Five years past the Covid-19 pandemic and I’m still into home exercise videos — thank you YouTube. There’s a huge variety of exercise formats so that anyone could find something they like. Here are 3 tips to make your YouTube home workouts more enjoyable, so you can stick with them in the long-run:

1. No more ads! A big downside to YouTube is endless ads. Depending on the video, it could be every 5 or 10 minutes that you’re interrupted with a 10-60 second ad. You could continue your lunges or squats or whatever you’re in the middle of until the ads end, but they start draining your focus or just become super annoying! YouTube Premium removes all ads — it costs $13.99 per month or $139.99 per year (about $12 per month), which I think is well worth all the exercise content available. You would also need a streaming television or iPad and at minimum an exercise mat. To compare cost, a no-frills gym like Planet Fitness that has cardio and strength equipment and a locker room with a few shower stalls is $10 a month; a Life Time gym membership with all the equipment, group classes, pool, and locker room with showers is $239 a month. But at a gym you have to factor in time for travel, potentially waiting for equipment, and then showering, so it could be a 3-hour commitment! At home, you can do a YouTube video whenever, rain or snow or heatwave, and throw on the ugliest tee shirt and shorts.
2. Change the speed. Sometimes a workout may feel too slow or too fast. Did you know in the Settings you can change the playback speed from the default “normal” to 1.5x, 2x for a faster tempo, or 0.75, 0.5 to slow it down? You can even customize the speed more specifically to something like 1.05 (not sure who would need that but it’s still a nice feature!). I tried this with a walking workout where I wanted a little more intensity, and it felt great. Another plus is that you finish the workout a little faster. This could change a 45-minute video to 30-35, depending on the speed, in case you’re trying to fit in a lunch workout OR you could tack on a different 5-10 minute ab workout with the time saved.
3. Don’t hesitate to modify moves. Even if you find an exercise instructor you like, chances are that sometimes they’ll do a move your body doesn’t agree with, or you find it too challenging or not enough. Change it for that one set. For example, if they’re doing jumping jacks, you can do side steps. If they’re marching in place, you can do jogs in place (or visa versa). Or maybe you just need to stop for 60 seconds, and then rejoin. Or maybe they’re taking the 10-second break but you choose to keep moving through it. Listen to your body and do whatever you need to make the workout feel best. That said, there’s a downside to home workouts because there isn’t anyone to watch you to make sure you’re not overdoing it and don’t get hurt. So be very careful and listen closely to your body’s signals, whether you speed up or need to slow down, or even stop. You might like my prior post on Exercise: How Intense is Enough?

The other nice thing about YouTube is that there are always new exercise instructors appearing, so if you get bored with the same videos, continue searching for new formats and new instructors to stay inspired! In my next post, I’ll list some of my favorite exercise channels as of 2025.