A quick scroll through social media will cement the fact there’s a lot going on in the exercise space: new classes, workouts, and products claiming to bust boredom and give you results, stat; influencers promising the secrets to better recovery and performance; and a host of research aiming to change the status quo of what we thought to be fitness truths.
But with all that info out there, how do you know what tidbits to actually focus on, and which to allow to blend back into the noise of it all? We’ve got you: As SELF’s fitness director, I’ve vetted a whole bunch of fitness tips—everything we publish on our site must pass muster, after all—and, over the past year, there have definitely been a few standouts that can really up your workout game. Then, of course, there are the strategies that have actually worked in the real world, recommended by none other than the folks putting in the sweat day after day.
Below, we’ve pulled together the best nuggets of exercise intel we’ve learned from reporting fitness content this past year, plus some extra bits of wisdom our staff members have worked into their own lives along the way. Of course, none of these fitness tips on their own is a workout panacea that’ll transform your routine. But try a few of our favorites from 2024 here and there as you slip into 2025, and you just might find yourself getting stronger, running faster, moving easier, or simply just feeling a hell of a lot better. And isn’t that what we’re looking for with our fitness routine anyway?!
1. Focus on the main movements, and all the good stuff will follow.
GymTok may have you believe that exercises need to be fancy in order to “work,” but that couldn’t be further from the truth. As writer and certified personal trainer Amy Marturana Winderl reported, focusing on the tried-and-true basics—the movement patterns that mimic the way we go through everyday life—can help you build greater strength and improve mobility, especially as you enter your 30s and beyond. So what are they? There are just seven: Push (like with a chest press), pull (a row), hinge (a Romanian deadlift), squat (a goblet squat), single-leg (a reverse lunge), rotate (a wood-chop), and core stability (a plank). Build your workout program around these basic movements and you can hone the balanced strength that’ll allow you to move your best over time.
2. In particular, don’t forget the all-important pull.
Yes, your workout routine should include moves that work all of your body, but the fact is, lots of folks end up prioritizing muscles along the frontside (think: shoulders, quads, and rectus abdominis—the core muscles that run vertically along your abdomen). As a result, the backside of your body tends to be weaker, which can leave you vulnerable to injury if some muscles end up taking on too much work, as writer and certified personal trainer Jenny McCoy reported. So make sure you’re adding enough pulling exercises to your routine, which can include upper-body moves like rows, assisted chin-ups, or lat pull-downs; or lower-body ones, like deadlifts or good mornings. Bonus: Pulling works the muscles that play a big role in posture, so doing them regularly might help you stand up taller too. Here’s how to work the pulling moves into your program.
3. Embrace the B-stance.
The what, you ask? B-stance—also known as kickstand—is a type of setup that puts most but not all of your weight on your working side while still keeping your other leg around for some support (like a bike’s kickstand!). It’s ultimately a more accessible way to reap the rewards of single-leg moves—like balanced strength from side to side, and a boost to the small stabilizing muscles, for starters—without having to worry about losing your footing and splatting on the floor, writer Jennifer Heimlich reported. You can do this with popular moves like the deadlift and the hip thrust. Here’s how to slot B-stance exercises into your workout (and more intel on why it matters).
4. Stretching might not always be the answer.
A scroll through social will have you believe that stretching is the cure to all your body’s ills, but that’s not always the case. In fact, there are a couple situations where it won’t do much at all—and can even hurt, as writer and certified running coach Cindy Kuzma reported. If your muscles feel tight because they’re sore (the DOMS that comes after a new or intense workout), static stretching could result in more microdamage, possibly prolonging that achy feeling. Muscle weakness can also manifest as tightness: When you hold a fixed position for longer than your current strength can handle, the muscles can become overworked and start to feel achy and fatigued. In that case, strengthening rather than stretching is going to be the better move. Here’s how to tell what might be behind the achy tightness—and what to do about it to feel better, fast.
5. Your big toe might play a more important workout role than you think.
Your big toe helps you do a lot of things: stride more efficiently, keep your balance, or just simply push off the floor to reach for something from a high shelf. You probably don’t consider its duties when all is going well, but if your big toe becomes stiff or inflexible, you may end up with problems higher up on your kinetic chain, as SELF’s senior health writer Erica Sloan reported—for instance, plantar fasciitis, ankle arthritis, or even hip pain. That’s why spending some time on boosting your range of motion there can be helpful: Big-toe mobility drills like the towel scrunch (picking up a towel with just your toes) and others can have body-wide benefits.
