It’s the 13th year of ACSM’s annual Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends. There usually aren’t a lot of huge changes from year to year, but trends do pop on and off and change ranking. This year, the top three are the same as last year, but they’re in a new order: the #1 trend is now wearable technology. There are four trends that are new to the top 20 in 2019.
You can see the full list here. In this post, I’ll share my thoughts on the top 10.
Wearable Technology
This was #3 last year; its popularity continues to grow! More and more people have their own devices, and studios like Orangetheory make it a major part of their training program.
I started wearing a heart rate monitor last year for my F45 workouts, and I wear one for every Orangetheory workout. I still haven’t progressed to using one outside of those studios.
Group Training
It remains popular because it works! You get the benefits of personal training at a much lower price point, and you have the support of an entire community of like-minded people. I love my group training workouts so much (both coaching and participating!).
As a group fitness instructor, I’ve always loved group fitness, but group training is a little different: a group fitness class is led by an instructor and offers very little one-to-one coaching, whereas group training is still led by a coach, but since that person doesn’t have to lead the class step-by-step through the workout, he/she is able to offer direct and specific correction and challenge to each participant.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
Again, it’s got staying power because it’s so darn effective. Whether you want to lose weight or improve athletic performance, HIIT is the way to go. This is what we do at F45 and Orangetheory. No matter how in shape you are (or think you are!) this will change your workout life.
And it’s doable for all fitness levels. “High-intensity” might scare you away, but don’t let it: it’s whatever high-intensity is for you. HIIT group training works so well because everyone can work at their own pace and find an intensity that feels challenging for them. For more information, you can watch this video where I explain it in more detail, or check out this ACSM article about interval training.
Fitness Programs for Older Adults
I used to teach a lot of senior classes, including a chair yoga class. I’m also really delighted to see a lot of older adults in my HIIT classes at both Orangetheory and F45!
For fun, check out this video of a 102-year-old woman in a 60-meter dash. I want this to be me.
Not that this is or should be the goal of fitness programs for older adults: the point is to keep moving and keep as much functionality as possible.
Bodyweight Training
Ah, the reason there’s no excuse to avoid exercise. You need no equipment. We do so much bodyweight training at the studios; there’s really so much you can do. It’s not all squats and lunges. There’s a huge variety of creative ways to move and get tired doing so. Just think of all the ways we move our bodies in real life. At the least, we can replicate that and get stronger and more flexible, better able to perform those movements.
Employing Certified Fitness Professionals
There’s been a shift in the fitness industry over the last few years, where some exercise formats allow you to be trained in one day without a nationally-recognized personal training or group fitness certification.
There’s a good side to this: more people get into fitness. The very bad side is that there’s a wide range of quality when it comes to classes these days, more faulty information gets shared, and, I suspect, it messes with the pay scale for instructors.
I’m pleased to see there’s a push for that accountability. Not that a certification guarantees you’ll be a good instructor, but it’s a start. Insisting upon it can only be a good thing.
Yoga
Yoga has bounced all over this list for several years. With what is now suspected to be 10,000 years of history, yoga is here to stay. While I’m often conflicted about the huge number of teacher trainings and random yoga “styles” that are popping up, I’m thrilled that more people are experiencing the benefits of yoga and making it a part of their lives.
Personal Training
This has been in the top 10 since this survey began. If you have specific goals to reach and get the opportunity to work with a knowledgeable trainer, it can’t be beat. You have to do the work, of course, but having someone guide and push you with a program designed specifically according to what you want to accomplish is pretty great. The survey notes that personal training is becoming even more accessible now with online and at-home options.
Functional Fitness Training
Big buzz here! And rightfully so. For most of us, the main point of working out, really, is to be able to live a better life: to move more efficiently, with more strength, without getting hurt, without getting exhausted just by climbing the stairs. That’s functional fitness.
When you’re training for a fitness competition, you’re training beyond function (sometimes even to the detriment of function). When you’re training for a specific sport, you’re looking for functionality within that sport, but that doesn’t always translate directly to what you do in daily life.
At both F45 and Orangetheory, we focus on functional movements that empower you for the real lives we live.
Exercise is Medicine
Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2019
“Exercise is Medicine (EIM) is a global health initiative that is focused on encouraging primary care physicians and other health care providers to include physical activity assessment and associated treatment recommendations as part of every patient visit, and referring their patients to exercise professionals.”
I love this. It’s been on the survey for the last two years, and I can’t get over its importance. It’s long been known that certain lifestyle changes can decrease your chance of a wide range of chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and more. Knowing that, why wouldn’t a doctor tell people to make those changes? And when we know that, why aren’t we insisting upon those changes for ourselves?
(We have so much work to do, I feel, delving into the reasons why we feel the need to drive ourselves to the point of sickness, eat the foods we know don’t serve us, and insist upon quick fixes. We need more yoga. :))
Which of these trends are you incorporating in your 2019 workouts?