Start the year fresh with some of the hottest fitness trends of 2015. For nine years the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has been conducting polls thousands of fitness professionals and releasing a report listing the top fitness trends for the year ahead.
The survey conducted by Walter Thompson, a kinesiology and nutrition professor at Georgia State University, was designed to help the health-and-fitness industry make significant decisions “based on emerging trends embraced by health fitness professionals, and not the latest exercise innovation marketed during late-night television or the next hottest celebrity endorsing a product.”
These are 10 of the fitness trends that will drive the industry in 2015, following the tradition of fitness staples like Pilates, indoor cycling and balance training.
Body-weight training
Topping the list of fitness trends for 2015, body-weight training is a welcome departure from equipment-focused exercises, which are usually expensive. “People have been using their own body weight for centuries as a form of resistance training,” Thompson says, “but new packaging, particularly by commercial clubs, has now made it popular in all kinds of gyms.”
Though popularized by fitness experts at gyms around the globe, body-weight training is quite practical. It requires only your body weight, plus you can do it anywhere, at home or even in your office, there is no stopping you from doing squats, lunges, push-ups and pull-ups. The practitioner’s weight provides the resistance for the movement. Body-weight training focuses on improving endurance and strengthening the core muscles. Advocates include Hollywood A-Lister Mark Wahlberg and basketball dynamite Kobe Bryant.
High-intensity interval training
Last year’s survey winner, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), is an enhanced form of training that involves short busts of high-intensity exercise followed by a short period of rest or recovery all under 30 minutes. These short but intense workouts improve athletic capacity and condition while accelerating the fat burning process. In fact, it continues to burn fat hours after training.
When diving into interval workouts, focus on including difficult movements that challenge your entire body in a single exercise. Aim to include at least two exercises back to back before allowing your body to recover. It is important to catch your breath in between rounds, but don’t allow yourself to fully recover before attacking the next set. Supermodels like Victoria’s Secret Angels are known to undergo HIIT weeks before a photo shoot.
Strength training
Despite having a reputation that it is used only by athletes, strength training continues to prove that it is a key component in one’s overall health and fitness. Strength training can preserve and enhance your muscle mass at any age. Patients with a stable chronic disease undergo training to improve or maintain their focus.
It is recommended by experts that you spend two to three strength training sessions a week lasting from 20 to 30 minutes. Be careful and listen to your body, give your muscles time to recover, rest one full day between exercising each specific muscle group. Jennifer Garner of TV’s Alias got her desirable body through strength training coupled with aerobic moves.
Personal training
Considered as a fitness staple, personal trainers continue to endure. Personal training has finished in the top 10 of the ACSM survey for the past nine years. It can be attributed to the fact that most people prefer exercising with a trainer and, as more of them become educated and certified, they become more accessible in all sectors of the health-and-fitness industry.
Fitness trainers are great at coming up with a daily/weekly motivation and new, challenging workouts. Your personal trainer is there to instruct you on proper lifting techniques, introduce new exercises that target your specific goals and motivate you toward your full potential. In the country, the standard rate for personal trainers is P800 per session (an hour). Kapuso actor Aljur Abrenica hired fitness trainer Billy James Renacia to whip him into shape for the Machete role back in 2011.
Yoga
Much like the Queen of Pop, Madonna, yoga seems to reinvent and refresh itself every year. It continues to be an attractive form of exercise by the sheer variety of forms at which it is available—including Power Yoga, Yogalates, Bikram Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Ashtanga, Vinyasa Yoga, Kripalu Yoga, Anuara Yoga, Kundalini Yoga and Sivananda Yoga.
Significant in maintaining a toned figure, yoga, a mind-body practice that combines physical postures with breathing and relaxation is here to stay. It also engenders within its practitioners discipline and control over the mind and body. A-Lister Jennifer Aniston keeps her toned body by doing yoga.
Fitness programs for older adults
Fitness trainers are aware that there is a growing market for people of retirement age and run them at times of day when most gyms are traditionally underutilized (typically between 9 and 11 a.m. and 2 and 4 p.m.).
Survey author, Walter Thompson, reiterated that the baby boom generation has now aged into retirement with discretionary money. Fitness clubs should capitalize and develop fitness programs appropriate for older adults. In the country, men and women in their early 60’s up to their 70’s are taking part in various aerobic exercises to stay fit which is both admirable and inspiring.
Functional fitness
A rising fitness trend, functional fitness is about recreating physical activities that someone might actually do as part of their everyday routine. It’s meant to improve balance, coordination, force, power and endurance to enhance the practitioner’s ability to perform the daily tasks of living.
Several survey respondents said they paired functional fitness with fitness programs for older adults, which does seem to make a lot of sense. Adults need to improve balance to avoid hip injuries which can lead to hip dislocation.
Group personal training
It refers to fitness trainers working with small groups, usually consisting of two to four people. We (Filipinos) value practicality and group personal training suit our needs by providing discounts to each member of the group and creating an incentive for clients to put their own groups together. “In these continuing challenging economic times, personal trainers are being more creative in the way they package personal-training sessions and how they market themselves. Training two or three people at the same time in a small group seems to make good economic sense for both the trainer and the client.”
Outdoor activities
This is another fitness trend that is on the rise. Incorporated by fitness professionals in some of their group personal training, popular outdoor activities include hiking, canoeing, kayaking, games, sports, and high-adventure programs like overnight camping trips. These activities can be done by yourself or with family/friends, it is also an opportunity to enjoy nature. Kapatid star Derek Ramsay is a well-known advocate of outdoor activities.
Circuit training
A form of body conditioning, circuit training is similar to high-intensity interval training, but at a much lower intensity. Circuit training is a group of six to 10 exercises that are completed one after another, in a predetermined sequence. Each exercise is performed for a specific number of times in a given time period before having a quick rest.
The training targets strength building and muscular endurance. Typical activities in circuit training include squat ups, bench dips, sit-ups, compass jumps and shuttle runs. Local A-Lister Angel Locsin keeps her toned figure by integrating circuit training in her lifestyle.
Gone are the days when exercise required pricey equipments. With body-weight training topping the list for 2015, the fitness industry is shifting to a new phase, one where practicality is vital. It is also note worthy to mention that strength training and group personal training are considerable fitness trends that are ushering in a new era for health and fitness, validations that you do not have to break the bank to stay in shape. The masses can now breathe a collective sigh of relief and start placing exercise high on their priority list.
John Carlo Odchigue
Source:
https://bmag.com.au/style-wellbeing/health-fitness/2015/01/09/the-top-20-fitness-trends-for-2015/