6. Consider your core—even when you’re not doing “core exercises.”
Training your core is important, but one thing you might not realize: If you’re doing compound exercises with good form (particularly if you’re using a challenging weight), your deep core is getting a workout too, as writer Carolyn Todd reported. So paying some targeted attention to those muscles while you’re lifting can help them fire even more: Focus on bracing your core when pulling your deadlift from the floor, pushing a barbell overhead, or trying not to topple over on a step-up. It’s surprisingly easy to forget this when you’re thinking about your arms or legs, but actively engaging your core keeps you more stable, making it easier to do most movements and decreasing your risk of injury. And, as SELF’s commerce director Abbey Stone can attest to, it can simply help ward off wobbliness during some balance-focused moves.
7. Tuck a small weight plate underneath your heels if you butt-wink.
If you’ve noticed that your butt tucks under when you squat, you might be butt-winking. While some experts think it’s just a regular ol’ form quirk, others believe the rounding of your lower back could cause pain and injury down the line, especially if you’re squatting with added load, McCoy reported. A lack of ankle mobility can be the culprit for some folks, which is why squatting with a one-inch weight plate under your heels can help eliminate it. (Added bonus: Elevating your heels also shifts more of the focus on your quads, making it a favorite variation for SELF’s food and fitness writer Caroline Tien.) Read more about that tweak and other possible butt-wink fixes here.
8. Hang from a bar, for a few good reasons.
Shake up your regular warm-up by going to the bar. A pull-up bar, that is. The dead hang, which is exactly as it sounds—you grip a bar and hang from it, keeping your core tight to resist swaying around—is a solid way to loosen up your back and shoulders for any lifting that’s coming next. But there’s a solid strength benefit too: Hanging is great for your grip because it strengthens the muscles in your hands, wrists, and forearms, Heimlich wrote, and that has carryover to your gym performance and tons of everyday tasks. It can be tough at first to support your full weight, but these modifications can help you hang in no time.
9. You’re probably focusing on your butt—but don’t forget the tiny muscles along the side of it.
Lunges, hip thrusts, deadlifts—all of the lower-body staples work your gluteus maximus, or the biggest muscle in your butt. It’s important to show that major muscle group some love, but we need to give some attention to the smaller glute muscles too. Namely, your gluteus minimus and medius, the two muscles that make up your side-butt. These help support and stabilize your pelvis when you’re doing anything on one leg, from running to lunging, McCoy reported. So if they’re weak, your ankles, knees, and lower back might end up paying the price. Thankfully, a side-butt workout like this one can help get everything back in balance.
10. Pencil in a whole lot of less-sweaty cardio.
HIIT has been hyped for years, but zone 2 cardio is having its moment now. These workouts, which keep your heart rate at between 60% to 70% of your max, come with a lot of perks: Your heart becomes stronger, you sprout more capillaries (the smallest blood vessels in your circulatory system), and your energy-producing mitochondria (essentially the batteries of every cell in your body) grow more plentiful. All of this helps build your aerobic base, or the ability to move for longer, Kuzma reported—with less of a risk of overdoing it and getting injured, which can occur when you stack your routine with a bunch of hard efforts. But obsessing over a certain number (your heart rate) can be stressful itself, particularly at first when your body’s still adjusting, so focusing on factors like “feel” instead can be a better way to use zone 2 cardio in your own workouts.
11. Protect your wrists without giving up your gains.
There are tons of great moves that involve high plank position, whether we’re talking plank variations to work your core, a traditional push-up to hit your upper body, or downward dog to stretch out your hammies. But for many folks, this brings a lot of extra pressure (and pain) to the wrists. So modify: Grab a pair of dumbbells (you’ll want the hex kind so they don’t roll around) and grip them with your palms facing each other. Place them on the floor, and get into your high plank. This wrist-sparing mod is a favorite of SELF’s Westry Green, and allows him to keep on keeping on with his favorite exercises—sans wrist pain. Or you might simply want to try a cushier yoga mat first. SELF’s senior commerce editor Sarah Felbin notes that choosing one that’s at least five millimeters thick helps protect her wrists during those kinds of yoga moves.
