12 Jun 4 Great You Tube Fitness Channels You Should Check Out
We all know the importance of regular exercise and proper diet for a healthy, strong and well-rounded body, but people often complain about not having too much time or money to spend on workout and nutrition advice from personal trainers. Well, in this day and age, ignorance is inexcusable, as there are tons of free information available online for all who are really looking for answers. You can get in very good shape within a single year if you spend only 5-6 hours a week on workouts and eat the right food. As faith would have it, there are plenty of smart and capable people on YouTube who are willing to share in-depth information on how to achieve your fitness goals effectively, without starving yourself with quasi-scientific diets or injuring yourself in the gym by doing compound exercises with bad form.
I have searched the far reaches of YouTube and sifted through more bad content, disinformation and incompetent “trainers” than I care to mention, to ultimately bring you four of the best strength and fitness channels that will provide you with all the exercises, information and nutrition facts you need to get seriously fit – just as long as you are willing to get off your chair and actually do some work once you have watched the videos.
Omar Isuf
Omar Isuf, a.k.a. Chef Buff, is a natural bodybuilder and personal trainer from Canada who promotes “athletic aesthetics” – which simply means developing a strong and muscular body that is both beautiful to look at and very functional at the same time. At the first glance, it kind of looks like your average YouTube comedy channel, because Omar likes to goof around and make a few funny videos but, overall, the channel is about getting bigger, stronger and leaner. In fact, it is Omar’s aloof nature, positive attitude and healthy sense of humor that sets him apart from many boring and poorly thought out fitness channels that you can find on YouTube. The videos are grouped in various playlists that include exercise tutorials, explanations of muscle anatomy, complete workouts, fat loss tips, nutrition tips, beginner advice, work outs for women and healthy meal recipes and tutorials.
The information is presented in a relaxed manner, but it is concise and good. Omar strives to boil everything down to the essentials and give his audience straightforward advice, answering questions in no uncertain terms and giving you a step by step solution within 3-5 minutes. There are many educational videos with him in front of a whiteboard, and the ones on muscle anatomy and exercise technique and form are particularly useful. Throughout his videos, he remains positive and humorous, providing entertainment, inspiration and quality information in one short sitting. The most entertaining video is probably the one where he deadlifts 545 pounds (Omar is around 180 pounds) in a Green Power Ranger costume, but, as I have experienced myself, you come for the goofiness and you stay for the advice.
Omar puts up videos regularly and addresses many important questions a beginner or even intermediate lifters might have about working out at the gym and nutrition. Even if you don’t go to the gym, you can find some useful advice on nutrition and exercise, but it is a gym-oriented channel at its core. If you have recently joined a gym, or have been going for a while, and want to improve your form and/or get leaner, then Omar Isuf is the man for you.
Strength camp (Elliott Hulse)
A man of very exotic and mixed heritage – his parents came from the Central American country of Belize – and a real beast when it comes to feats of strength, Elliott Hulse is truly a sight to behold. He is a personal trainer with his own gym and a professional strong man to boot. He advocates training for functional strength, athletic performance, mobility and overall health. In fact, the words that you will often hear from Elliot are regarding posture, especially fixing bad posture that people develop through improper or unbalanced training. His channel is structured as a Q&A platform, where he answers his viewers’ questions about strength training, whether in the comment section or video replies people send, so you get a bunch of diverse information. In addition to this, he has plenty of videos on workouts, nutrition and proper exercise form, particularly on the two major compound movements: squats and deadlifts. If you want to learn the good back squat, front squat, deadlift and bench press form, you will hardly find a better teacher than Elliot. He answers all questions, no matter how strange they might sound and has tons of videos on his channel you can browse to find an answer.
The thing with Elliot Hulse is that he sometime goes off on a tangent, as he doesn’t rehearse his video answers, opting to jump right into it and use his experience and knowledge to give some honest advice. The best thing about the channel is that you get an honest answer from a guy who has had a bunch of experience in strength training and has read a lot of books on the subject, as well. It is refreshing to see someone who places great emphasis on posture, proper technique, stretching and breathing. It’s all fun and games when we are young, but once we get older, we can develop all sorts of back problems and joint pain as a result of bad training form and overexerting ourselves in our youth. There is plenty of great information on the channel, and some that is a bit out there, so you should definitely have a look and maybe even ask Elliot a question.
