Fitness
Hate Working Out? The Viral Cozy Cardio Trend Makes Exercise Enjoyable
Despite its importance, working out can sometimes feel intimidating. But what if we told you that you could reap the health rewards of being physically active without even changing out of your pajamas? “Cozy cardio” is a trendy approach to movement that’s easy and approachable. Keep reading to learn the basics, plus see an expert-curated routine to help you get started!
What is cozy cardio?
In 2023, content creator Hope Zuckerbrow posted a viral TikTok video of her morning workout session. Against the backdrop of a dimly-lit living room, Zuckerbrow pours herself a tall glass of ice water, makes a protein coffee and lights scented candles (one of which is aptly named “cozy comfort”). She takes her daily supplements, then steps onto her walking pad wearing fuzzy socks while choosing a TV show to watch during her exercise session.
“I want cozy cardio to be a movement for women to reclaim their relationships with exercise,” Zuckerbrow explained in another video. “Cozy looks different for everyone, but my version looks like ambiance lighting, the flicker of a candle, the taste of my favorite protein coffee or the comfort of the show I’m binging. I just applied that to my exercise.”
@hope_zuckerbrow cozy cardio🫶🏻 #fyp #cardio #cozy #weightloss #walkingpad
♬ Blue Moon – Muspace Lofi
The relaxed, inviting approach to exercise resonated with so many people that the TikTok creator’s cozy cardio trend was even featured on the Today show.
Health benefits of cozy cardio
In any environment and at any intensity level, cardiovascular exercise is crucial for good health and longevity. To summarize its effects briefly, regular aerobic activity protects your heart, plays a vital role in weight management and improves brain function and mental health.
It encourages you to stay active
A cozy cardio workout is meant to encourage you to be physically active in a way that feels satisfying, which makes it easier to maintain healthy habits. Many people have an all-or-nothing attitude toward exercise, believing they either have to commit fully to something they don’t enjoy or feel it’s not worth putting in any effort, explains Rachel Goldberg, LMFT, founder of Rachel Goldberg Therapy.
“Cozy cardio is basically a way to say, ‘Hey, it’s okay to just move your body in a way that you don’t hate, and it’s actually good for you,’” she says.
When you use language and supporting practices to create a more inviting experience, you’re much more likely to follow through with that experience, adds Kathrine Brown, founder and Certified Coach at Conscious Weight Loss Inc.
It supports weight loss
If weight loss is your goal, consistency is key. You lose weight when you’re in a calorie deficit, which means eating fewer calories than you burn. Cozy cardio can be an ideal way to increase your daily activity levels and burn more calories, explains Matt Dustin, Certified Precision Nutrition Coach and NASM Corrective Exercise Specialist at Garage Gym Reviews.
“When paired with a proper nutrition plan, it’s an easy way to support weight loss while staying comfortable at home,” he says.
However, Brown suggests dropping any expectation of weight loss based solely on the movement you choose for cozy cardio. This expectation may overshadow two key things that are beneficial for weight loss: connecting with your body and improving your digestion, she explains.
Cozy cardio reduces stress
By making exercise feel relaxing, cozy cardio can reduce stress levels, says Supatra Tovar, Clinical Psychologist, Registered Dietitian and Certified Pilates Instructor at ANEW.
“High stress can increase cortisol, a hormone associated with weight gain, particularly in the abdominal area,” she explains. “Engaging in exercise that is enjoyable and soothing can help lower cortisol levels, creating a hormonal environment more conducive to weight loss.”
How to add cozy cardio to your wellness routine
The great thing about cozy cardio is that it’s simple and accessible for almost everyone, says Tovar. If you’re new to cardio, the key is to ease into it while tailoring the details to your personal preferences, she explains. Here’s how to get the full experience:
Create your cozy space
Start by choosing a quiet area in your home where you feel relaxed, says Tovar. Add elements like soft lighting or a scented candle. Then have your favorite playlist, TV show or podcast ready to accompany your workout. “The goal is to make the space inviting so that you look forward to exercising,” she says.
Wear comfortable clothing
Dress in loose, soft or stretchy clothing—whatever makes you feel relaxed and confident, advises Tovar.
Choose your exercise
Aim for 10 to15 minutes of movement initially, suggests Tovar. Starting with shorter sessions ensures you don’t feel overwhelmed and allows you to build confidence and stamina over time.
While walking on a treadmill is a great starting point since it’s accessible and everyone knows how to do it, you can do any activity you enjoy, says Goldberg.
