The best fitness influencers

From 2013 onwards Pamela Reif made equipment-free home workouts a format of their own, and the principle has not changed. None of her sessions needs more than four square metres of living room, whether that is Latin dance, kickbox cardio or standing arms and core. The programmes are free to watch on YouTube, where more than ten million people subscribe.

Doc Felix is the physician Felix M. Berndt, licensed to practise but not working in a hospital. He turns nutritional science into recipes, explaining under the line “Diese Medizin steckt drin” what fibre, resistant starch or polyphenols actually do in the body. Whole series go to the menstrual cycle and menopause, to sun protection, to sleep. His book “Feel good” made the Spiegel bestseller list.

Sophia Thiel became known as a bodybuilding role model, and then came the television years — coach on “The Biggest Loser”, contestant on “Let's Dance” in 2024. She now gives mental health equal standing with training and is an ambassador for the Fürstenberg Foundation, which works with young people. Her own training has moved to combat sports, with sparring at Berlin's Spitfire Gym.

Yoga for an audience in the millions: Mady Morrison qualified as a teacher in Berlin in 2014, and her YouTube channel now has over three million subscribers. Her classes are built around time rather than skill, fifteen minutes express, thirty minutes to wind down, twelve minutes against back pain, none of it requiring equipment. Every new year for nine years running she has called a 31-day challenge.

Sascha Huber grew up on YouTube as a strength-training creator, then gave himself a hundred days in 2026 to reach Ironman distance. At Ironman Hamburg that June he finished 3.8 kilometres of swimming, 180 on the bike and a marathon in 11:52:14. He sells his training plans through his own app, Gymky, and runs community workouts for Red Bull at locations kept secret until the morning of the session.

Under every recipe Marcel Freimann posts sits the nutrition block, 510 calories, 37 grams of protein, 46 grams of carbohydrate, worked out per portion. He coaches remotely and advertises with exactly that, dishes you can cook without guessing at the amounts. He ran his first Hyrox with no specific preparation and came in among the top 21 percent.

Svenja Berndt worked seven years in an intensive care unit, and she tried her first headstand on a quiet night shift, copying it from a photo. She now runs the Yoga Base studio in Cologne, builds up handstands, forearm stands and arm balances, and trains teachers herself on a 240-hour course; her retreats run in Egypt and Costa Rica.

Anne Kissner trained as a lawyer and started her fitness channel during her legal traineeship. She founded BodyKiss in 2013 because she could not find German-language workout videos, and around 661,000 people now follow her there. Her sessions need almost no equipment, a wall, a chair, a flight of stairs or a band will do, and many run to three minutes. Her cookbook “BodyFood” was published by Droemer Knaur.

First Maren Schiller ran the whole Berlin U-Bahn network, then the S-Bahn network, some 340 kilometres along fifteen lines, station by station. From six to eighteen she sprinted for a club. Now she goes long, 74 kilometres at the Zugspitz Ultra Trail in 12:39:35. She hosts the weekly Podimo podcast “Keine halben Sachen”.

The first women's Hyrox world title was awarded in 2019, and Imke Salander took it in 1:08:08. That turned into a second career in front of a camera, presenting for Sky Sport and DAZN. She has stayed on the course, 160.8 kilometres at the Last Soul backyard ultra, and her way back under the Hyrox hour runs as its own YouTube series.

Jessica Bock names the muscle doing the work as she lifts, translating biomechanics for people standing at a machine for the first time. She takes on nutrition myths together with the nutritional scientist Niko Rittenau, cholesterol, creatine, iron deficiency. Her publisher lists her book “Jeder kann es schaffen” as a Spiegel bestseller; a podcast of the same name appears every fortnight.

Marvin Krajewski quit his job in 2024 to do bodybuilding full time. He earned his classic physique pro card in September 2025, and his first professional season began in August 2026. At 1.86 metres he posts his condition checks with the weight beside them, 110.5 kilos in the building phase in February 2026. He also coaches online, over two hundred clients so far.

Runner-up at the 2024 Mr. Olympia behind Chris Bumstead, overall winner of the 2025 Arnold Classic, winner of the Arnold Classic UK in March 2026 — in classic physique Mike Sommerfeld is among the world's best. Neil Hill has been his coach for eight years. Since spring he has been publicly counting down the days to the 2026 Mr. Olympia, posting sessions with the technique explained, and posing.

Julie works the Hyrox circuit, doubles and relay, from Stockholm through Cologne and London to Berlin. In Cancún in March 2026 she came third in the pro doubles, alongside a partner who started the race ill. One of her doubles starts she ran together with her mother. A marathon followed in April 2026.

Jasmin Diemann has trained for some twenty years herself and writes for the people just starting out, “if you're new to the gym”. Under #fitover35 she posts push-pull-legs plans from her own home gym and, almost daily, a high-protein dish with the macros worked out. Strength training and eating without strict denial are one subject to her.