Breaking down the move: Burpee

This post has been brought to us by Mark Merchant and George Vafiades of As One Effect. Check them out on Booya.

Ah, the burpee – one exercise that requires, mobility, flexibility, strength, systemic conditioning (full body fitness), core and shoulder stability – love the burpee.  The burpee is an integral part of the As One program  so, if you’ve taken class, you certainly know how to do this.  But, if you, or a friend, want to come in and check out a class, this is a perfect way to get ready.

How to perform the burpee –

1. Feet shoulder width

2. Bend over to the  ground, hands down

3. Jump feet back as you lower your chest to the floor

4. Press up and in one motion jump feet back to starting position

5. While standing up, jump with hands over head

Eager to try the burpee (aka squat thrust)? All of our bootcamp workouts feature the move! 

Behind the Scenes: Grit by Brit shares her experience

That’s me, front and center, delivering the GRIT by Brit workout for BOOYA Fitness

BOOYA is a revolutionary new fitness company that provides high-end workout videos to consumers on demand.  Think NetFlix for workout videos. It features amazing fitness instructors mostly from the best boutique fitness studios in NYC.  

Personally, I decided to support BOOYA and be a featured instructor on the platform because I love the idea of being able to connect with my students outside of the group fitness classroom.  Also, the founder, Prita Kumar, is a fellow Harvard Business School MBA and Fitness Fanatic (like me).  Prita and I met each other over Twitter and instantly connected.  I’m so excited for her to transform the fitness industry through high-end video content.  You can learn more about her journey to starting BOOYA Fitness on this cool start up documentary, CLICK HERE to watch.

So, let me move on and tell you a little about the cool experience I had at the BOOYA shoot and what you can expect from the new and improved GRIT by Brit workout…

Headed to the studio with my cue cards in hand!

So if you have a copy of my DVD (if you don’t buy one on Amazon - PLEASE) you’ll notice that the workout I designed for BOOYA is very similar.  However, I really tried to take my game to the next level.  In addition to the jammin’ music, I incorporated new techniques I’ve learned to over the past year to enhance my workout.  Specifically:

I feel a HUGE sense of accomplishment after this shoot because I can look back on my progress over the past year and see how I’ve really grown as a fitness instructor and personal coach.  It feels good knowing that I’m better able to help people reach their fitness goals.  I’m VERY confident that my new workout video will inspire and motivate tons of people to have fun, get fit and show their GRIT

Brit Rettig, Founder of Grit by Brit

Breaking down the move: Plank

This post has been brought to us by Amanda Rose Wellness. Check her out on Booya here.

Plank is an isometric strength exercise that requires maintaining engagement of the core muscles for an extended period of time. The most common plank is the front plank which is held in a push-up position with the body's weight distributed onto the arms, legs and toes.  

I find plank to be so amazing is because:

There are so many variations of plank that you can always try modifications to challenge yourself. Such examples include side plank, single leg plank, single arm plank, TRX plank, revolving plank, etc.

Did you know? The longest time in abdominal plank position is 1 hour 20 minutes and 05.01 seconds and was achieved by George Hood in Naperville, IL, USA on December 3, 2011.  

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to perform the plank at home:

Eager to try the plank? Check out ZaxFit Extreme Core Challenge! 

Breaking down the move: Downward Dog

This post has been brought to us by Fitmapped, Your GPS for Fitness

Downward dog is one of the most commonly yoga practiced yoga poses, and for good reason!  Adho mukha svanasana, as the pose is called in Sanskrit, offers tons of amazing benefits to your inner yogi; from boosting circulation to strengthening your entire body, downward dog is totally worth incorporating into your regular fitness routine.

How To:

1. Start on your hands and knees.  Check that your hands are directly in line with your shoulders and that your knees fall under your hips.  Spread your fingers wide and curl your toes underneath your feet.

2. Straighten your legs as you exhale.  As your knees come away from the floor, focus on lifting your hips towards the ceiling.

