About r/GYM
In its own words:
A community for Redditors to discuss any topics relating to general fitness; with an emphasis on barbell & dumbbell lifting, as well as calisthenics (bodyweight movements).
Community guide
r/GYM (#850, about 1.2 million subscribers) is oriented around: A community for Redditors to discuss any topics relating to general fitness; with an emphasis on barbell & dumbbell lifting, as well as calisthenics (bodyweight movements). Recent activity samples show 37 posts/day in recent samples (~39% text, ~37% video, ~12% image). Public rules we collected include: Progress Pictures; Civility & Respect; No Self Promotion; No Program Revising; No Natty Policing.
What belongs here
Stay inside the room’s stated scope rather than adjacent off-topic dumps. Medical advice requests are out of scope. Match posts to: Progress Pictures; Civility & Respect; No Self Promotion; No Program Revising.
How it differs from lookalikes
Prefer this room when your post matches its description and rules—not merely a larger sibling community. Skim the full public rule list once rather than assuming defaults from similar subs.
Practical pointers
Read the live sidebar/rules before posting; collected snapshots can lag. Common flairs in samples include: General Advice, General Discussion, Lift, Technique Check.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Jun 18, 2008, which makes it 18 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 2,117 subscribers (+0.17%). Among the 20 communities on our fitness list it is number 5 by size. It sits just behind r/centuryhomes (#849) and ahead of r/SpyxFamily (#851) in our ranking.
What sets r/GYM apart
r/GYM is more of a browsing community than a debating one: 5.7 comments per post on average, well under the Top 100 median of 13.0. It is also one of the faster-growing big communities: its 1.23% gain since Sep 19, 2026 beats 96% of the Top 100. Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (20:00 UTC) sees about 6.0× as many posts as the quietest (02:00 UTC).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/GYM went up from 1,222,568 to 1,237,566 subscribers (+15K, +1.23%). That is about 341 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/GYM talks about
Across 217 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 4), the words that come up most are “months”, “press”, “advice”, “weight” and “form”. Other frequent themes are training, squat, dumbbell, muscle, good and help. Recurring phrases include “bench press”, “form check”, “dumbbell press” and “weight loss”. By format, 39% are text posts, 37% are videos and 12% are images.
Popular post flairs: General Advice (88), General Discussion (34), Lift (34), Technique Check (25), PR/PB (15), Progress Picture(s) (10).
Activity and best time to post
r/GYM gets about 37 new posts a day. The public archive holds 301,035 posts and 1,724,752 comments in total, about 5.7 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Tuesday (44 posts) and the quietest was Saturday (17). Posting peaks around 20:00 UTC and is lowest around 02:00 UTC.
Rules of r/GYM
The moderators of r/GYM list 11 rules. In short:
- Progress Pictures
- Civility & Respect
- No Self Promotion
- No Program Revising
- No Natty Policing
- This is a SFW Sub
- No Form Policing
- Don't be Whiney
- Medical Advice and Misinformation
- "Is X good for my Y?"
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/GYM and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many subscribers does r/GYM have?
r/GYM has 1,237,566 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #850 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 14,998 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
When was r/GYM created?
r/GYM was created on Jun 18, 2008, so it has been around for 18 years. The oldest post in the public archive is from Mar 26, 2011.
Is r/GYM still active?
Yes. r/GYM gets about 37 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 301,035 posts and 1,724,752 comments. In a sample of 217 recent posts we counted 190 different authors.
What is the best time to post in r/GYM?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Tuesday and the quietest Saturday, and most posts arrive around 20:00 UTC, with the fewest around 02:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What kind of posts are on r/GYM?
The community describes itself as: “A community for Redditors to discuss any topics relating to general fitness; with an emphasis on barbell & dumbbell lifting, as well as calisthenics (bodyweight movements).” Recent post titles often mention months, press, advice, weight and form. Most posts are text posts (39%).
Is r/GYM SFW?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/GYM as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
What are the rules of r/GYM?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/GYM accepts both text and link posts, with images, videos and galleries enabled. It has 11 posted rules, starting with: “Progress Pictures”; “Civility & Respect”; “No Self Promotion”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
What subreddits are similar to r/GYM?
Communities with similar topics include r/Fitness (12.6M), r/beginnerfitness (3M), r/bodyweightfitness (4.8M), r/GymMemes (2.1M) and r/strength_training (5M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/GYM.