and I had to pour out some wine from one of my bottles for them.
That said, Kate pushed me out of my strength-focused comfort zone this week and got me moving in a way that I hadn’t really considered since quarantine started. And for that, I’m #grateful.
This article was originally published on www.womenshealthmag.com