3. Push through the floor with all ten fingers to activate your back and arm muscles.  Reach for the floor with your heels to firm up the quads and back legs.  Draw your navel into your lower back to lift your hips even higher.

4. Take five deep breaths.

5. Feel strong, energized, and grateful!

Content has been approved by Anita Mirchandani, NASM CPT

Practice this move in any of our featured Yoga workouts!

Breaking down the move: Push-ups

This post has been brought to us by Mark Merchant and George Vafiades of As One Effect. Check them out on Booya here.

The perfect pushup – although primarily considered a chest developer, its effectiveness as a core and shoulder stabilizer should not be overlooked.

How to perform the perfect pushup

Full Push-up: 

    Modified Push-up: 

    Eager to try the push-up? All of our bootcamp workouts feature the move! 

Breaking down the move: Squats

This post has been brought to us by Fitmapped, Your GPS for Fitness

Today is a perfect day to get back in the gym and work on some strength training, and one of the ultimate leg-toning moves is the squat. Squats can be done a variety of ways target different muscles, but primarily they work on your quads, glutes, and hamstrings. They are also great for your core, as you need to use your back and ab muscles to stabilize your body throughout the moves. Additionally, muscle-building moves like squats are great for strengthening your bones.

In a traditional squat, you begin standing straight upright with your feet a little more than shoulder-width apart. Extend your arms out so they are parallel with the ground, and take a deep breath in. As you breathe, move your hips back and down, bending the knees as if you are sitting into a chair. Make sure to keep your back straight and chest forward as you lower your butt, and don’t let your knees go over your toes in the front. You can go deeper, but a good aim initially is to squat until your quads are parallel to the floor.

Keep your core engaged throughout the move. Once you get as low as you want to go, pause, and then push back up through your heels. You should feel this in your glutes as you push yourself back up to your standing position. To make a traditional squat more challenging, you can add weights, either holding a bar behind your head or holding weights at your chest or to your sides.

There are ways to perform squats that work slightly different muscles. In the simplest way, you can spread your legs wider than hip-width apart and stand in a plié-like position with your toes facing slightly outward. This move works the inner thighs a little more, and it can also be made harder and more aerobic by adding a small hop while in squatting position. This is a great plyometric movement that can help burn fat while sculpting muscle. You can also do this move using weights, as with a traditional squat.

Another variation on the squat is the split-squat. Split-squats are also called static lunges; to do a split squat, you stand with your feet one in front of the other, separated by a few steps (approximately 2 feet, depending on your size). Then you lower your body straight down until your front quad is parallel to the ground.

This move requires more stabilization from the core. Again, once your front quad is parallel to the ground, you pause for a second and then push up through the front heel, engaging the front-leg gluteus maximus. You can make this move harder by holding weights in either hand. You can also make it into a plyometric movement by jumping straight up, switching legs mid-air, and squatting with the other leg forward. This jump split-squat move is much harder and requires more balance and use of stabilizing muscles, so I would only recommend it once you’ve mastered other squats and gained leg strength.

There are tons of other ways to do squats, and with all squats you should be careful to use proper form to protect your knees. If you have any doubts, consult a professional at your local gym, and if anything ever feels painful, trust your body and stop.

Content has been approved by Anita Mirchandani, NASM CPT

Accountability Buddy: Do you have one?

This post comes from Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp

Last week I got a rather urgent text from Myrna, our butt-kicker extraordinaire. She told me she was going to be featured in the Daily News – photo shoot and all – with a story. Super exciting! This woman has had it coming, I’m telling you. She’s been plugging away, bit by bit at creating the live she wants and the response she’s getting is beyond positive. That old saying – you reap what you sow… It’s true.

