5 of the most useful viral TikTok gym hacks to know in 2022

Working out doesn’t have to be hard work – especially if you’ve got a few handy hacks under your belt. Writer Liz Connor has been trying out some of TikTok’s best time-saving fitness tips.

It seems like every other day there’s a new TikTok trend that promises to make your life that little bit easier. Some are genius in their time-saving simplicity, like applying a hair mask before your gym session and letting it work its magic while you’re busy crushing a few sets. Others simply aren’t worth the hype, and you always have to be mindful of taking fitness advice from influencers who aren’t qualified PTs.

Yep, #GymTok hacks are everywhere, but not all of them are useful. You have to wade through a lot of highlight reels and questionable coaching techniques before you land on a genuine nugget of solid, internet-based advice. So to make things easier, we went to the trouble of trying out some of the most viral fitness tips on the platform to find the ones that really work. You can thank us later.  

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Put your locker key on your water bottle using this hair-tie hack

If you’re anything like us, you’re guilty of lugging a whole beauty cupboard-worth of non-essentials with you to the gym – but even the most minimalist fitness folk need to carry their locker key. Keys are really jangly and annoying, and when you’re tossing them from machine to machine, it can be easy to misplace them.

Next time you’re off to a training session, try looping your keyring through a hair tie and then rolling the elastic over your water bottle. That way, your keys will never get lost under the pesky folds of a yoga mat or in the depths of a weights rack. It’s a seriously helpful tip from TikTok user @Momobabbes that’s been helping us to stay sane and organised.  

Use a resistance band to practise your push ups

Push-ups are tough – and while you can always build up strength by taking some of the weight on your knees, US-based personal trainer Kara Lennon has a simple tip to help you graduate to your toes. All you need is a stretchy resistance band.

On her TikTok channel, Lennon demonstrates placing a booty band around her upper arms before performing a push up from her toes. The hack works because the resistance from the band provides assistance to the chest and core, helping her to push upwards against gravity with ease. No more collapsing onto the floor in a sweaty, red-faced heap.  

Use a container seal as a funnel for your pre-workout supplement

Pre-workout supplements are all the rage right now. What’s not so hot is trying to scoop your BCAA powder into a narrow water bottle and getting the debris all over your freshly washed gym kit.

OK, it might sound odd, but US-based TikToker Bre Socker swears by saving the freshness seal from a new pot of powder instead of tossing it in the recycling bin. “Usually people throw this away,” Socker explains in the video, “but you can mould it and make it into a funnel.”

Socker demonstrates rolling the seal into a cylinder shape, which can easily be nestled into the lip of your water bottle and used as a funnel for the powder. “Then you just keep the seal in the container,” she adds. The great thing about this tip? It works just as well with protein powders, so you never need to spill your precious pre or post-workout shake ever again 

Try this sitting trick to set yourself up for Bulgarian split squats

Done correctly, Bulgarian split squats are some of the hardest-working single-leg exercises you can do. A set of these compound leg killers will strengthen your quads, fire up your hamstrings and help to grow your glutes faster than you can say ‘gorgeous, gorgeous girls’.

The issue is that it’s near impossible to find your balance if you don’t start this movement with the proper foot placement. Aimlessly throwing your leg on the bench and lunging away will only lead to ineffective wobbling.

Thankfully, PT and influencer Kayla Itsines has come to our rescue with this simple tip: if you rest your back leg onto the bench and sit your body back onto it, it helps to set you up for split squat perfection. From here, you simply need to extend your front leg forward, stand up and you’re good to go.  

Use a small weight plate to strip your barbell

Picture the scene: you’re about to do a round of deadlifts. You’re tired AF, but you need to take a set of heavy plates off the bar first. You go to give the weight a tug, but it simply won’t budge.

Battling to remove stubborn plates from a barbell is one of the most frustrating things that can happen during a workout, and it’s made all the worse if you can feel everyone else in the gym watching your strugglefest.

According to TikTok user Kim French, the solution is simple: use a smaller 2.5kg plate as a makeshift jack to help prop the weights off the floor. Simply place the small plate on the ground and roll the bigger plates over it. With the barbell now elevated, you can easily slide each plate off without any resistance. And once you’ve got one side done, the other side is a piece of cake.   

For more fitness tips, visit the Strong Women Training Club.

Images: Kim French/Kayla Itsines/Bre Socker/Kara Lennon/@Momobabbes

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