Social media is rife with fitness influencers these days. I mean, you won’t have to spend longer than 5 seconds scrolling on your Instagram Discovery feed before you come across a high-protein meal idea or workout video.
Near enough anyone with a camera who is in half decent shape can try their hand at building a following, and good luck to them. After all, for a lot of people, social media is a great tool for picking up tips and providing the motivation to take their first steps with training.
But it can sometimes get a bit samey, can’t it? Everyone seems to jump on similar trends, and often it feels like people are just parroting each other’s ideas. But fear not, we’ve picked out three gym skit kings who are taking social media by storm with their original style. Let’s introduce you, shall we?
James Smith
While you may not know him by name, you’ve definitely seen James Smith delivering one of his brutal takedowns on your feed. The Dark Knight of the fitness realm, the Bondi-based personal trainer has built a reputation for rubbishing nonsense gym fads and telling it how it is in expletive-laden rants. His authenticity has gained him 68,000 followers on YouTube and 1.1m on Instagram.
Olima Omega
A big man with a big sense of humour, Olima Omega, or Paul Olima as he’s otherwise known, is the absolute don of comedy skits. You don’t even have to be in the gym to find this guy hilarious. While you’ll often see the Dubliner in workout gear, you’re also just as likely to see him in some bizarre dress-up for one of his scenes. But behind the laughs and giggles, he’s not only an absolute beast but also a keen martial artist – so don’t take him too lightly! His antics have seen him amass 431,000 followers on Instagram and over 5,000 on YouTube.
Diren Kartal
Another man with the ability to deliver home truths with an entertaining dose of dark comedy, Diren Kartal is unsurprisingly good friends with James Smith and the pair have been known to collaborate for numerous videos. They’re also both appearing at Dubai Active in October. Most recently, Diren talked about the myth of lighter barbells being known as ‘women’s barbells’ in the gym. Aside from his skits, Diren is Head Coach at Project X Training and hosts his own podcast ‘The Diren Kartal Show’. He has 257,000 followers on Instagram and 10,400 on YouTube.
Check them out!
