Document Your Fitness Journey and Gain Massive Following on Instagram

Documenting your fitness journey is now one of the hottest ways of building a huge audience online. Many newcomers in the industry have quickly risen to fame by following this simple tactic!

If you have always thought of starting a fitness channel, but don’t want to spend hours and hours creating content, this is possibly the best strategy you can follow!

Whether you are following the keto diet, or pursuing a regular workout and diet routine, this is the number one method to develop a mass following!

Why Start a Fitness Journey Instagram Account

Everyday logging your journey is a sure shot way to stay motivated on your fitness path. You suddenly become “accountable” to the whole world to reach your desired goals as people are now following you online.

On the other hand, you will actually become an inspiration for others on their fitness journey. Who knows, you might even motivate a couch potato to get in shape, and end up changing his whole life!

Instagram is a great way to connect with like-minded people in the fitness community and build your name within the industry. Not only will you gain a mass following online, but also get many opportunities to monetize your hard work.

Here are a few avenues you can venture into:

Sponsorships:

Influencer marketing is the highly sought advertising medium today as it provides a promising ROI to the brands. Based on your following, you can earn a decent amount of money by simply posting a single photo from the brand.

Personal Training:

You will develop a high trust value among your followers who would be willing to pay a premium for getting coached by you. Personal training is a $10.4bn industry today and you can definitely get a slice of the cake!

Launch your brand:

You can launch your own fitness brand selling gym gear, tees, supplements, and whatnot! Once you develop a loyal following, they will be wanting more and more from you.

Hence growing a fitness Instagram account can be really beneficial for you in multiple ways ranging from motivation to making tons of money online!

Without any further adieu, let’s see how to get started, some dos and don’ts and finally my personal tips for exploding your Instagram account with tons of followers.

Sign up for a New Account

While it’s okay to start your fitness journey on your personal account, having a new dedicated Instagram account is a much more practical approach.

Most people pick up a new account when starting an Instagram journey simply because they want to keep their personal life separate from their new brand online. Sometimes you may just want to post about other things in your life that are in no way relevant to health and fitness.

For example, seeing that cute puppy on the road might bring out the photographer in you, but you can’t post it on a “fitness” page as you might end up losing followers.

Now you want to sign up for a new Instagram business account as it has many benefits over the personal account. With the launch of Instagram insights, you can get all the essential data about your account and how well your posts are doing.

It will show you exactly how many people viewed your profile in the last week, how many followers you gained, impressions of each post, etc. Additionally, it also reveals the complete demographic details of your audience including age, gender, and location, so that you can create content targeting these specific users.

While setting up the account, you have to keep a few things in mind. Remember, the first impression is the last impression for your followers.

1. Set up a neat and clean profile picture that is neither too casual nor too formal.
2. Fill up your bio with a short and crisp description. Using emojis in your bio is an awesome way to quickly grab the attention of your visitors.
3. The final step is to make your account public in order to be discovered by other users.

Develop a Content Strategy

Now when it comes to a fitness journey account, you simply have to post your routine stuff online. It could be anything ranging from your meals, your gym selfies, workout videos, body shots, or any other part of your fitness lifestyle that you want to portray.

With so many options in hand, it is easy to randomly throw darts in the air without creating an effective content strategy. By “strategy” I mean you should have a broad view of the specific types of posts you are going to have (aka your USP). Having a consistent strategy, in the beginning, is really going to make a huge impact on your followers. When someone checks out your profile they should be easily able to figure out what you are all about.

You can create a structured grid pattern in your profile by posting in a strategic pattern. For example, every day you could post three things in the same order: Your pre-workout meal, a workout video or selfie, followed by your post-workout meal. Heck, you can even post your bullet journal logs of diet or workout.

Following this exact pattern for a few days will give an appealing look to your profile grid! On the other hand, people will know exactly what to expect from you in the future.

Your posting consistency has a major role to play in the Instagram algorithms.

Another important item in your Instagram checklist should be enhancing your posts. You don’t have to spend hours editing and customizing the pictures, but adding a suitable filter is essential to attract an audience. Since fitness photography is all about lighting and camera angles, a good filter can compensate for the lack of a professional cameraman. At the end of the day, Instagram is a visual platform so make sure your posts are visually appealing. Enhance it in a way that it doesn’t look photoshopped!

Have enough volume in your account before expecting users to follow you. Make sure you have at least 12 posts (complete rows in your grid) before you start building your following.

Hashtags

A fairly common mistake newbies make is trying to stuff as many hashtags as they can! You don’t have to fall for this trap and instead use only relevant tags that match your picture. For example, don’t put #healthymeal on a post where you are actually flexing your biceps.

Study other accounts in your space and analyze their hashtag strategy. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post but personally, I have seen the best results from using 8-10 tags max. Keep a mix of very broad hashtags like #fitness along with some narrower terms like #wheyproteinsupplements.

Posted a picture but forgot the hashtags? Simply add them in the comments and you are good to go!

Engage with Others

Just hitting the “post” button once a day isn’t going to get you a ton of following! You have to actively go out there and engage with other fitness accounts to gain some traction. Follow others in your space who have a strong following and comment on their posts. If you can put some valuable information in the comments, it’s going to be a game-changer for you!

For example, if you see a post about “5 benefits of Intermittent Fasting” you can add in 2 more ways in the comments.

Make new friends in your space and nurture healthy relationships. Further down the road, you could also ask them to share your content (which means lots of new followers for you!).

A healthy engagement rate signals the algorithm that you are an active user and support other pages as well. This is going to keep you in Instagram’s good books and boost your chances of showing up on Explore feed.

Reply to comments and try to create healthy communication. Don’t hesitate about taking the conversation to the DMs. If someone is taking out time to appreciate your content, the least you can do is thank them in replies.

Overcome the Fear of Judgement

When you first start out, you may not want to reveal your new initiative with your friends or family, in order to avoid uninvited judgment. And that is why most people begin with a separate account.

However, as you start posting content it’s important to just let go of the fear of judgment and instead focus on improving your game. People will throw unsolicited opinions and judgment as you begin to grow your following. You just have to keep posting without regard to anybody else!

Developing a thick skin really comes with time as you grow more on social media. However, it is going to be very beneficial for you later on down the road. Not everyone is going to like you and you have to be okay with that!

Follow others who have achieved what you want in life, and take inspiration from them to keep going even in tough times.

“Don’t be afraid to start from zero. Be afraid of never starting!”

Final Takeaway

Document your fitness journey and keep a consistent posting strategy. Upload at least thrice per week since Instagram’s algorithm loves consistency. Engage with others in your space and make the most out of the hashtags.

Remember that the focus should be always on things you enjoy doing! The whole process is worth it only if it grows you as a person and keeps you motivated on your fitness journey. Getting more likes or follows doesn’t define your success!