I’ve often thought about the best ways to learn languages and exercise at the same time. Being inside a lot more to help stop the spread of coronavirus has led me to discovering many more YouTube workout videos. Here’s some playlists to get you started jumping around a bit as you stay home.

Typically, I head outside 3 times a day. A morning walk, a lunchtime walk, and then a run or bike ride after work. The coronavirus rules have meant quite a change to my regular exercise routine, which means I’ve been dancing around my living room more than you’d like to know.

One morning, I was looking for an arm workout and came across an “8 minute arm workout” with a cringe-inducing thumbnail “showing off” a “before and after” of her arms. Thumbnail and equally cringey intro aside, I was ready to go…and then she started speaking in Chinese!

Seeing as the title had been in English, I was quite surprised. But I thought, “Hey, let’s go with it!”

The workout itself was quite good, and I got some extra Chinese listening in, something that’s not exactly top of mind right now with everything going on.

So that’s where this post originated.

I totally get that doubling up and “learning” a language at the same time as exercising might feel ever so slightly overly productive right now. If that’s the case, ignore this post and carry on with your day.

But if you’re keen to give it a go, keep reading!

Combining Language Learning and Exercise

Before I share the YouTube playlists with you packed with videos in different languages to do at home, I want to share a few more ideas to combine exercise and language learning.

Change Your Strava Language

If you’re still allowed out once a day for exercise where you are, and you use Strava, you can adjust your language on your phone to change the language on Strava.

This isn’t just about the display language, but also the audio you’ll hear when you’ve got kilometre and mile markers set.

The little digital voices coming back in the language you’re learning every kilometre are nice additions.

Play With Your Watch Face

I mocked my husband for years about his fancy exercise watch. It always felt kinda unnecessary and over the top.

But then I started to run further and wanted to listen to music at the same time. One of those watches began to seem more and more helpful to stop needing to record on Strava and save the battery on my phone. Then I could keep listening to my music on my phone! It’s the little things, right?

I think it was the same day as when I did the Chinese exercise video. I sat and checked the Garmin app store for watch faces.

Not really expecting much, I was surprised to come across one in Chinese! I even also discovered ones in Spanish, French, Thai, and some available for multiple languages too.

Podcasts and Music Playlists

If you enjoy listening to things when you’re out, you could try podcasts (either designed for learners or natives) or a music playlist too.

Read more about podcasts in The Ultimate Guide to Language Learning Podcasts here and learn How to Use Spotify for Language Learning here.

Stay Home, Jump Around a Bit, and Sneak Some Language In Too!

Before we get to the playlists I’ve already made, I want to quickly walk you through how to find these kinds of videos yourself if the language you’re learning isn’t included below.

If you’re not quite familiar with the terms that are going to help you find the videos, type some key words into Google Translate lines apart so you can copy and paste them to search on YouTube.

We’ll try “yoga tiếng Việt”. Ok, we’re in! Here’s what that’s given us…

Awesome. Let’s click that one with 11 million views on the verified channel.

And now the sidebar is your friend. If you’re after more, click around a bit until you find one that you like.

Alternatively, if you’d like to add them to a playlist for later, click the three dots that appear when you hover over the video, and select “Add to playlist”. Or, if you’d like to add a video you’re watching to a playlist, click “Save”. You’ll see a box that looks a little like this…

After doing this a few times, you’ll then be able to view your playlist from your profile or the left sidebar. Tah dah! You know can move about a bit and get some language in. Hooray!

Ok then, here’s the playlists I’ve created so far for home exercise videos in different languages.

Of course, inevitable disclaimer. I’m not a personal trainer, some people in the videos might not be either, don’t overdo it with a new exercise routine etc etc. You know the drill.

Also, please ignore any thumbnails with excessive abs or before and after shots. I hate that kind of stuff and have tried to pick videos that aren’t going to make you feel like garbage. But as is the nature of the internet, for that you’ll sometimes need to get past the thumbnails. Do it. You’re strong too.

I’ve tried to include some general workout stuff, dance workouts or choreography, yoga, and pilates for each language.

Be sure to click through to channels as many of them have plenty more videos too.

What you see below is the first video of each playlist. Click the icon in the top right of the video to see the rest of the playlist.

You ready? Here we go…

FRENCH EXERCISE VIDEOS

CHINESE EXERCISE VIDEOS

SPANISH EXERCISE VIDEOS

PORTUGUESE EXERCISE VIDEOS

ITALIAN EXERCISE VIDEOS

GERMAN EXERCISE VIDEOS

RUSSIAN EXERCISE VIDEOS

JAPANESE EXERCISE VIDEOS

KOREAN EXERCISE VIDEOS

ARABIC EXERCISE VIDEOS

POLISH EXERCISE VIDEOS

TURKISH EXERCISE VIDEOS

DANISH EXERCISE VIDEOS

SWEDISH EXERCISE VIDEOS

HINDI EXERCISE VIDEOS

DUTCH EXERCISE VIDEOS

VIETNAMESE EXERCISE VIDEOS

I hope this helps if you’ve been feeling a little restless indoors! I particularly recommend the dancing ones. K-pop and reggaeton never sounded so good. Enjoy!