30/07/2021
One question I usually get is “Are follow along exercise videos on YouTube similar to strength training?”
There really is no simple one word answer to this. Some of the exercise videos can fall under the broad umbrella of resistance training, but with a lot of caveats.
Usually, many follow along workouts on YT are either HIIT or Circuit style workouts, even when they use weights. Not that they are ineffective, but if your goal is to build strength, then these are pretty inefficient.
Plus the weights they use are generally light, and they end up using the same weight for the duration of the workout across different exercises, which actually defeats the purpose of putting enough load/stimulus on the muscles.
For eg: A full body workout you see on YT may end up using a pair of 5 kgs dumbbells to do bicep curls, shoulder press, squats, rows, deadlifts. These weights may be ok for say bicep curls, and maybe shoulder presses in the beginning, but almost all other exercises could use way heavier weights.
However, like with many things, there are Pros & Cons to these, so let’s see if we can expand a bit on these.
Pros:
🔸 It is free. Duh.
🔸 Certain videos can be constituted as resistance training if you are a beginner and/or new to resistance training.
🔸 Easy access in the sense that it can be done anytime from anywhere.
Cons:
🔹 They have many limitations, one of which is that the workout plans are not personalized to cater to your particular needs and goals.
🔹 Nor are they customized to take into account a person’s physiology and/or physical limitations. This plays a very important part on how to set up correctly for an exercise, for it to be effective and efficient.
🔹 For someone with not much idea on the concept of progressive overload, Youtube workouts can get stagnant real quick that can eventually stall your progress.
So the bottom line is, know your goals enough to know what would work for you. And then decide on how you want to proceed.
But that being said, any kind of exercise that is making you move is better than nothing.
💜