As Covid-19 has disrupted how people exercise in 2020, a new ‘Fitspo’ trend has emerged: TikTok fitness.
With fitness fanatics eager to stay active and passionate sports fans looking to support their teams during times of lockdown and social distancing, sports-related content has grown by a staggering 270 per cent on the leading short-form video platform (based on March – July 2020).
In line with this new trend, local athletes and sports personalities – from motivating coaches to balance gurus and football freestylers – are making a name for themselves on the platform and sharing unique video content to an active and passionate TikTok community.
UAE athletes like Walid Yari, Omeir Saeed and Abeer MK have brought their signature style with a ‘TikTok twist’ to get the UAE moving with inspiring content and challenges such #balanceshow (126.7 million views globally) or #my_move (174.2 million views globally).
But it’s one sport that captures the hearts and minds of the region more than any other: football. Challenges inviting football fans to celebrate ‘the beautiful game’ such as #footballisback have amassed over 330 million views from fans to date.
In the UAE, Dubai based club Al Jazira FC has become the third biggest football club account in the MENA region with 86,900 followers and 23.3 million views of #AlJazira since it joined TikTok in March 2020.
The awe-inspiring creativity of freestyle football is also booming on the platform. Creators such as international freestyle legend Sean Freestyle and local and regional stars Fahed Albreiki, Ammar Al Hajjaji and Mohammed Al Noufali have taken their skills and mind-blowing ball handling to TikTok to entertain and inspire more people to enjoy the sport.
