Exercise and I have an on-again, off-again relationship. When the pandemic hit, I struggled with finding the motivation to exercise. I could not find any at-home workouts that I liked. I tried Chloe Ting, MadFit and Zumba. However, I could not get through any of those videos. In April, a video popped up on my YouTube recommended. It was a Disney HIIT workout. I tried it out and I fell in love.
Canadian Youtuber Alessa Dufresne of “That Disney Girl” collaborated with her friend and fitness instructor Emily Thorne to create a HIIT Hop workout to Disney music. It featured songs like “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan and “Zero to Hero” from Hercules. The success of the video inspired Thorne to kick off her own Youtube channel, “emkfit.”
Most of Thorne’s videos are workouts that she designed herself called HIIT Hop. It combines high-intensity interval training (without planks or burpees!) with hip hop choreography. In an “emkfit” video, she lists two rules “fake it ‘till you make it” and “wrong and strong.” Thorne does not require coordination or perfect form. The point of her videos are to get you moving and having fun.
Typically, each video features about five songs (excluding the warm-up song) that are all tied to a theme. From Broadway to ‘80s dance hits to my personal favorite, songs from the classic film Shrek, there is truly something for everyone. Before each song, she teaches you two moves. You repeat the first move for approximately 20 seconds, and then there is a 10 second rest before going into the second move that is repeated for another 20 seconds. You complete three rounds of both moves before proceeding to the next song. Thorne’s videos are only about 20 to 25 minutes long, but they are guaranteed to have you sweating by the end.
Finding “emkfit” was one of the only bright spots of 2020. I used to dread having to workout, but with Thorne’s videos, I now dread it just a little bit less.