This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s spring editorial intern Kelly Xiong. Find her on Instagram at @k.3lly. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
The fitness world on social media has greatly expanded over the past few years. More and more people find themselves in the world of fitness, trying to become some sort of gym influencer. It’s great to see more people promoting exercise and the sport of powerlifting and bodybuilding. But, with the influx of people in the fitness influencer space, a lot of misinformation can be circulating. Some may only be in it for the money and not care about being honest and transparent with their followers. Some may be giving you bad advice or fearmongering you to sell you a product they’re coming out with. It can be hard to find fitness influencers who are honest, transparent and give you accurate information, advice and tips. But fear not, I have gathered a list of fitness bloggers on Instagram and TikTok you can follow. I have been following them for a while and can say that they are indeed there to help, not to try to sell any scams or such.
JPG Coaching
JPG is quite popular in the lifting community, and rightfully so. He is a personal trainer and also posts a lot of free tips, tricks, advice and everything else on TikTok. If you need help with form or how to train a certain muscle group better, JPG has probably made a video on it. He has earned his popularity on TikTok amongst the lifters. Alongside all the super helpful advice and tips he posts, he’s also really great at rolling with jokes. It makes watching his content that much more enjoyable.
Whitey Simmons
Whitney Simmons is quite well-known in the fitness community as well — more so with women. You may have heard her name from the multiple Gymshark collections she has done over the years. Whitney is, in my opinion, one of Gymshark’s most popular athletes. She started on YouTube, took a hiatus due to mental health, then came back posting mainly on TikTok now. Whitney posts a lot of her workout routines on TikTok, but aside from this, she’s a girl just like the rest of us. She loves makeup, skincare and haircare and she’s not shy about sharing that part of her life too.
Whitney is very transparent about her mental health issues in the past as well as her struggling with psoriasis, showing that there’s no need to be ashamed of it and we absolutely should normalize these things, they are not and should not be taboo.
Kenzie Vance Fit
Kenzie is a great influencer to follow if you’re into bodybuilding or are trying to get into bodybuilding. A lot of her fitness and diet tips are catered toward people who are in the bodybuilding world but she also often speaks about lifting and diets in general.
Kenzie is similar to Whitney in that she is also very transparent. When Kenzie started taking PEDs — Performance Enhancing Drugs — she was very honest and open about starting it. However, she did not specify what kind or how much she was taking, as she did not want to encourage others to do so. Taking some sort of PEDs is pretty fairly common amongst fitness influencers, especially bodybuilders, but not everyone is willing to be as open and honest about it. That oftentimes will lead to audience members trying to naturally achieve a look or an aesthetic that isn’t naturally achievable, which can then lead to a plethora of things.
Everything aside, she also has a great personality and is very relatable to her audience members. Bodybuilding can be intense and scary, especially if you’re new, so it’s nice to have someone willing to break things down for you, give you tips and advice and also make you laugh and relate to them.
Jason and Lauren
Jason and Lauren Pak are trainers who speak a lot about mobility and stretches. No matter what sport you play or what exercise you intend to do, mobility and flexibility are super important. Jason and Lauren talk a lot about how our bodies move when we’re active and how we can train our bodies to feel good inside and out of the gym. They focus a lot on the “little lifts”. As they say in one of their video captions, “The “big” lifts can you get big and strong, but the little lifts are what help you stay fresh and resilient throughout your hard training.”
Eric Roberts Fitness
Eric Roberts is another trainer on TikTok that I have found super helpful when starting out. He talks a lot about form — something that can be hard to perfect when starting a new exercise. Form is super important when working out because an exercise incorrectly can lead to injury. You can find a lot of different exercise form videos on his TikTok page, from rdl’s and Bulgarian split squats to dumbbell rows and shoulder presses.
Another thing that I found really helpful about Eric Roberts’ page is that he keeps is simple when talking about all things fitness and diets. He doesn’t try to lie to you about how to lose weight or how to grow your glutes to sell you something. Whatever your goals are — generally speaking of course unless you’re paying for his personal training services — he will tell it to you how it is.
Who are your favorite fitness bloggers on Instagram or TikTok? Let us know in the comments.
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