Things to Do While Social Distancing: Exercise and Meditation

Shake off your social-distancing stress with 305 Fitness. The dance-cardio studio is now offering free live-stream workouts on its YouTube channel every day at 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. EST.

To help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, CorePower Yoga has shut down all of its brick-and-mortar studios across the country. But starting March 16, CorePower will be taking its in-studio experience online, free of charge, for folks working out at home.

Free at-home workout videos, including single exercises and drills.

One in a series of Down Dog apps (others include Yoga, Yoga for Beginners, Barre and 7 Minute) is offering access to their large library of workouts for free until April 1st as more people find themselves without a gym or a place to exercise. Now's a good time to test them out and see how you like them without any commitment.

A staple for many home yogis, this YouTube channel offers a yoga workout for everyone (unless you hate yoga). Click through different styles and intensity or look for a video to help with a specific issue like yoga for lower back pain. Pilates and Power Yoga are available for a more intense workout and if you have kids at home, try their collection of yoga for the little ones.

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the interactive boxing workout app has uploaded dozens of free workout videos to its YouTube channel. From basic boxing techniques to intense, no-equipment-needed boxing drills there's something for everybody.

Fitness Blender is a popular YouTube channel featuring over 600 workouts that can be searched by length, difficulty, training type, calories burned and muscle group. They have videos suitable for all fitness levels, as well as excellent options for when you might want a really short but intense workout.

Gold's Gym is offering a variety of digital workouts for free through the end of May. Its app offers over 600 audio and video workouts.

New workouts by Nike's world-class Master Trainers are added regularly with slick videos showing correct form and posture for new moves. Browse the collection of workouts based on muscle group, workout type and duration. The workouts range from beginner to more advanced moves as you progress and allow you to choose from body weight only programs to plans with full equipment.

Orangetheory is sharing a new 30-minute workout video each day, featuring some of its most popular coaches from around the world. According to the fitness center, the workouts don't require any special equipment, but may feature everyday household items.

For anyone who can't participate live, each workout will also be available to view on both the Planet Fitness Facebook page and the brand's YouTube channel after the broadcast is over.

Barry's Bootcamp is hosting 20-minute bodyweight workouts live on Instagram for free.

Blink Fitness is hosting Facebook Live sessions weekdays at 8 a.m. ET. The fitness chain will host virtual workouts, give tips to stay motivated and answer fitness questions from the comments.

Featuring a mix of pilates, barre, yoga, functional fitness with HIIT, treadmill and group classes, owner Tina DiLeo has paused her classes and is posting HIIT/circuit workouts daily on Instagram. The workouts are a great daily inspiration for those who are familiar with the moves and need a workout plan to get motivated. The workouts appear in the feed and the demo videos appear in stories.

The founder of this boutique gym, Sopearin Yos, is hosting workouts on Instagram Live through his personal account. HIIT style, bodyweight movements with a focus on core and obliques, they will go live Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9 a.m. (check your time zone) with the possibility of more classes being added if the demand is there.

Known for their intense and highly efficient 30 minute HIIT classes, the gym has launched morning classes on their Instagram page every day at 10 a.m. (check your time zone). Knowing that people don't have gym equipment at home, the classes will be comprised of mostly body weight moves but ambitious exercisers can grab any type of weight they have at home. A sweaty half-hour workout is perfect for those who need to get off the couch before their next Netflix binge.

A top-notch training centre known for calorie-burning group classes and a welcoming space for weight-lifters of all levels, Fit Squad Training has launched daily Instagram Live workouts at 12 p.m. (check your time zone) for anyone who is interested in getting a taste of their class style. Classes will be between 45 and 60 minutes in length and will focus on strength, core, and conditioning with little to no equipment required.

This Montreal-based gym specializes in small group personal training and has started running free daily workouts at 10 a.m. through Facebook Live so that members can stay active and non-members can get a taste of their class style at no cost. Each day will feature a different coach with classes running 30-40 minutes long. Expect metabolic conditioning or circuit style classes with modifications and a stretching class on Sundays.

Planet Fitness will be hosting "Home Work-Ins" — a series of free fitness classes for everyone — that will be streamed live on Planet Fitness' Canadian Facebook page daily at 7 p.m. (check your time zone). Classes will be led by Planet Fitness certified trainers, as well as special guests like "The Biggest Loser" coach and fitness trainer Erica Lugo, among others. The virtual classes will be 20 minutes (or less) and won't require any equipment.

Guided practices from Mirabai Bush, the center’s director, Diana Winston from UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, and Arthur Zajonc, president of the Mind & Life Institute.

Interested in mindfulness, but not sure where to start? There are many meditation apps, audiobooks, and programs available to you — before you get lost in the pile of choices, explore these three basic 5-, 11-, and 20-minute mindfulness meditations.

The focus of this site is mindfulness as practiced in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and other closely related approaches.

All of the guided meditation exercises on the site are protected by a creative commons license, meaning they are free to download and distribute non-commercially. Please credit the original sources when doing so and feel free to direct people here for more resources.

Selected talks, podcasts, and audio streams, including various lengths of guided meditation.

Website offers free meditation courses, chat forums, a meditation room, and more. You just need to register for an account.

Simple Habit is a free meditation app that mainly offers bite-sized meditation sessions for anxiety, relaxation, relationships, career, parenting, and much more.

Like many apps, Simple Habit has subscription-based premium features. But with the coronavirus pandemic causing widespread anxiety, Simple Habit is now giving users free premium memberships through the end of April 2020—that means total access to the app's countless meditation sessions and experts. The platform even has meditation plans and collections designed specifically for stress and anxiety related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For an introduction to mindfulness meditation that you can practice on your own, download the UCLA Mindful App (iTunes / Google Play), stream, or download the guided meditations at the link. Recorded by UCLA MARC's Director of Mindfulness Education, Diana Winston.

Due to the current situation with the coronavirus (COVID-19) evolving rapidly across the United States, our Center, The Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion, and the Compassion Institute will work together to provide daily streams and recordings of mindfulness and compassion sessions to provide resources and online support to those affected.

Multiple free live sessions will be conducted daily. See schedule for details.