With ‘FitTok’ exploding on TikTok, writer Amy Davidson has been separating the fads from the decent workouts so you don’t have to.
Your TikTok For You page (FYP) is basically an exposition of your soul. Mine throws up everything from a 16-year-old giving freakishly on-the-nose advice about my toxic situationship and attachment issues to dogs, and of course fitness content.
FitTok is where you’ll find wildly chaotic fitness advice ranging from the best compound exercises to beast leg day, to how to have a ‘coregasm’ using the pull-up bar. It’s also the place that PT qualifications go to die, with thousands of amateur videos suggesting new ways to work out with limited research beyond how well it syncs to a trending audio or its shareability.
I am no better than these trends. I too have been seduced by Miley’s Flowers workout, coveted the idea of becoming a pilates girly, and sought new ways to make cardio less hell-inducing. But having gone to the gym for years and established my weekly routine, I’ve been too cautious of change to actually try them IRL.
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In the name of research, however, I decided to hand my workout over to the FitTok algorithm to see a) what’s actually a legit workout that won’t cause muscular damage and b) if I could find a new lease of enjoyment. Here’s how it went.
Treadmill strut
The word ‘strut’ is so cringe, I’m struck by a whole body convulsion of embarrassment that nearly makes me give this one a pass. The ‘treadmill strut’ is a trend invented by TikTok user Allie Bennett and calls for you to curate a playlist around an artist, genre of mood and up the speed on the treadmill by 0.1mph every time the song changes… and strut.
I hit up Gympods and book out my own private ‘pod’ complete with a treadmill, strength equipment and a reformer machine to make sure I can fully commit without giving myself and the rest of the gym the ick.
My gym playlist personality is wildly different to my non-gym one, and strutting to Irish post-punk doesn’t feel like the most natural synchronisation. So, inspired by Beyoncé’s tour announcement, I make a Renaissance-inspired playlist and get going.
After an initial common sense malfunction leading me to increase the speed by 1mph instead of 0.1mph, I finally get into my stride. For my usual cardio routine, I go from an incline walk to straight sprint intervals, so I actually really enjoy allowing my body to ease into more of a gradual build.
I find myself wanting to significantly up the pace every time a banger comes on, but in the end, I’m glad to step off the treadmill not feeling like I’ve maxed out before starting my strength work.
Reformer pilates
Reformer pilates has been around for a while, but TikTok has recently brought it to a whole new audience – racking up over 144 million views. Reformer pilates takes place on a bed with detachable weighted springs and a moving carriage designed to work your muscles to the max.
I’m the first to admit I used to think of pilates as a ‘wasted’ workout with more stretch than substance, unlikely to help with any real progress or gains. And it was that cockiness that made my reformer pilates stint a hundred times harder than I expected.
My core was burning. Reformer pilates is all about building strength, flexibility and balance, and those unassuming looking leg lifts and abductions? Not so unassuming in practice. There’s also the added bonus of the reformer carriage letting you take your stretch to the next level when it comes to cool-down, making it way deeper and more satisfying than my usual half-hearted quad stretch on my well-worn gym mat. This one’s a straight pass.
Flowers workout
It seems unfair that you can exist both as Dolly Parton’s goddaughter and the author of one of the year’s best petty break-up bangers (and it’s only February) but there we have it. When Miley dropped Flowers, TikTok became obsessed by not only the delicious snipes at her ex Liam Hemsworth, but also by the workout she’s seen pounding her rage into in the music video. It includes battle ropes, bird dogs, some kind of hellish-looking resistance band burpee and a kind of interpretative dance glute bridge I definitely won’t be attempting at rush hour at the gym.
To be fair, as much as I hated the idea of battle ropes due to my non-existent upper body strength, once I’d found a rhythm it was surprisingly enjoyable. I’m into any upper body exercise that doesn’t require me to do a pull-up or bench anything, and this one also forced me into a power stance while the thrashing motion itself was definitely an effective stress reliever. As for the rest… I’ll leave that in Miley’s capable hands until I craft my own revenge banger.
Hot girl walk
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I’m very serious about walking. I don’t stroll – I’m all about moving towards my end destination in the quickest way possible and feel palpable anger at anyone or anything that gets in my way. But the ‘hot girl walk’ trend is designed as the complete opposite; it’s a way of romanticising your life and thinking about what you’re grateful for – and with over half a billion views on TikTok, clearly people are seeing something in it.
Setting off with nowhere to be, no Citymapper route and no prescribed time is alien. I decide to aim for an hour, which feels like a very long time to spend moving with no clear purpose. After my brain had gone through its checklist of things I ought to be stressed about, it runs out of gas. And that’s where my own self-reflection starts.
As a natural pessimist, focusing on my strengths doesn’t feel natural, but reframing it as an exercise of appreciation versus egomania helps me get there. There’s also something inherently calming about walking when you take away any kind of hard end result. I’m still not sure about whether TikTok has just craftily reframed walking as a groundbreaking new trend, but either way, it can only be a positive thing.
Shy girl workout
Sometimes I get to the gym and for no reason at all, feel 100 times more self-conscious than usual. Faffing around with the cable machine is out, walking lunges are an absolute no, and entering the testosterone swamp of the bench and weights section is an even harder ‘not today’.
TikTok’s ‘shy girl workout’ presents a solution to this. Designed to make women feel more comfortable in the gym, it encourages you to find a corner of the gym, put your headphones in, and grab a pair of dumbbells for a number of straightforward but effective exercises.
Choosing a day I was suffering from a bout of hangxiety, feeling low on energy and tolerance for working out around wandering eyes, I set myself up in a corner with a bunch of weights.
Not having to move around a busy gym, navigate complicated equipment and generally be ‘seen’ is definitely a trend worth having in your back pocket. I was able to get a sweat on and do a challenging full-body workout in my safe corner of the gym. No notes.
The results
All in all, FitTok definitely has its silly moments. And while I wouldn’t say you’re missing a trick by not adding a bi-weekly ‘strut’ or Flowers session to your routine, there’s something about the enduring appeal of pilates and a mindful walk that makes them worth holding on to.
I’ve learnt that mixing up my previously iron-cast routine definitely has its benefits, both mentally and physically, and I’m here for any trend that makes women feel more comfortable in the gym.
Images: Amy Davidson
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