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Hong Kong is a city inundated with gyms and fitness centres, but it’s no secret that most memberships are prohibitively expensive. In light of the recent health crisis, plenty of people are putting their fitness schemes on hold instead of braving the gyms and their changing rooms, which we all know are essentially Petri dishes of breeding bacteria.
Luckily, there is no shortage of videos online that brings the workout straight to your home. Of course, not all fitness tutorials are created equal, so we've sifted out the subpar content, and put together a list of the 10 best home workout channels to follow on YouTube. Dust off your yoga mat and prepare to get a sweat on!
Certified fitness instructor Cassey Ho has amassed approximately 4.8 million subscribers on her YouTube exercise channel, and she is that popular for a reason. Apart from a friendly demeanour that encourages viewers to get on with working the core, legs, arms, and butt, Casey has also constructed pilates workout series and challenges for viewers to be motivated to follow through. Her Apartment-Friendly series is probably the most suitable for Hong Kong’s housing.
Husband-and-wife team Daniel and Kelli have put together over 500 workouts designed for people leading busy lives. No matter what the amount of time you have on your hands is, Fitness Blender will probably have a video workout to fit into the slot. They’ve even got a puppy workout for the dog lovers out there. Learn how to do puppy deadlifts, puppy squats, puppy curls, and much more—just remember to BYOP (bring your own pup)!
If—like yours truly—you’re a certified couch potato who hates the gym but still wants to make the transition into fitness, then the Fitness Marshall will probably do it for you. Caleb Marshall artfully combines pop hits with dance moves so your workout doesn’t even seem like a workout, though rest assured you’ll still be working up a sweat. You don’t need to be good at dancing to follow along to his YouTube channel either, as the Marshall choreographs with everyone—including the less coordinated—in mind.
We get intimidated by yoga instructors who are... well, too instructor-y, which is why we love Adriene Mishler and her YouTube channel instead. She has a calming voice and is super chill, which makes her videos a joy to follow. In addition to her winning personality, Adriene is also just relatable as a person: she has videos on yoga for easing anxiety and depression, sore muscle recovery, couch potatoes, and even curing hangovers.
Joanna Soh brings friendly personal trainer sessions to your living room, but don’t be fooled by how cute she is—her workouts can be killer! Those who like to see how far they can push themselves will not be disappointed: Joanna’s latest is a 10,000 indoor step challenge. She also does calorie-burning circuits that will kick some serious butt but also has beginner-friendly videos as well.
Chris Heria has his own dedicated fitness app but you don’t have to sign up for a membership to view his free YouTube content. His channel is callisthenics-based, with plenty of follow-along videos that you can do from home, such as leg workouts to build muscles or an eight-minute full-body workout for beginners. Chris also has correctional videos to make sure your form is top-notch and to avoid injuries. Don’t be intimidated by how seriously shredded this guy is!
There’s no such excuse as “pressed for time” anymore with MadFit’s Maddie Lymburner. She has tons of videos on her YouTube channel that are perfect for home workouts because they mostly don’t require equipment. They are mainly split into targeted body sections like abs, butt, and arms, but are usually just 10- to 15-minutes long, so you can always manage to squeeze a sesh in somewhere! Maddie also has some workouts paired to pop hits for that extra boost.
Exercise apparel brand Alo Yoga has a range of zen and aesthetically pleasing yoga videos that are perfect for stretching and working out the kinks and knots accumulated from other workouts. The exercises range from 15-minute quick sessions and relaxing classes to abs-focused and longer flow classes. They also have kids-centric yoga and meditation exercise videos on their YouTube channel and have usefully included a short how-to series on nailing those difficult arm balancing poses.
No need to even get anywhere near a box with CrossFit HQ’s channel! These folks have done a clever set of at-home workouts that you can still do without equipment, such as the hollow hold, slips, and odd object clean. If you do have some gear, you can also follow the videos for swings, shrug-and-snatch, single-leg deadlifts and more—all from your own living room.
They’ve also got form demo videos on their YouTube, so you can always create your own mash-up workout once you have the basic moves down. The only downside is that they’ve got a vaguely 1990s sitcom vibe going on, which makes us chuckle when we should be concentrating.
Of course, we’d round off this list with Hong Kong’s very own fitness guru, Emi Wong. This bubbly girl has workouts to fit into any schedule, from a 15-minute no jumping HIIT session or an intense 10-minute lower ab burner to a half-hour full-body fat smasher.
Emi is down-to-earth and relatable in her videos, which makes her a joy to watch and follow—a particularly crucial factor for beginners. She also shares tips on weight loss and dieting, as well as things she’s learnt on her personal fitness journey.
Catharina has recently returned to her hometown of Hong Kong after spending her formative years in Singapore and the UK. She enjoys scouring the city for under-the-radar things to do, see, and eat, and is committed to finding the perfect foundation that will withstand Hong Kong’s heat. She is also an aspiring polyglot, a firm advocate for feminist and LGBTQIA+ issues, and a huge lover of animals. You can find her belting out show-tunes in karaoke, or in bookstores adding new tomes to her ever-growing collection.
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