YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world and is owned by Google. It makes total sense that fitness business owners and personal trainers are using it for lead generation, and establishing authority. But who are the best fitness YouTubers, who have the most useful content, the most popular YouTube channels and are so well established that other personal trainers could learn from them?
What makes the best fitness YouTube channel is entirely subjective, and will depend heavily on the type of fitness that viewers are interested in, what experience level they have and what their training goals are. This list aims to be as broad as possible, covering a range of different training modalities including bodybuilding, food and nutrition, bodyweight and callisthenics and also channels with popular follow along workouts.
#1. Nick’s Strength & Power
Nick is a natural bodybuilder who shares his training journey and insights with his audience. Nick is highly active on his channel, producing a huge amount of content about his experiences in the world of bodybuilding packed up into easy to digest “binge-worthy” chunks, around 10 minutes in length. His channel has hours and hours of content that’s a must-watch for bodybuilding fans, especially his time in bodybuilding meets and competitions where he meets the greats.
#2. BodyBuilding.com
Fans of bodybuilding as a sport, and as an art, will long have been familiar with the bodybuilding.com website. Their YouTube channel is full of instructive and helpful content about bodybuilding, including recommendations about home workouts, essential equipment, reviews of supplements and products and instructional “how-to” content from industry leaders. Whether you’re looking for inspiration and motivation, to nutrition and supplementation, if it’s relating to gaining muscle, getting lean or preparing to get on stage, this channel is worth checking out.
#3. Matt Does Fitness
Matt is a natural bodybuilder, but his advice on his YouTube channel extends beyond bodybuilding to include a broad range of fitness tips too. Lots of the content is lighthearted and feels like a very genuine and authentic look into his lifestyle. If you enjoyed our recent article on home gyms, Matt’s vlog on this is one to look out for - and try not to feel too jealous!
#4. Kali Muscle
Another natural bodybuilder, but the focus of the channel isn’t all biceps and supersets. This channel is incredibly inspiring to see the results of the hard work. He lifts incredibly heavy, and so if you’re doing these workouts yourself (which you could, as they’re well organised into body parts, you might take a few days to fully recover! The goal of his channel is to motivate people to start working out, so this can be an excellent hype video before a training session. The videos are a good mix of training and insight into his life in digestible 20-minute bite-sized chunks.
#5. Scott Herman Fitness
Scott’s channel is for the dedicated gym-goer that’s serious about getting incredible results. He produces very regular content, with new videos released twice a week which include suggestions on how to improve your own training - but also calling out fitness industry charlatans, and dispelling commonly held beliefs. His main content pieces are based around nutrition, training and supplementation and he is very knowledgable. His channel is perfect for people interested in getting stronger, gaining muscle or improving their endurance in the gym.
#6. Love, Sweat & Fitness
Love, Sweat & Fitness is focused on healthy, sustainable weight loss habits. After struggling with sustainable weight loss, and fad diets, Katie knew that she had more experience than most when it came to making a healthy change. She learned about what worked for her body and took matters into her own hands - creating a YouTube channel to document the process and to allow her to reach others that needed help. Not just focused on weight loss, Katie also looks at the far less commonly talked about issue of weight maintenance after that initial loss has been achieved. With healthy recipes and inspiration, this can be a great start if you’re looking to get inspired in your own health journey.
#7. The Lean Machines
This channel is hosted by two friends, both personal trainers and health coaches, with a fantastic way of communicating complex topics around both training and nutrition. They have a fun approach and try different styles of workouts in an entertaining and open-minded way. The videos range from practical advice, like how to do a healthy food shop on a budget to follow along workouts on functional fitness and muscle building. The presenters are great at what they do, and invite people on their channel with whom they obviously have great relationships and banter.
#8. Molly Bailey
Molly’s vlogs are influential because her approach to nutrition is so transparent. Regular videos about healthy food shops, what she would eat in a day, or the results of 30-day challenges keep regular viewers of the channel engaged and entertained. There’s something very satisfying about seeing a well thought out meal prep video, isn’t there? The lifestyle content around routines can be helpful for viewers struggling to make healthy food choices part of their routine and can be a useful resource to guide clients to when they need some guidance.
#9. Official Barstarzz
There is something incredibly impressive about the strength to weight ratio of true gymnastic ability. Callisthenics is hard work and promotes the mastery of your body through space - although unlike gymnastics, these workouts often happen outdoors, combining hard training with fresh air and pairing your daily exercise with your environment. If you’re into bodyweight training, this will take it to the next level. Of particular interest are the tutorials and how-to guides; these range from beginner to expert, and simple movements to very advanced.
#10. Al Kavadlo
Al’s athleticism and gymnastic ability are impressive, but the YouTube channel isn’t just him flexing his prowess. There are interviews, reviews and guidance on how to fix common mistakes in callisthenics movements. Al’s content is quite advanced, so it’s fun to admire his skill and set aspirational goals. His website has books and additional programmes and resources that are worth a look if you like this style of training.
