Happy (early) birthday, YouTube. To celebrate the site’s 20th anniversary, we present: The InsideHook Guide to YouTube, a series of creator profiles, channel recommendations and deep dives about the viral, controversial, unstoppable video-sharing giant. 

Is YouTube an effective place to jumpstart your personal wellness routine? Yes and no. I’d argue that it’s a useful platform for consuming wellness — for finding inspiration and instruction, following a fitness journey or watching some of the world’s fittest pull off amazing achievements. 

But you do need to watch with vigilance. Much like the rest of the social media universe, YouTube’s health and fitness library is a minefield of misinformation. People are there to sell you stuff: supplements, recovery products, unsafe diets. Naturally, the category’s cost per mile is on the higher side, with advertisers willing to pay between $7 to $15 per 1,000 views for ads on these videos. 

It’s telling that so many wellness accounts saw their impressions skyrocket during the pandemic, while we were stuck at home, sequestered from trainers and teammates, and true health experts had bigger fish to fry. At the time, YouTube proved a useful link to the larger exercising world — offering all manner of follow-along workouts, documentary-quality vlogs and power hours for stress relief. 

That premium content still remains, if you know where to look. I’ll always champion the benefits of old-school, analog wellness before encouraging anyone to spend more time on a screen, but used correctly, YouTube could constitute an actionable jumping-off point for your own journey in physical fitness, mental health and social wellness. I’ve highlighted some key channels below. 

Running

Best Channel: Göran Winblad

Göran Winblad is a highly talented amateur runner (in the low 16-minute range for 5K). His videos invite his followers to the forests and riverbanks near his home in Norway, where he dispels tricks for running success and debunks products that he thinks aren’t worth your money. In true YouTube fashion, he likes to have a bit of fun, too, often testing viral running challenges, or just making up brand-new ones (check out his “winter mile.”)

Start Here: “How to Run a Faster 5K”

HIIT

Best Channel: Heather Robertson

For those lucky enough to have a home gym, or at least a screen and a spacious living room, Heather Robertson’s channel features hundreds of home workouts. A certified trainer and nutrition coach, she specializes in scorching HIIT circuits — the sort of thing that most of us would prefer to perform away from watchful strangers. In an age of $49/month online subscriptions, it’s amazing that she’s made this many workouts free. Follow along with one of her 12-week programs, or select videos a la carte.  

Start Here: “Day 1 // The Daily10: 10 Min Upper Body Workout”

Yoga

Best Channel: Yoga With Adriene

With almost 13 million subscribers, yoga instructor Adriene Mishler is one of the most successful wellness influencers in YouTube history. But it’s hard to tell based on her videos, which have long featured a simple scene: a mat, her snoozing dog Benji, some sun-kissed windows and her casual instruction. Over the last decade, she has uploaded a yoga flow for seemingly every need (for abdominal strength, for depression, for surfers). Head to her channel whenever you need a physical or mental reset. 

Start Here: “Movement Medicine – Energy Practice”

Meditation

Best Channel: The Honest Guys

The Honest Guys make a compelling case for eschewing pricey meditation apps. There’s no real gimmick here — they’re just a pair of British dudes (Kevin Brown and Rick Clarke, along with scriptwriter Siân Lloyd-Pennell) with super soothing voices who make simple relaxation videos. If you listen to them regularly, you’ll probably breathe more and sleep better. Their comments sections are routinely flooded with followers thanking them for shepherding them through long commutes, exam periods and even the deaths of loved ones. 

Start Here: “Guided Meditation – Total Stress Relief!”

Adventure

Best Channel: Beau Miles

This is a crowded category on YouTube, as the platform’s algorithm naturally lends itself to stunty, backyard (and backcountry) challenges. The YouTube faithful love a drone. But it takes a certain personality to intercut those drone shots with genuine humor, energy and relatability. Beau Miles, a redheaded Aussie with a PhD in outdoor education, is a master at this. He has walked 90 kilometers to work (on purpose!), built a cabin for $60, run through the Australian Alps and kayaked around the southern tip of Africa. This brand of “fitness” is pure entertainment — and often much more engaging than the pricier projects you’ll find on a streaming service. 

Start Here: “Running a Marathon, One Mile Every Hour”

Hybrid Training

Best Channel: Fergus Crawley

Similar to calisthenics, hybrid training has seen a meteoric rise in recent years. Simply put, it’s for athletes who don’t want to choose between strength training and running — and pride themselves on putting up monster numbers in each concentration. Fergus Crawley is one of the poster boys of the hybrid training revolution, and documents his efforts on his YouTube channel. It’s a great way to get some Goggins-esque content in your life without getting screamed at. As for how to process the content…you can watch it for pointers (like the linked start video below), or for oohs and aahs, like when Crawley squatted 500 pounds and broke the five-minute mile in the same day. 

Start Here: “5 Mistakes People Make When Hybrid Training”