When Strictly 2020 came to a close last year, professional dancer Karen Hauer (38) admits she felt a bit lost. She’d had an incredible four months on the show and waltzed into the final with her dance partner, Jamie Laing.
“After Strictly finished there was two weeks where Christmas was coming and there was the excitement of that but then everything stopped. I had a few days where I was really down, I was a bit lost and I didn’t know whether to rest or work out. My body and brain were confused! I knew I had a lot of energy but my mind was occupied all the time and suddenly there was nothing,” says Karen.
Dance along with Karen
But she was soon back up and dancing again. She’s recently launched two free exercise classes every week on Tuesdays and Thursdays on her Instagram Live account and through January ran a boot camp every Saturday morning over Zoom video call, where the dancer gave personal advice while exercising with participants.
“It’s about helping people, whether we are in lockdown or not, and trying to keep everyone active,” she explains.
Karen definitely practises what she preaches when it comes to her own exercise regime. As well as her classes she does three 20-minute Hiit (High-Intensity Interval Training) workouts, combining short bursts of intense exercise with periods of rest or lower-intensity exercise, every day.
“I go old school when I exercise at home doing squats, push-ups, jumping jacks and sit-ups. It’s as basic as that! You can get a good workout doing 40 seconds work and 20 seconds rest for each exercise and doing four rounds of it. Being consistent and not overwhelming yourself will make you feel good and the great thing is, you don’t need any equipment.”
She has also just bought an exercise bike and tries to avoid eating too much meat, sticking to healthy Mediterranean and fish dishes instead. “I can’t sustain a diet, I just need to make sure I am eating enough to fuel my workouts!”
Karen wants you to get active for This Girl Can Week
After a strange year of disruptions thanks to the pandemic, This Girl Can have launched a campaign to help inspire and encourage women to get active and return to their healthy activity habits following lockdown.
"This is such an amazing campaign that I've been asked to be a part of and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. This is something I really believe in and it’s about supporting women and inspiring women to get back to being active especially after the year we’ve had." Says Karen.
"I think it’s really important for us to take into consideration all the different things that have been happening this year and especially how it’s affected women and their levels of activity. We can very much go into multitasking mode, doing different things for everyone and taking care of everything around the house and the kids and working but sometimes, we forget to take care of ourselves and give a little time to focus on us and I think this is a great campaign to get women moving around, whether it’s for 5-10 minutes, doing something you really like, such as walking or dancing around your living room or going for bike ride - something that will lift your spirits and get that confidence level up and make you healthier both mentally and physically.
"I’ve always been really active since I was a kid, and it’s always been my lifeline I guess. My dancing is my career but whenever I'm not on stage or on camera the work that I do at home is very important for me because it's the time I get to focus just on me. Whether it’s yoga, pilates or just reading a book, writing a book, I keep a journal. I also get life coaching, therapy, meditation, hypnotherapy so there are a lot of things I do behind the scenes that keep me both physically and mentally in balance."
How to motivate yourself when you don't feel like exercising
"Motivation is very hard if you don’t have a structure. If you have a structure and you’re consistent and you add motivation on top of that then you’re winning and it's about building small habits every day and staying consistent. There are so many things online and so many websites to go to. Obviously there’s This Girl Can and Sport England - there are so many things you can look up for exercises that you can do.
"Build a structure for yourself, stay consistent and do a little bit at a time. Even if it’s three days a week and then you slowly build to four days then to five and then you take the weekend off, it’s about building a format that works for you because if you go into it too quickly, the format will crumble.
"There are days when I wake up and I'm not motivated but I know that I'm disciplined and that’s been built throughout my years of being an athlete, and this helps on those days when I don't want to get out of bed. You feel really good afterwards, and when you feel good about yourself then you think it's better for me to get out of bed and do something than lay in bed and feel sorry for yourself. You have to be hard on yourself sometimes and push yourself because who else is going to push you?"
Karen's top tips for a quick workout
'You don’t need a lot of time, there are plenty of quick work out options. In 7 minutes you can hit 7 body parts - one minute on each. If you have 7 minutes, you can workout. You can do legs, abs, upper body, chest, shoulders, biceps, back so there are so many different things you can do. Even if it's five minutes, pick five of your favourite exercises and do one minute you can for three rounds or just the one.