Anyway, as it goes with big events, we want to look and feel our best and since I have a deadline coming up to look and feel my best too, we made a pact: We would text each other our meals and promised to keep it clean. For more than a week we have been sending each other our breakfast eggs, our lunch salads and turkey meatball dinner or chicken with veggie dinners.  It was inspiring to have someone to report to (reporting to myself all the time gets boring….). It made me more aware of what I was eating and stopped me from making haphazard choices. Myrna felt the same way about sharing her goals and steps she was taking to get to it. I was thinking twice about ‘treating’ myself with things that weren’t really treats because they would in the end just punish me. So, I decided not to ‘punish’ myself at all after committing to Myrna. There was just one incident where a massive amount of apple cobbler made by my friend Erin was put in front of me and I decided to nose dive into it. I did report it to Myrna and made up for it. Not by beating myself up or calling myself names, but by adding an extra workout and lowering my carbs the following day.

Having someone to share your intentions and goals with is crucial to your success. It makes you feel that you’re not in it alone. It helps you realize that your actions have consequences – on your body and health and on the other people you shared your goals with. I pride myself on doing what I say I will do, so when I tell someone I’ll commit to something and then don’t do it, I know that I’m not only letting myself down but also change the other person’s view of me. In the Slim & Strong program I always have my participants share their goals with their team mates and I encourage them to stay in touch and share struggles, successes and ideas throughout the month. It works. I hope you’ll give it a go and make that commitment to a friend, co-worker, trainer or other person in your life whose view of you matters to you.

What Is the Best Workout to Do?

This is a great question but there is not one answer.  Like diets, one size does not fit all.  Some people do great on a vegan diet, others swear by Paleo.  Everyone has an idea of what is best.  While there are tried and true techniques and approaches to both diets and exercise, what resonates with you might not work for me.  Yes, a foundation and basic understanding of specifics are going to be helpful.  Just as a healthy diet tends to consist of eating real, whole foods (minimal or no processing), to have a well rounded workout routine you need to incorporate stretching, strengthening and cardio.  It’s also a good idea to vary your routines.  Beyond that, the best workout is one that you will do. 

A good workout is something that you like to do enough to keep doing it.  Consistency is the key, and is also one of the hardest things to achieve.  We get excited to be a part of the latest craze but soon lose interest and find ourselves unmotivated to get off the coach.  Start with what excites you.  What do you love to do?  That is what you should commit to doing because you are most likely to keep it up. 

The one constant in life is change, and working out is not different.  Your favorite workout from the past two or three years might not be resonating with you anymore, and that is not only OK but it is perfectly normal.  Listen to those signs and adjust accordingly.  If you find you body no longer craving a specific workout or if you are getting bored, try something new.  Explore what is out there until you find something else that resonates with you and go have fun doing that. 

As our cravings for specific foods change with the season our desire to work out a specific way will change as well.  As we get older we will gravitate towards movements that are more in line with our changing bodies.  What feels best for you today, this season and this year?  What do you love to do that will inspire you to get out of bed or off the coach?  Operating from this standpoint will bring you much closer to developing a consistent practice and healthy routines because it comes from your own truth.  Keep exploring and keep having fun.

- Zander Gladish 

5 Reasons Fitness is a Mental Health Miracle Drug

This post comes from Brit Rettig

I know I’m always talking about the external, physical benefits of working out (6 pack by summer, J-lo legs, Michelle Obama arms).  But, let’s not forget about all of the ways that fitness helps us on the inside.  Maintaining our mental health is critical for overall wellness.  Here are the top 5 “non-physical” reasons I believe exercise is a mental health miracle drug.  Keep these in mind during your next sweat session!

1) Super Self-confidence – Pushing through physcial challenges gives us confidence which spills over into other areas of life.  Nothing is sexier than confidence

2) Less Stress – Studies show that the most common mental benefit of exercise is stress relief.  Boss getting on your nerves?  Go walk it off.  Angry is not a good look.

3) More Memory – A good sweat session boosts our memory capacity and brain power.  Jocks are smarter after all…and smart is HOT

4) Addiction Control – Since our brains releases dopamine “the happy chemical” during exercise, we get a natural high – goodbye addictions!

5) Real Relaxation – Moderate exercise can have the same effect on your body as a sleeping pill.  Who needs chemical drugs for a little R&R?  Not us!

