Instagram caps a gym post at five hashtags, so name the class or the lift (#KettlebellWorkout, #StrengthTraining), add your town (#AtlantaGym), and finish with the gym's name. Tags describe what happens in the room; leave body results out of them.
The hashtags worth using for a gym
What you train
Tag the session in the post. A kettlebell class, a pull-up clinic and an open-gym hour each want their own tags, and someone new is looking for the one they'd fit into.
Where you are
One tag for your town and gym or fitness. People join a gym they can reach before work or after the school run, so this is the tag a future member would find you by.
The pattern: #[Town]Gym or #[Town]Fitness
- Atlanta: #AtlantaGym #AtlantaFitness
- Sheffield: #SheffieldGym #SheffieldFitness
- Auckland: #AucklandGym #AucklandFitness
Your own tag
Members post their personal-best boards and class photos; give them one tag to use. It also becomes a feed a nervous first-timer can scroll before they walk in.
For example: #EarlyRepStudio
Five tags for one real post
The post: “New 6am kettlebell class starts Monday. Twelve spots, all levels, bells provided.”
What the post shows, where the business is, and its own name. Five tags, each one earning its place.
Tags to skip
- #WeightLoss, #BodyTransformation. They promise a result, they put your post among crash-diet ads, and they can turn a member's photo into a 'before' shot they never agreed to.
- #NoExcuses, #NoPainNoGain. Tough-talk tags speak to people who already train. The beginner you're trying to reach reads them as a room they'd be shouted at in.
- #gym, #fitness, #workout. Home workouts, supplement ads and athletes from everywhere fill these. Someone who could join your 6am class is looking at your town's tag, not this.
Seasonal tags
- January: #NewYearsResolution #NewYearGoals
- March 8: #InternationalWomensDay #IWD
- A Wednesday in late September (UK): #NationalFitnessDay
- Late November (joining offers): #BlackFriday
Only on posts that are about that season. A Christmas tag on a plain Tuesday loaf is noise.
More for your gym
- Post ideas for a gym, each with a finished example post.
- How posthell runs social media for a gym, from one note a week.
- Hashtag counter to check a caption before you post it.