Hannah Berner Is Making Fitness A Lot Less Serious

Though she was a Division I tennis player in college (go Badgers, as she likes to say), Hannah Berner has had to find a new relationship with exercise in her post-athlete life. When she started her comedy career, she floated an idea to her fellow comics: “What if you worked out with your funniest friend?”

The comedian and Giggly Squad co-host recounts this to me over the phone on her way to the dentist. Nine years later, she finally made that idea a reality with her new YouTube series, Gym Class. Rolling out weekly, the videos follow Berner as she tries different workouts with celebrity trainers and a special (funny) guest — essentially, an exercise session designed to make you giggle as much as you sweat.

“It really is just a passion project,” she says. “My vision is if I can help one girl start working out again who thought she doesn’t belong in the space or doesn’t feel confident in herself — that’s my goal.”

One thing her Gym Class workouts will never be? Scary. “Just trying is the hardest part,” says Berner. “Even if some things are too difficult, at least you can feel amazing because you tried — and it’s better than just staying in your head in bed scrolling.” You won’t find burpees, for example (though, on the off chance you do, Berner says she’ll sometimes cheat).

That doesn’t mean the workouts are easy: The first class is led by Peloton instructor Tunde Oyeneyin and involves hollow holds and Arnold presses with dumbbells. But Berner and fellow comedian Emma Willmann lace the 25-minute session with quips that make the burn a little more bearable. (“If your hips aren’t clickin’, are you even livin’?” Berner jokes during an ab exercise).

After spending so much of her life training as a competitive athlete, Berner now finds something therapeutic about working out without the pressure to perform. These days, she's more interested in the mental benefits than the physical ones. “My top priority for working out is for mental health. I'm in my calm girl era, my lowering-my-cortisol-levels era,” she says, pointing to her love of Pilates (“You can work out while lying down and people don't talk about that enough”).

For Berner, a judgment-free workout environment also means not policing how people behave while exercising. When I ask about her biggest gym red flag, she has a surprisingly forgiving answer. “I was going to make fun of men being loud and yelling when they do stuff, but I’m also like, ‘Go off, king,’” she says. “Whatever prevents you from punching a wall, if it’s you yelling when you do a sit-up, that’s totally fine.”

This series is a long time in the making. “My first Instagram when I was young — everyone makes fun of me — it was Forks and Fitness,” Berner says, laughing. “My first job was being a sports model, so I was really in my fitness era in my early 20s. I think this is Forks and Fitness, just evolved, so shout out to Forks and Fitness.”