- Brit Rettig, Founder of Grit by Brit

High Intensity Interval Training – A Booya Fitness Staple

Amanda Rose, creator of Warrior Fight Club, shares her insight!

Although my first love is yoga, I have been incorporating more cardio into my workouts. With a history of cardiovascular disease in my family, I understand and respect the need for a healthy heart.  

Considering that the #1 excuse people use for not exercising is lack of time, intervals are a perfect solution. It is quick, effective and to the point. 

A bit of education….interval training incorporates the body’s two energy systems, the aerobic and anaerobic. The aerobic system uses oxygen to convert carbohydrates into energy. When you run or walk for several miles, you are tapping into this system. The anaerobic system draws energy from fuel stored as glycogen in the muscles for short bursts of energy, such as sprinting. This system doesn’t utilize oxygen and cannot provide enough energy for a sustained effort. 

Because intervals require both systems, interval training has lots of benefits including:

1) More calorie burn – Of course, the more vigorous you exercise, the more calories you burn! But interval training can also cause an “afterburn effect”, where the body burns more calories anywhere from 24-48 hours post-workout. So when you are relaxing on the couch, the furnace is still cooking. In addition, it boosts metabolism AND builds lean muscle. 

2) Improved cardio function - Intervals cause your heart and lungs to become bigger, stronger and able to adjust to sudden intense challenges (like running to catch a bus). Plus, it allows you to exercise longer and with more intensity, improving overall athletic performance.

3) Fun - Because intervals are short, it prevents boredom! It adds a nice variety to your workouts, especially since you can vary the intensity level, length of work, rest intervals, and number of reps. You can even opt to change the exercise modality; riding a bike, running on a treadmill, or even jumping rope are all great variations. The great thing about interval training is that there is no one way of doing it. Different lengths of work and recovery bring different benefits and challenges, all of which are good.

4) Time-efficient - As I previously mentioned, you can do intervals in a short amount of time. My workouts average 20-23 minutes and I am completely spent! I have no excuse to not get it done and neither will you. AsOne’s Deck of Cards and Basic Circuit are particularly good and short as they are under 20 minutes each! 

5) Overall positive health benefits – Interval training can improve insulin sensitivity, optimize cholesterol levels and decrease blood pressure. 

DISCLAIMER: Interval training is tough, so if you're just starting to work out, spend at least one month working on your stamina with steady intensity cardio workouts before incorporating intervals into your routine.  Add these intervals in slowly and avoid repeating them on consecutive days. Intervals are hard on the body so give yourself ample rest and be sure to practice yoga too!

Booya features some amazing interval training workouts—check out our Bootcamps for guidance from the best trainers in the industry! 

Fitness Variety is Important!

We hope that you’ve found at least one workout that you love on Booya (do let us know), but one of the core philosophies behind Booya is our belief in variety and having fun when working out.

According to Booya trainer Brittani Rettig (see here for complete blog entry), you should vary your workouts to prevent injury, avoid the plateau, and stay interested / motivated.

BRIT’S TOP 5 SUGGESTIONS TO SHAKE UP YOUR WORKOUTS

1) Do 3 DIFFERENT types of cardio exercises every week - At a minimum, it’s most important to ensure that you get 3-30 minute cardio workouts in each week. However, you can maximize results by doing a variety of cardio workouts.  **Booya recommends selecting from the Bootcamp and Cardio workout categories

2) Add Intervals - Intervals in terms of speed and incline/resistance are a great way to keep your body in the “cardio zone” and make sure you don’t get complacent.  For example: when on the elliptical, ride at level 5 resistance for 3 min then level 10 resistance for 1 min, continue alternating for 30 min to 1 hr.

3) Power walk instead of running/jogging - Power walking is not as natural of a movement as jogging/running which means you have to engage more muscles.  This is a great way to shock your body and even burn more calories – add light hand weights for an extra burn!

4) Switch up your resistance regimen – Instead of your usual back/biceps and chest/triceps workouts that you have been doing for years, change it up!  Try TRX suspension training or an endurance body weight routine.  Remember, if you do what you always done, you’ll get what you always got!

