Trending Workouts: Which Are the Most Watched on TikTok in 2023?
In the 80s it was leg warmers and VHS tapes. In the 2010s we went to YouTube to work up a sweat. But these days more and more people are turning to TikTok for workout tips, tricks and techniques. At KURU Footwear we decided to dive a little deeper and explore just what kinds of workouts are most popular on the platform.
The Most Viewed Workouts on TikTok in 2023
We started our search with 22 of the most common and popular workouts, and from there we calculated the number of views for each hashtag to determine which activities are the most popular.
Cardio finished first with the top spot. Cardio workouts have almost double the views of the next most popular workout, High Intensity Interval Training, and almost the same amount of views at the bottom 19 workouts COMBINED!
Running has taken America’s heart and sole. With a population of 331 million people in the U.S., every single person could have watched at least 5 cardio workout videos each to hit this view count.
The other most viewed workouts are pilates, dance, and boxing. On the other end of the spectrum we have climbing, stretching, and hiking rounding out the bottom three. Check out the infographic and table below for the complete rankings!
| Hashtag | Views |
| Cardio | 1.7 billion |
| HIIT | 900 million |
| Pilates | 675.8 million |
| Dance | 412.6 million |
| Boxing | 387 million |
| Basketball | 358.2 million |
| Treadmill | 260.4 million |
| Soccer | 89.5 million |
| Yoga | 69.9 million |
| Football | 69.3 million |
| Walking | 49.6 million |
| Running | 44.5 million |
| Crossfit | 24.6 million |
| Volleyball | 6.1 million |
| Weight Training | 2.7 million |
| Zumba | 1.6 million |
| Weight Lifting | 842 thousand |
| Cycling | 818.2 thousand |
| Pickleball | 339.1 thousand |
| Climbing | 156.4 thousand |
| Stretching | 132.2 thousand |
| Hiking | 34.6 thousand |
Most Popular Workouts on Instagram
We also wanted to see which workouts were the most popular on Instagram. Just a heads up: Instagram measures hashtags by number of posts, not views—and may better reflect what videos creators are making, rather than what users are watching.
| Workout | Posts |
| HIIT workout | 3,000,000 |
| Cardio workout | 2,300,000 |
| Boxing workout | 1,400,000 |
| Pilates workout | 548,000 |
| Dance workout | 335,000 |
| Treadmill workout | 308,000 |
| Basketball workout | 266,000 |
| Yoga workout | 155,000 |
| Crossfit workout | 144000 |
| Running workout | 47,600 |
| Zumba workout | 39,200 |
| Weights workout | 23,300 |
| Football workout | 19,200 |
| Soccer workout | 18,300 |
| Walking workout | 17,700 |
| Cycling workout | 15,400 |
| Volleyball workout | 1000 |
| Weight lifting workout | 1000 |
| Hiking workout | 1000 |
| Pickleball workout | 500 |
| Climbing workout | 500 |
| Stretching workout | 100 |
HIIT workouts took the top place when it comes to Instagram reels, followed by cardio. It’s interesting to note HIIT and cardio were the two most popular workouts on both platforms.
Pickleball, climbing, and stretching were not popular on Instagram, with under 600 videos per workout. Hiking and weight lifting only had about one thousand videos too.
Workout at home, or hit the gym?
Interestingly, both at home workout and gym workouts each had 1.6B views on TikTok. #athomeworkouts has 1.3 million videos on Instagram, whereas gym workouts are slightly more robust with 1.7 million posts.
Methodology and Sources
We wanted to find out which types of workouts were the most popular in 2023 on TikTok and Instagram. To do this, we searched each workout + the word “workout” under “hashtags” in the TikTok app. We then found the number of views for 22 different types of workouts in June, 2023. We also found the number of posts for the same hashtags on Instagram by searching the name of the workout + “workout” under “Tags” in June, 2023.
We used Census Bureau data to find the population of the United States of America.
About Us
At KURU, we're on a mission to help you Heel Better™ with footwear technology designed to relieve foot pain, so you can live a life you love. Since launching our innovative technology in 2008, we’ve received more than 37,000 five-star reviews from thousands of customers who tell us their KURU shoes helped them get back to doing what they love.
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