#11. Calisthenicmovement
This YouTube channel issues regular challenges to their subscribers - with the main content aimed at beginners and avoiding pitfalls, mistakes and getting common injuries associated with callisthenics. There are workout routines with careful instruction - especially on what to look for if you’re not sure if you’re “doing it wrong” and great suggestions on what alternative exercises to try if you’re not getting the results you wanted from more traditional approaches. The entertainment vlogs are a particularly fun look into the way callisthenics can make you a stronger athlete.
#12. HASfit
The HASfit team is made up of Coach Kozak and Coach Claudia, and their YouTube channel accompanies a website and a mobile app for people that want to work out alongside the coaches. Perfect for beginners, or people that are looking for an accessible workout to mix up their normal training routine. HAS Fit includes 30-90 day plans for free, as well as thousands of full-length workouts organised by muscle group. Playlists organise workouts into those which can be done at the gym and those which can be done at home.
#13. Joanna Soh
Joanna Soh is like having a personal trainer in your home. For many personal trainers, they spend so much time looking after their clients’ health, that they can forget to take care of themselves. These workouts are short, often very intense, and need minimal equipment. They can also be a source of inspiration for programming for our own clients. Not just focused on her exercise routine, Joanna is also a confident speaker on nutritional matters and can be a great source of new ideas around healthy recipes to keep prep interesting.
#14. XHit Daily
XHit Daily takes a unique look at follow along style workouts, focusing on the movements to achieve the look of a celebrity - legs like Jennifer Lawrence, or a butt like Beyonce. While this isn’t everyone’s preference, there’s definitely a market for it, with XHit Daily having 2.7 million subscribers to their channel. They have a massive variety of high energy workouts, how to tutorial-style content and are worth checking out if you’re looking for a bit of a change from your normal training.
#15. Fitness Blender
This channel is run by a husband and wife team, and the focus is exclusively on training. No nutrition, no lifestyle stuff - just exceptional quality workout content. With workouts including both cardio and strength-based sessions, there’s something to suit most tastes. The channel is extremely well established, and over the last decade, they’ve published hundreds of workouts - some lasting just 5 minutes, others closer to an hour. High energy and extremely motivating, these can be a fantastic resource for ideas to dip into before leading a group fitness class.
#16. MadFit
Not only are these workouts entirely possible from the comfort of your own home, the fact that they are so well thought out means that you can do them even if your living arrangements put neighbours below you. That means no jumping around, no high impact work - which is not only apartment-friendly but joint-friendly too. You can get started with just an exercise mat and your own bodyweight - no big expensive outlay needed. Added bonus; all workouts are under around 25 minutes in length so they can fit in around your other commitments pretty easily.
#17. NateBowerFitness
Boxers are some of the fittest athletes around with an incredible ability to generate power, muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness. The focus on Nate’s YouTube channel is boxing and HIIT workouts. Armed with not much more than boxing gloves and a heavy bag, workouts range from 6 to 60 minutes and the viewer is free to learn new punching combos and work hard. Nate is a boxing instructor so there’s plenty of technical guidance for an experienced boxer, but the entertaining style is accessible for someone that’s just aiming to introduce some training variety into their sessions too. A fantastic way to stay fit, and introduce skills like agility or technical elements into your session to keep things fresh and fun.
#18. The Body Coach TV
Back in March 20202, during the lockdown, anyone that hadn’t yet heard about Joe Wicks was about to make him a regular part of their day. UK-based Joe was an emerging advocate for short, sharp HIIT workouts, but during the first lockdown, introduced “PE with Joe” so people that were homeschooling their children had some help to keep themselves and their little ones energised and healthy in the morning. His YouTube channel is a mix of beginner-friendly and more advanced HIIT workouts, with minimal equipment. The sessions range from 5-25 minutes long, and the workouts for children are clearly labelled in the preview so they’re easily found. Some of them are even done in costume! Sweaty!
#19. Tone It Up
This channel focuses on health (including a whole playlist of videos dedicated to appreciating your body and learning how to feel good), fitness content, including categorised workouts based on body part and equipment, and lifestyle (including guided meditations). This is definitely more than “just workouts” as the team create playlists that are excellent quality, and very well produced. While there is a lot of free content on the YouTube channel, there’s additional content for paid members over on their site and mobile app. They have recently introduced “TIU4U” - Tone It Up For You - additional, custom content, such as indoor cycling and running workouts like Peloton have recently done.
#20. POPSUGAR Fitness
Got between 15-30 minutes to exercise at home each day, and don’t want a bunch of ugly equipment cluttering up your space? These workouts are fun, accessible and available in a massive range of objectives - from recovering from an intense run to focused, sculpted ab work. There’s new content created on such a frequent basis that if you didn’t want to repeat a workout, you’d never have to. Perfect for people focused on bodyweight training at home.