5) Get moving with a group – Working out with a group makes you push harder and leverage the energy of those around you.  **Booya encourages you to check out the class schedules of our featured instructors. If we don’t have an instructor in your area, try using Fitmapped to find a boutique class near you!  

The Long-term Benefits of Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp  

Featured post from Ariane Hundt, founder of the Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp.

“Other workouts have become so easy compared to yours.” I often hear this from my Slim & Strong participants after a month of training. It’s great to hear that they build up such strength, endurance and fitness that they see the difference quickly. While our Slim & Strong classes can feel like you got hit by a bus after your first time, there is a method to the madness and we don’t work out that hard just to show off.

Our Slim & Strong and Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp workouts follow the idea of high-intensity interval training, also called HIIT. HIIT means that for short periods of time you push yourself to maximum intensity and then follow it with lower intensity. The time at maximum intensity increases with regular practice and the time of lower intensity shortens as you get fitter. The idea of the workout is to maximize your workout time while getting maximum benefits.

Most people care about how many calories they burn during a workout. They think the harder and longer they work, the more cardio they do, the more calories they burn and the less they eat the more weight they lose. That’s actually not true. At least, it’s not the whole picture. When it comes to changing your body it’s not just about burning calories, but it’s more about what hormones you activate that make you burn body fat, make you gain lean muscle, keep you young, ensure muscle recovery and keep you healthy.

Our high-intensity interval training workouts activate quite a few hormones:

- Adrenaline ensures you burn subcutaneous fat (the fat underneath your skin)

- Growth hormone is released with strength training and bursts of high intensity that breaks the anaerobic threshold. Growth hormone is essential for getting you lean, boosting muscle growth and recovery and keeping you young.  It declines as you get older.  

- Your insulin sensitivity is improved. That means your cells need less insulin to make energy from the sugar in your blood stream. Balanced insulin levels are important to lose weight and stay healthy. High insulin levels are associated with a slew of health and metabolic issues, such as weight gain, pre-diabetes, diabetes, high cholesterol, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, obesity, and various inflammatory conditions (including heart disease cancer, stroke and arthritis).

- Short bursts of intensity (versus long and drawn-out cardio sessions) prevent cortisol build-up. High cortisol levels are associated with fat storage and muscle loss. Muscle loss is bad news because the less muscle you have, the slower your metabolism and the quicker you gain weight. 

- EPOC is increased. This acronym stands for excess post-exercise-oxygen-consumption and it means you burn more calories following a high-intensity workout than after a low intensity workout. The after-burn effect can be active for up to 48 hours and means you might be burning an additional 20% of the calories you burned in your workout. The harder your workout, the greater the EPOC. 

- Nitric oxide production is up. This substance makes your blood vessels slightly bigger so that nutrients and blood can get to the muscles to keep them working hard longer. 

If you call the treadmill, elliptical, or spinning bike your home without doing any strength training and rest days, then you might actually do more harm than good. Here’s why:

- Muscle breakdown: Long-drawn-out cardio sessions promote catabolism or muscle breakdown. Extensive cardio sessions make your body release the stress hormone cortisol. It makes your body use protein for energy. Since your muscles are made out of protein, that means you lose muscle mass. Long-term cortisol elevation also leads to fat storage in the face and waist. Not a good look… HIIT isn’t meant to be done daily. Three times a week is ideal to promote recovery and muscle growth. 

- Stress on the heart: Recent research has found more and more that lasting stress on the heart can lead to something called “athletic heart syndrome”, where your heart becomes enlarged in order to keep up with the stress placed on it. It can also lead to an increase in your body’s stress response (high cortisol levels) and an irregular heartbeat. However, we’re talking hours and hours of cardio – not a concern for the average exerciser. 

Ask yourself: 

1) Does your workout change your body (Is it getting you leaner, fitter, stronger, more powerful)

2) Does it energize you and make you feel healthier?

3) Does it make you feel uncomfortable enough to promote change?

