I don't know about you, but the City Girl's "Twerk" video featuring Cardi B had me somewhere between wanting to book a girls' trip to Miami and running to the nearest gym to go get my body right. Bikini season will soon be upon us and everyone is looking for the best ways to incorporate more exercise into their schedules.
Before you spend an hour "working out at the gym" – five minutes on the treadmill and taking selfies in between crunches don't count *cough cough* – try a twerk cardio class!
Anyone who has truly thrown that ass in circle for an extended period of time knows that twerking isn't all fun and games. Most of us have been to a party before where you arrived with your edges laid and high heels on and left with your silk press sweated out and feeling as if you just ran a marathon. Even a nice, slow whine is a full-blown waist and ab workout – shout out to the Drake "Controlla" - Rihanna "Work" Summer '16. The real ones know it's a workout – a twerkout!
To provide some context about the fitness component of the twerk cardio class, I'm not a couch potato. Maintaining a healthy level of fitness activity is crucial to keeping up with my work and social schedule, so I go to the gym about 2-3x a week and typically do a mix of cardio and ab work. Even though I'm in pretty decent shape, I was so sore after taking the twerk cardio class hosted by NYC Twerkout.
The routine that the founder and main instructor, Nikki Nicole, taught the class was a full body workout and quickly revealed to me how little I engage my biceps, triceps, and lower back muscles. The stamina required to dance and throw dat ass back for 45 minutes straight totally differs from 20 minutes on a treadmill. As a whole, the class was upbeat, free form, and without question, a memorable way to bond with my bookclub girlfriends.
Finding fun, engaging, and creative ways to incorporate fitness into our schedules can be a game changer and is frequently cited as one of the top reasons American adults do not work out.
Be it a Zumba or cardio pole dancing class, feel free to switch up your fitness routine. Go to joint classes to make it a more collaborative activity. Schedule sessions in advance and loop in friends so you will have an accountability partner(s). Pause the Netflix binge-watching marathon for one hour to roll out your pilates mat and watch some ~free~ YouTube ab work videos. Exercising is a lot more interesting and accessible than many of us want to believe.
No More Excuses in 2019. It’s Time to Get This Body Right. Yes, I’m Talking to You.
Recently, xoNecole had the opportunity to pop in on one of Nikki's twerk cardio classes and learn a few moves.
"If you have a booty. If you don't have a booty. Wherever you are in your journey, this is the class for you. You can come get sexy, turn up with your girls, act like you're in the club... But, really just have a good time and start burning a whole lot of calories and getting in shape," Nikki shared.
Watch the video below for my Twerkout experience & exclusive interview with Nikki Nicole:
[ia_video https://s3.amazonaws.com/roar-assets-auto.rbl.ms/runner%2F9136-twerkshop%2Bv4.mp4 source="https://s3.amazonaws.com/roar-assets-auto.rbl.ms/runner%2F9136-twerkshop%2Bv4.mp4" autoplay=true feedbacks=true shortcode_id=1550797728603 expand=1 ]Learn more about NYC Twerkout by keeping up with them on all social media platforms at: @NYCTwerkout.
Featured image by Getty Images
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and Skylar
Cj Hart @hartbreak
Today, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak