Instagram recently announced important changes to how hashtags work, so using them the right way is more vital than ever. Effective fitness and gym hashtags can help you grow your account, ensuring your reels, posts, and carousels reach the biggest possible audience.
In this guide, we’ve collated the best fitness, gym, and workout hashtags for Instagram that you can simply copy and paste into your posts (plus 12 to avoid at all costs).
- Top hashtags
- Gym hashtags
- Workout tags
- Fitness motivation
- Weight loss
- Best hashtags for followers
- Banned tags to avoid
- Ready-made social media posts
We’re a specialist fitness marketing agency with 15+ years of industry experience, so we know first-hand what works (and what doesn’t!). We help gyms, personal trainers, and fitness coaches to successfully promote their businesses on social media. Check out our done-for-you content services.
Instagram’s Latest Hashtag Announcement
On 18th December 2025, Instagram announced that it would allow up to five hashtags in reels and posts. It had previously allowed up to 30 hashtags to be included, so this was a significant shift.
Their post on the official @creators account stated:
“Instagram will gradually update the number of hashtags that you can include in a caption for a reel or post to 5. We find that using fewer (up to 5), more targeted hashtags rather than many generic ones can improve both your content’s performance and people’s experience on Instagram.”
They also included some tips about ‘being intentional’ with hashtags so that they’re relevant to your content and avoiding ‘irrelevant or generic’ tags. They explicitly called out #reels and #explore as examples of this, and even mentioned that these types of hashtags can actually hurt your content’s performance.
Why does this matter? Well, basically it means that we have to be more strategic (and picky) than before. We can only use five hashtags now, so they’d better be the best, most effective ones for achieving our Instagram goals.
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Top Fitness Hashtags
The top fitness hashtags are the most popular ones on social media platforms. These get the most likes, follows, and uses, but this also makes them the most competitive.
We searched for the most popular fitness hashtags using Instagram’s built-in search functions. By doing this, we found that the top fitness hashtags as of 1st January 2026 (don’t ask why we’re working on New Year’s day) are:
#fitness #fit #fitnessmotivation #fitnessmodel #fitnessjourney #fitnesslife #gym #gymmotivation #gymrat #gymgirl #gymlifestyle #workout #workoutmotivation #fitfam #getfit #igfit #stayfit #training #bodybuilding #fitlife #fitmom #health #healthylifestyle #healthy #muscle #personaltrainer #exercise #weightloss
Copy and paste these hashtags (or save them for later) to use in your social media posts.
These hashtags are the most-used ones in relation to fitness and working out. For example, #fitness has been used in 575 million Instagram posts, reels, and stories. Followed by #gym at 320 million, #workout at 224 million, and #fitnessmotivation at 172 million. It’s safe to say they’re popular!
But one thing we’ve learned from 15+ years of fitness marketing is that using the top hashtags doesn’t get the best results. In fact, using the most popular tags is a common mistake that many gyms, fitness influencers, and everyday Instagrammers make.
The most popular ones have the highest usage and search volumes, which means they also have the biggest potential reach. But because so many people are using them, it’s almost impossible to stand out. They’re the most competitive and sadly, this means you’ll probably get no visibility at all…
The most popular tags are also the most generic. Which means they’re unlikely to appeal to your target audience, which is an essential Instagram marketing strategy.
You want to attract the people who are a perfect fit for your fitness offering, whether that’s personal training for triathletes or weight-loss programmes for parents… You’re not after every generic fitness fan in the Insta-verse!
So, although it may be tempting to use the most popular hashtags in your posts, we suggest using ones that are tailored to your segment. Which is why we’ve researched the best fitness hashtags for Instagram that will actually help your accounts grow…
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Gym Hashtags
The best gym hashtags for Instagram will typically relate to your location and fitness specialty.
Using local hashtags can help to attract members or personal training clients in your area (rather than people from all over the world). This is essential for gyms and PTs who train clients in person. Here are some tried and tested gym #tags to get you started (but you’ll want to add your location to tailor them)…
#babygymrat #certifiedgymrat #gymlife #gymmotivation #gymmemes #gymaholic #gymtime #gymworkout #gymgoals #gymhumor
You might also like… Perfect Gym Quotes & Captions for Instagram or 10 Gym Social Media Ideas For Attracting Clients & Retaining Members.
Workout Hashtags
Here are our top picks for the best workout hashtags for Instagram that you can copy and paste…
#barefootrunning #beastmode #burpeeskilledme #chestday #kettlebell #legsdayeveryday #powerlifting #streetworkout #strengthdefinesyou #sweatinglikeapig #workoutwednesday #yogaposeoftheday
Using an Instagram training hashtag like one of these will help your account grow more quickly. Your posts will be seen by the right people who are interested in content like yours, so they will be more likely to follow and engage with you.
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You might also like… workout quotes & captions for Instagram, creating a killer bio, story highlights cover designs, getting your first 1000 followers, top health hashtags, useful nutrition tags, and the best yoga hashtags to use on social media.
Fitness Motivation Hashtags
Here’s a selection of motivational hashtags that’ll inspire your fitness followers to take action…
#fitnessgoals #fitnessmotivation #fitquote #fitspo #gethealthy #getstrong #goals #gohardorgohome #healthylife #liftheavy #motivationmonday #noexcuses #trainhard #transformationtuesday #youcandoit
Weight Loss Hashtags
The top weight loss hashtags for Instagram combine a mix of nutrition, exercise, inspiration, and body positivity…
#cleaneating #fitmeals #getfitnlean #shredded #weightlosstransformation #weightlossjourney #weightlosstips #weightmanagement #weightlosscoach #weightlossprogress
You might also like… Funny Weight Loss Quotes & Caption Ideas.
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Best Fitness Hashtags For Followers
You can also use fitness hashtags to get more followers by combining popular hashtags with targeted ones for your specific niche.
Popular tags will expand your reach, resulting in more likes and followers. Niche tags will have a smaller reach but be much more effective in appealing to your ideal clients.
Using a fitness hashtag generator like Later’s tag tool, RiteTag, or Keyhole allows you to explore an entire web of related hashtags. Segment-specific hashtags are still highly popular with loads of followers, with the added bonus of being more targeted and specific.
This will help you attract those perfect clients instead of generic fitness fans with no interest in buying anything from you. You can also include a couple of straight-up ‘follow hashtags’ to give your account a quick boost.
#fitnessfollowers #fitnessfollowback #fitnessfollow #fitnesslike #fitblr #fitnessfriday #fitnesslove #fitspo #instafit #instafitness
Banned Fitness & Gym Hashtags To Avoid
Some hashtags are banned by Instagram, so it’s really important that you don’t use them. If you do, your post, reel, or story simply won’t get shown to any followers.
Banned fitness and workout hashtags to avoid include: #tag4like, #tagsforlikes, #swole, #pushups, #mustfollow, #models, #loseweight, #instasport, #hardworkpaysoff, #bikinibody, #assday, and #armparty.
You might also like… Fitness Content Ideas & Post Inspiration To Build Your Social Following.
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Hashtag FAQs
Here are some of the most common questions we get about social media hashtags. If you have a query that isn’t answered below, then get in touch via our contact form or Instagram.