If not, make sure you incorporate workouts that combine strength training and short bursts of cardio. The Slim & Strong workouts on Booya follow the HIIT model and are perfect at-home routines. Most importantly, don’t forget about resting your body. If you don’t give your body a chance to recover, you are not allowing your muscles to rebuild and recover and you’re actively breaking them down. Try yoga or go for a swim. Be good to your body and work with it – not against it.

Why I Founded Booya

I absolutely love boutique fitness classes. Flywheel, Core Fusion, Barry’s Bootcamp—these are some of my favorites. The more intense the better!! I left each class like I had left everything on the table. There were no stressful deadlines, no bosses to dislike, no boys to be frustrated with—for the hour that I went to those classes, I was there to work.

Unfortunately, I could only afford to go to 1 class per week, usually on  a Saturday afternoon, if I was lucky. Here’s why: 

--  I worked 60 hour weeks, so getting out of the office, commuting for 1 hour in total to the studio and back home, and then showering was unheard of. I did not have an extra 2.5 hours—I barely had enough time to sleep, eat, unwind and occasionally meet my friends. Not to mention, if I tried to go to the gym during the week, I had to look like a bag lady with my purse, a gym bag, and in the winter, a change of clothes, which included heavy boots. Ugh. 

-- Saturday AM classes always booked up by Monday. Who has that kind of foresight into their schedule? What if I had dinner plans on Friday night? What if I was hung over or more likely, just wanted to sleep in and have brunch? 

-- I could run errands while heading to the studio and justify the commuting time, or I could call friends to catch up—either way, multitasking was a must.

Though this was my life, when I talked to other professionals and juggling moms and dads—they shared the same frustration. They loved fun classes and worked harder with someone telling them what to do, but who has that kind of time?

Also, I started to realize this terrible thing. My body was changing. Running no longer kept the hips away—I needed something different and more frequently than once a week.

So, I started to explore at-home fitness options—DVDs, online streaming websites, YouTube, etc. But, all these solutions had unique issues that still left me frustrated. Most DVD sets were targeted for beginners. The Zumba DVDs were an absolute joke. I was lucky if I stared to sweat by minute 45. Brazilian Butt DVD was pretty good but only 2 of the set of 4 were advanced and I paid $60?!?! Forget it.

With streaming websites, I found the search process to be a huge pain. I could never tell if the workout was going to be good before investing a lot of time searching. Or a lot of the workouts just didn’t seem fun—they were all bootcamp, all the time. Nothing infuriates me more than wasting time, so I quickly gave up and found myself doing nothing on those days when commuting was too difficult.

In the summer of 2012, I left private equity to attend Harvard Business School. I decided that this was my time to fix my own problem (and of many other time-constrained individuals), so I founded Booya. Booya is a premium fitness video platform that features never-been-seen-before 30-minute workouts, saving our users time in 3 key ways: commute, search, and workout efficiency.

Here’s how we stack up: 

-- We source from the industry’s best trainers and studios. Check out the press links on each partner’s’ pages here. These trainers typically charge $20-40 for their live classes or upwards of $150-400 for personal training sessions! If you subscribe, you pay just $9.99/month for unlimited access. 

--  All of our workouts are super challenging. If you’re advanced, you’ll definitely get a solid workout. If you’re a beginner, start with some of the easier modifications when things get tough and work up to it! 

-- Our workouts can be done in 30-35 minutes or less! So, during the week when you are looking at the clock and trying to do the math of how you can fit in a workout after factoring in commute, set-up time, shower, etc., make things easy for yourself. Try Booya. On days when you have more time (like the weekends), you can still keep up with the activities you love. The variety will keep things fun and exciting. 

-- We have content even for days when you don’t feel energetic. So don’t skip the workout! Change things with a low impact or unusual workout (I recommend Shrink Session or Cardio Kickbox). You’ll be surprised by how much fun you are having and you will still burn serious calories and tone up muscles.

The next time when you are debating / dreading / dragging yourself to the gym to do a mediocre workout, find a 4’ by 6’ space and try one of the Booya workouts. I promise it will be challenging and fun every single time.