“Using light equipment that doesn’t feel intimidating, such as a stepper or light dumbbells while watching TV or listening to an audiobook, can also be good ideas,” she says. “Dancing is also a great option for people who are inspired by music. Ultimately, making exercise feel cozy isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s about finding a way to be active that doesn’t feel dreadful and allowing yourself to feel good about that movement.”
A stationary bike, rower or walking pad are excellent options that allow you to enjoy a gentle cardio workout, adds Dustin, and you can adjust the resistance settings to customize the intensity of your workout. If you don’t have any equipment, you can also do low-impact bodyweight workouts like yoga or Pilates, he adds.
This content is not a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. Always consult your physician before pursuing any treatment plan.
People with high cardiorespiratory fitness were 36% less likely to experience depression and 39% less likely to develop dementia than those with low cardiorespiratory fitness. Even small improvements in fitness were linked to a lower risk. Experts believe that exercise’s ability to boost blood flow to the brain, reduce bodywide inflammation, and improve stress regulation may explain the connection.
Fitness
These 20-Minute Burpee Workouts Replaced His Entire Gym Routine – and Transformed His Physique
While many swear by them, most people see burpees as a form of punishment – usually dished out drill sergeant-style by overzealous bootcamp PTs. Often the final blow in an already brutal workout, burpees are designed to test cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance and mental grit. Love them or loathe them, they deliver every time.
For Max Edwards – aka Busy Dad Training on YouTube – they became a simple but highly effective way to stay fit and lean during lockdown. Once a committed powerlifter, spending upwards of 80 minutes a day in the gym, he was forced to overhaul his approach due to fatherhood, lockdown and a schedule that no longer allowed for long, structured lifting sessions.
‘Even though I was putting in hours and hours into the gym and even though my physique was pretty good, I wasn’t becoming truly excellent at any physical discipline,’ he explained in a YouTube video.
‘I loved the intentionality of training,’ says Edwards. ‘The fact that every session has a point, every rep in every set is helping you get towards a training goal, and I loved that there was a clear way of gauging progression – feeling like I was developing competence and moving towards mastery.’
Why He Walked Away From Powerlifting
Despite that structure, Edwards began to question whether powerlifting was sustainable long-term.
‘My sessions were very taxing on my central nervous system. I was exhausted between sessions. It felt as if I needed at least nine hours of sleep each night just to function.’
He also noted that his appetite was consistently high.
But the biggest drawback was time.
‘I could not justify taking 80 minutes a day away from my family for what felt like a self-centred pursuit,’ he says.
A Simpler Approach That Stuck
‘Over the course of that year I fixed my relationship with alcohol and I developed, for the first time in my adult life, a relationship with physical training,’ says Edwards.
With limited time and no access to equipment, he turned to burpees. Just two variations, four times a week, with each session lasting 20 minutes.
‘My approach in each workout was very simple. On a six-count training day I would do as many six-counts as I possibly could within 20 minutes. On a Navy Seal training day I would do as many Navy Seal burpees as I could within 20 minutes – then in the next workout I would simply try to beat the number I had managed previously.’
This style of training is known as AMRAP – as many reps (or rounds) as possible.
The Results
Edwards initially saw the routine as nothing more than a six-month stopgap to stay in shape. But that quickly changed.
‘I remember catching sight of myself in the mirror one morning and I was utterly baffled by the man I saw looking back at me.’
He found himself in the best shape of his life. His energy levels improved, his resting heart rate dropped and his physique changed in ways that powerlifting hadn’t quite delivered.
‘It has been five years since I have set foot in a gym,’ he says. ‘That six-month training practice has become the defining training practice of my life – and for five years I have trained for no more than 80 minutes per week.’
The Burpee Workouts
1/ 6-Count Burpees
20-minute AMRAP, twice a week
How to do them:
- Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
- Crouch down and place your hands on the floor (count 1)
- Jump your feet back into a high plank (count 2)
- Lower into the bottom of a push-up (count 3)
- Push back up to plank (count 4)
- Jump your feet forward to your hands (count 5)
- Stand up straight (count 6)
20-minute AMRAP, twice a week
How to do them:
- Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
- Crouch down and place your hands on the floor
- Jump your feet back into a high plank
- Perform a push-up (chest to floor)
- At the top, bring your right knee to your right elbow, then return
- Perform another push-up
- Bring your left knee to your left elbow, then return
- Perform a third push-up
- Jump your feet forward
- Stand or jump to finish
Kate is a fitness writer for Men’s Health UK where she contributes regular workouts, training tips and nutrition guides. She has a post graduate diploma in Sports Performance Nutrition and before joining Men’s Health she was a nutritionist, fitness writer and personal trainer with over 5k hours coaching on the gym floor. Kate has a keen interest in volunteering for animal shelters and when she isn’t lifting weights in her garden, she can be found walking her rescue dog.