12. Stop futzing with the incline on your treadmill.
Unless you want to mimic a hill climb, of course. If you’re simply itching for a “regular” run, you probably don’t need to mess with the incline at all, despite the much-spouted tip that a 1% grade better mirrors the conditions outdoors. In fact, this only holds true if you’re super speedy—say, going faster than that seven-minute mile (about 8.6 miles per hour, if that’s how your machine displays it), Kuzma reported. Otherwise, keeping the incline at zero will help you log some easy miles (remember, zone 2 cardio?!) without maxing out your effort. And no, running on a treadmill isn’t easier, either, though there are some solid benefits to choosing an indoor run when the temp drops (or even when it’s just fine outside).
13. Treat your sports bras right and you won’t be burdened by the bunch.
The bane of many an exerciser’s existence: removable sports bra pads that bunch up, crease, or simply migrate to places they shouldn’t. It doesn’t have to be this way, according to writer Julia Ries. In fact, as she reported, a simple step before laundering can alleviate it. Take the pads out of your bra, put them in a separate washer bag, and then stuff them back in when they’re clean and dried. There you have it—no more creases.
14. Eat protein—but not so much that you neglect other nutrients.
A protein shake is a post-workout staple for good reason. It really is a convenient, easily accessible vessel for the protein an athlete’s body needs to recover from all the work they’ve just put in. While it’s a great invention, particularly for busy people who might not have time to cook after a workout (or who can’t stomach a slab of chicken in the immediate aftermath), it shouldn’t be the crux of your diet, Tien reported. That’s because shakes often lack the other macronutrients your body needs to function its best (particularly carbs, plus a full variety of micronutrients like vitamins and minerals). If you cap your protein shakes at one per day, you should be better able to fill the void with real meals, which tend to include more of a variety of all the good stuff your body needs.
15. Rest, rest, and rest some more.
SELF’s commerce writer Jessica Kasparian makes sure to take enough of a breather between sets so her body can be prepped and ready to do it all over again—she says it makes all the difference in helping her tackle each additional set. And she’s definitely got it right: This is a vital component of programming if you want to get stronger, and, thus, a huge tenet of SELF’s new workout program 6 Weeks to Stronger. If you’re going for max strength, you’ll want at least two to three minutes rest; if muscle building is your goal, you can shorten that to about 60 to 90 seconds.
16. Address small issues before they become bigger ones.
Little aches and pains are not uncommon for people who work out a lot; ignoring them—and simply hoping they poof, disappear—is a common yet unrecommended strategy for dealing with them when they do pop up. Please reconsider. Here, SELF’s senior commerce writer Sara Coughlin recounts her own story that has taught her to always be proactive about her pain in the future: “I should have been seeing a physical therapist for months before I actually made my first appointment. I thought that I could deal with my near-constant lower-back pain with whatever massage tools I had lying around,” she says. “In reality, I had muscle weakness that needed addressing with targeted exercises—ones that only a physical therapist could provide me with. And it’ll shock no one that my quality of life and my workouts vastly improved when I actually took steps to manage (and prevent!) my back pain.”
17. If you do get injured, follow a smart return-to-play plan so you can get back at it.
Despite your best efforts—and even if you’re under an expert’s care—you can find yourself injured and out of commission for a while, which really, really sucks for folks who consider exercise a nonnegotiable part of their routine (hello, it’s me). But it’s possible to embrace the suck and use your experience as a learning tool to come back stronger, reported Kuzma, who has literally written the book and hosted the podcast on the emotional challenges of being sidelined from sport. The return-to-play process won’t look the same for everyone, but there are a few key tenets: track your pain, practice patience, fuel smartly, avoid the particularly insidious comparison trap, and celebrate your new wins. All of these can help you safely get back to your typical level of activity so that you can keep moving throughout this year, and for many years to come.
Related:
- 21 Ways to Eat a Little Healthier in 2025
- 9 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Choosing a New Gym
- Basic Gym Etiquette Every Grown-Ass Adult Should Know
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