Fear of Missing Out

Happy New Year Booya members! I hope you’re recovering from a wonderful holiday season and are staying warm. Given that it is January, aka resolution season, I thought I’d share some of my personal learnings from last year and goals for 2014.

I think my biggest victory of 2013 has been beating the emotion of “FOMO”. FOMO stands for Fear of Missing Out and it embodies itself in every aspect of life—career, relationships, society etc. I struggle the most with social FOMO. There were so many Friday nights when I’d come home from a long work week and all I’d want to do was sit on my couch, catch up on my DVR, and drink a big glass of wine. But on my way home, I’d pass bustling bars and restaurants, full of friends, couples, whomever. I felt ‘lame’ about my decision to stay home, and somehow let myself feel bad about taking the de-stressing time I knew I needed. But when Saturday morning came around, I felt rested, happy, and excited for the rest of the weekend—I never once regretted my decision to stay in.

This year has been particular challenging. With two full-time jobs (both as founder of Booya and as an MBA student) and limited funds (bootstrapping the startup and paying for tuition, ouch), I have had to forgo a lot of parties, nice dinners, global excursions, etc. Tough life right?  I realize that I probably sound ridiculous but when most of your friends are attending these events, you certainly worry that you’re missing out on the entire purpose of business school.

Yet, somehow, I’ve never felt happier. I’m finally working on something I’m so passionate about that it actually feels FUN (vs. my former life where I’d get a horrific case of the Sunday night blues). I’m in a wonderful relationship (my first!) and have companionship on those lame ‘nights in’. And I’m still making an effort to see friends—I just make sure the event is over dinner and not at a loud, crowded bar or club. And it’s funny, I don’t actually think I’m alone as evidenced by numerous Buzzfeed posts. So now, every time I start to have that conversation with myself in my head about missing out and peer pressure, I take a deep breathe, set an intention for the following day, and justify my decision to do what I want in that moment.   

My good friend Alana calls this ‘pruning’. From the ages of say 18-25, we’d sign up for everything and 25% of activities we’d realize we didn’t enjoy. We’d probably give in to peer pressure and do those dreaded activities a few more times (hoping we were wrong the first time). But soon we learn and now while we may “do less”, we enjoy each activity so much more.

So along those lines, my main resolution for 2014 is to feel happy with the journey and care less about the outcome. I think this is a perfect 2014 goal for me because prior to business school, I had a much clearer path (good school – great jobs – elite graduate school). Now I’ve completely redefined my purpose to start and grow Booya into a profitable business, helping individuals improve their health along the way. But that road will be long with a lot of low moments and undefined milestones, so I’ve got to find ways to find happy moments in the day-to-day small wins.

What are your goals? 

Booya Beginner Guide

Welcome to Booya! Booya is a premium fitness video platform featuring the industry’s best boutique studios and instructors. We work with them to deliver you innovative and fun content anywhere, anytime at an affordable monthly price.  Here is some basic information to get you started:

1) Our videos can be played on all internet-enabled devices. Mobile, Tablet, Laptop, or even TV. So feel free to workout in your home, gym, hotel room, or even outside! 

      2) All of our videos are challenging. Booya’s curation process starts by evaluating over 1,000 boutique studios and selecting the very best partners to give you challenging content. Our videos are targeted towards experienced fitness enthusiasts, but are accessible to all individuals regardless of fitness level through suggested modifications. This is about your personal fitness journey—don’t be afraid to challenge yourself if you’re feeling up to it or take things down if you’re finding the workout too difficult.  

3) Approximately 75% of our workouts can be completed without equipment. If you do not have the equipment is suggested, the workout will still be challenging without it! Nevertheless, we will provide a list of alternative pieces of equipment that have the equivalent effect.

4) We offer a wide spectrum of workouts across 4 main silos: Bootcamp, Strength & Toning, Cardio and Yoga. The beauty of Booya is that you can do something different every day. Check out our blog post on the importance of variety in your workout regime.