Abstract Exercise motivation drives individuals to exercise. Kilpatrick et al. (2005) showed exercise motivation was primarily driven by weight management for females and performance and ego-related factors for males. The current study examined the impact of workout video instructor gender on exercise motivation. Participants (n = 30F/30M) were randomly assigned to watch a workout video with either a female or male instructor and complete the Motivation for Physical Activity and Exercise/Working Out Questionnaire (MPAEWQ) to quantify their exercise motivation both before and after watching the video. The difference between participant MPAEWQ scores from before and after the video were calculated. A two-way ANOVA (α = .05) confirmed a main effect of participant gender (p = .027*) indicating female exercise motivation increased after watching the video, regardless of instructor gender. There was no main effect of instructor gender (p = .624) and no interaction between participant and instructor gender (p = .913). The current study supports that a gender difference exists in strategies that produce exercise motivation and indicates workout videos are effective tools for females, but not males.