Hauer Power: Strictly Come Dancing’s Karen brings workouts to the comfort of your home
You may know Karen Hauer as a Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer on the popular BBC 1 programme. Well, Karen has swapped her dancing shoes for trainers and is holding LIVE CardioKe and Stretch Flow workouts each day with her partner, opera singer, David Webb in their London home.
This is part of Home Festival, an online community of daily activities curated by Karen, David, Strictly pro dancer and Greatest Dancer judge Oti Mabuse and her husband Marius Iepure. Home Festival aims to combat self-isolation by helping people become proactive, creative and entertained at home — and what a great job they are doing!
Together, the four hold daily events; from dance lessons with Oti and Marius to Karen cooking with guests such as Hairy Biker, Dave Myers, who she partnered with on Strictly Come Dancing in 2013. David even teaches opera singing lessons fully-dressed in his tux to guests on his Instagram account LIVE.
At 10am every morning, Karen and David begin their CardioKE session which I have been participating in with my Mum for almost two weeks. It is really great to wake up and be proactive and exercise. It has done us the world of good. The workout can be found on Karen’s Instagram LIVE story (@KarenHauer), her Facebook page and her Youtube channel also, so it accessible to anyone with a smartphone or smart TV!
The CardioKE session lasts for about 25 minutes which is a perfect amount of time and I’m definitely ready for a rest afterwards! Karen, a long with David, demonstrate three rounds lasting four minutes each, a one minute rest between each round, followed by an additional bonus round. If the exercises are a little too strenuous, David demonstrates an alternate, simpler exercise for watchers to do instead.
To finish, the pair do some cooling down exercises and stretches. Each session is different and unique, with a fun, motivating soundtrack to accompany it and some singing from the pair also! This is not to be missed! Karen also asks for song suggestions from her fellow watchers which really helps them to get involved and feel part of the session too! It’s as if they are in the room with us. Our own personal trainers!
At 6pm sharp, Karen begins her Stretch Flow sessions which again last for about 25 minutes, a really appropriate time. These yoga-like sessions allow you to relax and stretch all the muscles in your body; concentrating on your breathing and improving balance too. I have not quite hacked the balancing on one leg part yet though!
I really enjoy these sessions in particular and look forward to them, and so does my Mum; so much so that we have just purchased a couple of yoga mats to show how extremely keen and serious we are about Stretch Flow! We have also retrieved our old fitness clothes down from the loft! That will give you an inkling as to how long it has been since we worked-out! Nonetheless, I am sure that we will be pro stretchers in no time at all!
These sessions really help to structure my day and I am already reaping the benefits of these exercise classes. I am toning up and a lot more relaxed and less stressed. My mental health and wellbeing have improved, which is so important, especially at times like these. We all need to look after our mental health as well as our physical health and Home Festival is a great way to do so! I look forward to more sessions in the near future.