You check your smartwatch after a run. Your fitness score has dropped. You’ve burnt hardly any calories. Your recovery score is really low. It’s telling you to take the next 72 hours off exercise.
The worst bit? The whole run felt amazing.
So why is your watch telling you the opposite?
Ultimately, it’s because smartwatches and other fitness trackers aren’t always accurate.
Smartwatches can shape how you exercise
Using wearable fitness technology, such as smartwatches, has been one of the top fitness trends for close to a decade. Millions of people around the world use them daily.
These devices shape how people think about health and exercise. For example, they provide data about how many calories you’ve burnt, how fit you are, how recovered you are after exercise, and whether you’re ready to exercise again.
But your smartwatch doesn’t measure most of these metrics directly. Instead, many common metrics are estimates. In other words, they’re not as accurate as you might think.
1. Calories burned
Calorie tracking is one of the most popular features on smartwatches. However, the accuracy leaves a lot to be desired.
Wearable devices can under- or overestimate energy expenditure (often expressed as calories burned) by more than 20 per cent. These errors also vary between activities. For example, strength training, cycling and high-intensity interval training can lead to even larger errors.
This matters because people often use these numbers to guide how much they eat.
For example, if your watch overestimates calories burned, you might think you need to eat more food than you really need, which could result in weight gain. Conversely, if your watch underestimates calories burned, it could lead you to under-eat, negatively impacting your exercise performance.
2. Step counts
Step counts are a great way to measure general physical activity, but wearables don’t capture them perfectly.
Smartwatches can under-count steps by about 10 per cent under normal exercise conditions. Activities such as pushing a pram, carrying weights, or walking with limited arm swing likely make step counts less accurate, as smartwatches rely on arm movement to register steps.
For most people, this isn’t a major problem, and step counts are still useful for tracking general activity levels. But view them as a guide, rather than a precise measure.
3. Heart rate
Smartwatches estimate your heart rate using sensors that measure changes in blood flow through the veins in your wrist.
This method is accurate at rest or low intensities, but gets less accurate as you increase exercise intensity.
Arm movement, sweat, skin tone and how tightly you wear the watch can also impact the heart rate measure it spits out. This means the accuracy can vary between people.
This can be problematic for people who use heart rate zones to guide their training, as small errors can lead to training at the wrong intensity.
4. Sleep tracking
Almost every smartwatch on the market gives you a “sleep score” and breaks your night into stages of light, deep and REM sleep.
The gold standard for measuring sleep is polysomnography. This is a lab-based test that records brain activity. But smartwatches estimate sleep using movement and heart rate.
This means they can detect when you’re asleep or awake reasonably well. But they are much less accurate at identifying sleep stages.
So even if your watch says you had “poor deep sleep”, this may not be the case.
5. Recovery scores
Most smartwatches track heart rate variability and use this, with your sleep score, to create a “readiness” or “recovery” score.
Heart rate variability reflects how your body responds to stress. In the lab it is measured using an electrocardiogram. But smartwatches estimate it using wrist-based sensors, which are much more prone to measurement errors.
This means most recovery metrics are based on two inaccurate measures (heart rate variability and sleep quality). This results in a metric that may not meaningfully reflect your recovery.
As a result, if your watch says you’re not recovered, you might skip training — even if you feel good (and are actually good to go).
6. VO₂max
Most devices estimate your VO₂max — which indicates your maximal fitness. It’s the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise.
The best way to measure VO₂max involves wearing a mask to analyse the amount of oxygen you breathe in and out, to determine how much oxygen you’re using to create energy.
But your watch cannot measure oxygen use. It estimates it based on your heart rate and movement.
But smartwatches tend to overestimate VO₂max in less active people and underestimate VO₂max in fitter ones.
This means the number on your watch may not reflect your true fitness.
What should you do?
While the data from your smartwatch is prone to errors, that doesn’t mean it is completely worthless.
These devices still offer a way to help you track general trends over time, but you should not pay attention to daily fluctuations or specific numbers.
It’s also important you pay attention to how you feel, how you perform and how you recover. This is likely to give you even more insight than what your smartwatch says.
Hunter Bennett is a lecturer in exercise science at Adelaide University. This piece first appeared on The Conversation.
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