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Hedy Phillips CNET Contributor
Hedy Phillips is a freelance lifestyle writer based in New York. While she’s not writing on topics like living on a budget and tips for city dwelling, she can usually be found at a concert or sightseeing in a new city. Over the past 10 years, her bylines have appeared in a number of publications, including POPSUGAR, Hunker, and more.
The gym isn’t the solution for everyone. A gym membership can be expensive and it can be tough to find enough time to commute to and from the gym for regular workouts. With online fitness training and some investment in home exercise equipment, you can have a killer workout setup at home.
Whether you’re a beginner or a fitness enthusiast, working out at home offers a variety of benefits, and along with those come the challenges. These are the best YouTube channels that will help you get the most out of your home workouts without feeling like you’re being tested or judged in front of other people.
What’s the best overall free YouTube workout channel?
The best overall free YouTube channel you can use to work out at home is PS Fit, formerly Popsugar Fitness. The channel offers a wide range of workouts and difficulty levels. With hundreds of workouts to choose from, PS Fit has something for beginners, pros and everyone in between.
Best YouTube channels for free workouts
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PS Fit (formerly Popsugar Fitness) has a little bit of everything. On this YouTube channel, run by Popsugar (or PS now, with the rebrand), you’ll find cardio, weight training, dance, barre, HIIT and everything in between. The classes come in different lengths, so you can pick what works best for the amount of time you have for your at-home workout. There are also plenty of difficulty levels to choose from, so if you want to try yoga and have never done it before, you can pick a beginner’s yoga class and work your way up until you’re a pro. There are hundreds of workouts to choose from, and you can sort by the workout you want or the instructor you want. You can even take on a curated challenge, like the 5-Day Full-Body Blast.
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Personal trainer Heather Robertson offers a wide variety of HIIT workouts on her channel to get you moving. She specializes in workouts that require no equipment and can be done in any length of time you have. Ranging from 10 minutes up, the workouts are designed for a variety of skill levels and muscle groups. She’s also designed several series and calendars to help you stick to a schedule of working out your muscle groups equally and efficiently.
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Juice and Toya have everything you need to do your own weight training at home. On this channel, you’ll find playlists by muscle group and equipment, so you can specifically pick a workout series using the weights you have on hand. Largely ranging from 10 minutes to 30 minutes, these workout videos are easy to follow for a variety of skill levels. They also show modifications if you need to go easier in any section of the workout.
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Sydney Cummings Houdyshell is a bit of a legend in the fitness YouTube space. Her videos cover a ton of different exercises that focus on working out every muscle group in your body, but we would recommend her, especially for dumbbell workouts. Sydney is a former Track & Field high jump athlete, but her workouts are holistic, and the channel has a ton of videos involving dumbbells, ranging from your standard usage, to some innovative ways to incorporate dumbbells into your workout routine. She also posts new workouts regularly, which means that even if you don’t find enough workouts to match your style from her 2,000+ videos, you’re likely to find one in the newer uploads.
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The Fitness Marshall’s dance workouts are more than just shaking your booty. These full-body workouts are designed to get your heart rate up and work all your muscles at the same time. Set to all kinds of popular songs, these workouts are quick, so you can do one, two or 10 for a workout, depending on how long you want to sweat for. The Fitness Marshall also offers longer videos for 30- or 60-minute workouts as well.