'One minute of exercise is like the longest minute - it feels like 20! But it doesn’t have to be time consuming, the more you start doing it, the more you start feeling good. It becomes a bit of an addiction in a way because you start to feel good, you feel the muscles working and then you start slowly seeing the transformation.'
Advice on building the self confidence to exercise
"It’s funny because I'm in the public eye but when I'm working out I don't like people watching me. You feel eyes on you and it makes you feel weird so start in your own space and pick something you like to do. It could be the most simple thing like putting on your favourite song and dancing in your living room. You don’t have to be an elite dancer and have specific moves, you just need to move your body around. Do a couple of jumping jacks, some squats and do movements that you know and slowly start graduating from 10-15 mins to trying a class.
"Being active and being able to see other people and being part of a group also helps as long as you’re feeling confident with yourself. Baby steps are the best way, sometimes if you just throw yourself too quickly you'll definitely have a set back. Let your body catch up, and be realistic that it’s not going to happen overnight and that’s okay. Give yourself a chance to enjoy the process, don’t put pressure on yourself. It might take a couple of months, it might take a year, but you will get there at your own pace and don’t think about the industry that surrounds you telling you you have to look a certain way."
Why her mum is Karen's biggest inspiration
"My mum is in her 70s and she’s living in New York on her own. Whenever she’s feeling poorly or she’s recovering from illness, she goes for long walks. She loves to run and do yoga and she has her weights at home that she utilises. Sometimes she does my workouts but sometimes she’s like ‘that one is a bit much for me’ but I think learning from my mum and seeing how she takes care of her body, really helps me. She’s almost like my idol that I kind of look at in the physical aspect and how she’s developed physically and mentally throughout the years and seeing her grow up as a woman as well.
"When you’re coming back from being ill, your body is recuperating and starting to rebuild itself. Always make sure you stay hydrated and start slowly. Walking is the best thing ever. Doing a little bit of stretching, chair based workouts that you can do are good as well. So there are a lot of workouts to do when you’re coming back and slowly building strength. The most important thing is finding something low impact that will still get you moving. The most important thing is to listen to your body and try not to overdo anything."
Karen Hauer is supporting Sport England’s This Girl Can Week to inspire women to get active - however you choose to do it, it all counts. Go to www.thisgirlcan.co.uk for advice and resources and share how you're moving on social media with #ThisGirlCan.
Do you love walking too?
If this has inspired you to get walking and having a go at more walking, how about setting yourself the challenge of Walk1000Miles? Run by our friends at Country Walking magazine, it's a great way to get out and about in the countryside, make friends, lose weight and most of all have fun!
"I have always been in a relationship"
On a personal note Karen reveals she has split from her partner, opera singer David Webb. They got together in 2018 but they ‘quietly parted ways’ last September.
As the jovial and likeable professional readily admits, it’s the first time she has been on her own for more than five years. Prior to dating David, she was married to former Strictly dancer Kevin Clifton for three years before they went their separate ways in 2018.
Today, Karen says she is pleased to have some space. “I have always been in a relationship,” she confides. “I love that but it is quite nice to take some time to evaluate life and find how to care for myself.
“On a practical note I didn’t realise how much stuff I had at home! I was a hoarder before. I have emptied everything out now and got rid of a lot of things.”
She credits fellow Strictly star, Oti Mabuse and her celebrity dance partner, Jamie Laing, for being there for her over the past few months. “They are my two closest friends,” she explains. “And Jamie is like my brother. We are very protective of each other. He is someone who is really special, who has a really kind heart and who is a true, true friend.”
Hopes of a Strictly tour
Karen is hopeful the Strictly professionals will still be able to tour later this year. “So far, we haven’t heard it’s not going on. Our rehearsals start in April and it’s going to be very difficult for us if it doesn’t happen. But we have no idea what the next couple of months are going to be like and all we can do is focus on right now.”
Karen says she also can’t wait to be able to fly back to New York, where her family live, when it’s safe again, though she has no plans to move back.
“It was my mum’s 70th recently and I video called her and my sister,” she says. “It was hard as I miss my family terribly. But I don’t want to move back to New York. I love London and I feel like this is where I started a new chapter in my life.”
Karen’s free exercises classes run every week on Tuesdays and Thursdays on her Instagram Live account at 10am; anyone with internet access can join.