Whenever setting the course to get involved in something new and unfamiliar, it’s often helpful to find inspiration through the work of others. For example, each and every artist develops their own style and process with time and experience; but art doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The developmental progression of many artists is often spurred on by finding creative influence in other artists’ work. The same can be said for nearly any discipline and subject matter. When starting out on the path of fitness and wellness, the right influences can be key elements towards developing good forms and habits.
Knowing where to start and who to turn to for motivation and mentorship can be tricky. While there are a lot of folks providing valid information, there are also more than a handful selling snake oil.
The following is a concise rundown of some of today’s leading fitness influencers, who I have found to produce educational and entertaining content that makes getting into the fitness scene a fun and functional endeavor.
Lean Beef Patty (theleanbeefpatty)
Combine a personal trainer and a performance artist, and you get Lean Beef Patty. Once you get a taste of what she’s serving up, you’ll understand why she has over fifteen million followers across social media platforms. Her quirky demeanor always makes for entertaining content, and she’s adept at diversifying the material she produces so that we are treated to the gamut of fitness culture.
Patty is as close to a real life anime character as you can get both in terms of her jubilance and her feats of strength. As a matter of fact, along with fellow fitness influencer Jesse James West, Patty took on the challenge of enacting some of anime’s hardest (and seemingly impossible) workouts. Patty is also very real with her followers about her own fitness journey, including the trials and tribulations she faced before getting to where she is today.
I value the way Patty makes it clear that exercise is just one step in the equation to a healthy and happy life. She definitely gets the physical results that anyone would be in awe of, but she also reminds us not to take ourselves and our routines too seriously. Adding in an ample amount of fun and creativity is what makes fitness a passion project and true wellness routine rather than a rote exercise that feels like a chore.
Penny Barnshaw (garagefitnessgirl), DanielPT (DANIELPTFITNESS), Caroline Girvan (CarolineGirvan), Heather Robertson (Heatherrobertsoncom), Juliette Wooten (JulietteWooten) and Alex Crockford (AlexCrockford)
About two years ago, I got really into the YouTube follow along fitness craze. It’s the next best thing to having a personal trainer, and actually even better for people like myself who don’t want to join a gym.
People who see my social media posts ask me where I get the ideas for some of the compound exercises I share. Well, the answer is that most of the time they’re improvised riffs on the foundational movements that I learn from amazing certified fitness trainers like Penny Barnshaw, DanielPT, Caroline Girvan, Heather Robertson, Juliette Wooten and Alex Crockford.
Their follow along exercises cover the gamut of strength, cardio and mobility. They each offer a bunch of wonderfully intensive HIIT and Metcon (metabolic conditioning) routines; but there’s also a nice variety of other formats such as solid state cardio (i.e. step workout training), Pilates, cardio barre and split strength training.
If you’re looking to build a repertoire of moves, which you too can improvise on, Barnshaw has a library of short clips demonstrating individual exercises, which is really helpful for crafting your own circuit based workout sessions.
Many of the aforementioned trainers have soundtracks (with awful music, unfortunately!) and no talking. However, if you like commentary, similar to. the kinds you’d get if you were working one on one with a trainer, then I highly recommend Alex Crockford and Juliette Wooten. Both provide really great instruction and motivational prompts.
Josh and Trevor Hash (StrengthSide) and David Thurin (movementbydavid)
Judging from the sheer volume of content posted on YouTube, everyone seems to want to do HIIT and Metcon. However, taking a break from those formats is ideal so that you don’t burnout and/or plateau. Additionally, in order to perform your best while doing intense strength and cardio interval exercises, you need to really hone in on full body mobility training. This is where content by the Hash brothers and David Thurin come in handy.
Thanks to these content creators and fitness trainers, I’ve developed a more expansive mindset regarding strength training. It’s not all about pumping iron, doing massive reps and running marathons or record shattering sprints. The key to a great and sustainable fitness routine is training with a full range of motion. This means moving our bodies in the ways it’s designed to move organically.
From the Hash brothers, I learned about primal movement and natural strength training. This got me into performing animal flow exercises (see: “Take a Walk on the Wild Side with Animal Style Exercises”), and I definitely have noticed a change in my ability to move more gracefully.
“Stay flexy,” is Thurin’s mantra, and watching the content on his channel has helped me immensely with ensuring that I am maximizing my mobility and form in both my workouts and my everyday life tasks. I am so much more cognizant of my posture and longitudinal hypertrophy (i.e. stretch-mediated bodybuilding) when exercising, as well as when I am simply engaging in leisurely or functional activities.
Mike Israetel (RenaissancePeriodization) and Jeff Cavaliere (athleanx)
Ensuring that I am using proper exercise form and minimizing risk for injury, overuse and plateau is of utmost importance when seeking to make gains in strength and cardio training. Mike Israetel and Jeff Cavaliere are my go-to influencers for learning about exercise physiology.
Israetel is an exercise scientist, while Cavaliere is a physical therapist, so they know the tangible ins and outs of how our bodies function when put to the task. They each provide really good advice on what to do, as well as what not to do when exercising; as well as which exercises are beneficial, and which are potentially detrimental.
Heeding their guidance is important in order to avoid making costly mistakes, and minimizing the risk of exercise related injury and other physical ailments that might occur down the line if improper form is utilized. I was even more intrigued by Cavaliere's fitness program after I found out he was the physical therapist and strength coach for the New York Mets during the 2006 through 2008 seasons, in which they were really good, but ultimately, in typical Mets fashion, heartbreaking!
I am only scratching the surface with this post, so let me know if you have any go-to fitness influencers, and why you’re drawn to them.