ZuzkaLight
Zuzka is one of those trainers you simply feel you can trust – she is sexy, positive, supportive and gives you a ton of useful information. She provides you with numerous exercises you can do at home using your own bodyweight and some simple equipment, and focuses on high intensity work and circuit training – which is the best way to burn a lot of calories in a short workout. Zuzka offers full workouts, workouts that target specific body parts, recipes for low calorie meals and even day to day coaching videos. In the videos, she presents the information very clearly, telling you what you need up front, how many exercises there are, and proceeds to explain how to perform the exercises in great detail, giving easier variations for beginners who might find some movements difficult at first. The main idea behind the channel is that you can get in good shape by doing 12-15 minute, high-intensity workouts several times a week and eating right. These exercises require very little space and the only extra equipment you will need are things like a jump rope, some dumbbells and a sports bag filled with sand. There are also a lot of real time videos that you can play and follow along for the full duration of the workout. That way, you get more motivation when you feel like quitting.
Even if you are more of a bodybuilder and like to hit the gym, you can incorporate these short intense workouts 2-3 times a week into your schedule and they will help you get lean, and even help promote muscle growth, unlike drawn out, low intensity cardio sessions, which can eat some of your muscle away. The recipes are incredibly tasty and nutritious, while remaining low in calories, and there are plenty of sweet snacks made from natural ingredients – like some great ice cream recipes, made from frozen bananas, berries, protein powder and almond milk. Zuzka seems to be fully aware of the day to day struggles of keeping your body fit and will give you some great first hand advice on getting lean and staying that way, with limited resources and with less than 15 minutes of exercise several times a day.
Funk Roberts
Funk Roberts is one extremely fit individual who offers tons of circuit training routines that you can do on your own with limited resources, or at the gym using barbells and dumbbells. As I have already mentioned, circuit training and high intensity interval training are the best and quickest ways to get your body to burn off excess fat and to promote anabolic hormone production in the body. Mister Funk has these types of workouts in spades. The thing that first drew me to the channel are the MMA workouts which not only promote a healthy dose of fitness, but also provide you with functionality and enhance the effectiveness of your sport-specific movements. With these workouts there is a lot of emphasis on explosive power, muscle endurance and compound movements. There are also a few nutrition related videos and some meal and smoothie recipes, although, to be fair, I enjoyed Zuzka’s meals more, but I guess she just has a natural talent for preparing delicious food. The home workouts are short and sweet, providing plenty of burn in a short period of time, while the gym circuits with heavier weights on barbells are pretty grueling and will yield some awesome results.
You don’t have to take up too much space in the gym or hog several machines and make everyone hate you, as there are several great circuit routines that utilize only a barbell. The best thing about the channel is that you get some warm-up and dynamic stretching routines, full out workouts and some short burnout exercises to finish you off after a good workout. The focus is placed on hard-hitting metabolic cardio, explosive power and functional training including sprints and jumping. The exercise that you will see here a lot are the burpees – a prime example of compound movements and explosive power that can be incorporated in any good circuit. Whether you are an athlete, bodybuilder, combat sport and martial art practitioner, or just looking to get in decent shape, you should add some of Funk Roberts’ workouts to your training program. Basically, 2-3 times a week should do the trick.
In these four channels you will find plenty of videos and more than enough information to get you started on a very functional fitness program. Take your time and browse through the videos to find the information you need and to find the right type of workout for you. As long as you put in the time and do the work, you will get some incredible results within a year as the advice is quite sound and the workouts pretty challenging. You can always find 40-50 minutes on some days and 15 minutes on other days to work on your body, and this quickly amounts to several hours of quality training per week. Couple this with affordable and tasty recipes for healthy dietary meals and you can get in shape without feeling too uncomfortable or worn out.
