- American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has been conducting Worldwide Survery of Fitness Trends from the year 2007. Now the survey is in its 9th consecutive year. High intensity interval training (HIIT) had taken the top spot for the year 2014 which happened to be its first time on the list, and also topping the chart.
- The 2015 ACSM Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends continues to support previous trends and also reinforced the deletion of four trends that had appeared to be strong for several years but now have dropped off the list. Some of them are Zumba, indoor cycling, Pilates, stability ball & balance training.
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Click here for 2014 survey results
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Click here for 2013 survey results
- These annual surveys of health fitness trends in the commercial (usually for-profit companies), clinical (including medical fitness programs), community (not-for-profit), and corporate divisions of the industry continue to confirm previously identified trends.As this was a survey of trends, respondents were asked to first make the very important distinction between a “fad” and a “trend.”
- The ACSM survey makes no attempt to evaluate equipment, gym apparatus, hardware, software, tools, or other exercise machines that may appear in clubs or recreation centers or show up during late-night television infomercials.
- The survey has been designed to confirm or to introduce new trends (not fads) that have a perceived impact on the industry according to the international respondents. By using this survey construct, some of the trends identified in earlier surveys would quite naturally appear for several years. Likewise, fads may appear but predictably will drop off the list in subsequent years.
Trend: A general development or change in a situation or in the way that people are behaving. Using this working definition, it is predictable to see the same trends appearing for multiple years in a “trends” survey.
Fad: A fashion that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period.
SURVEY RESULTS
Introduced for 2013 for the first time was body weight training, which landed at No.1 in this year’s survey. The 2015 survey (see table) seems to reinforce the findings of previous years, which was expected when tracking trends and not fads. Remaining out of the top 20 trends for 2015 were Zumba®, Pilates, and indoor cycling. There were no new top 20 trends identified for 2015.
- Body weight training. Appearing for the first time in the trends survey in 2013 (at no. 3) was body weight training, and it has taken over the top spot from last year’s first-time entry HIIT. Body weight training did not appear as an option before 2013 because it only became popular (as a defined trend) in gyms around the world during the last couple of years. New packaging particularly by commercial clubs has now made it popular in all kinds of gyms. Typical body weight training programs use minimal equipment, which makes it a very inexpensive way to exercise effectively. Most people think of body weight training as being limited to push-ups and pull-ups, but it can be much more than that. Body weight training is a trend to watch for the future.
- High-intensity interval training (HIIT).
Falling from the top spot in last year’s survey HIIT typically involves short
bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by a short period of rest or
recovery and typically takes less than 30 minutes to perform (although it is
not uncommon for these programs to be much longer in duration). Despite the
warnings by some health and fitness professionals of potentially increased
injury rates using HIIT, this form of exercise has become popular in gyms all
over the world.
- Educated, certified, and experienced
fitness professionals. Falling
to no. 3 last year and maintaining that position this year, this is a trend
that continues and drives the need
for education and certification programs that are fully accredited for health
and fitness and clinical exercise program professionals.
- Strength training. Strength
training remains popular in all sectors of the health and fitness industry
and for many different kinds of clients. It has been a strong trend since the
first year of this survey. Many younger clients of both community-based
programs and commercial clubs train exclusively using weights. Today, however,
there are many other individuals (men and women, young and old, children, and
patients with a stable chronic disease) whose main focus is on using weight training
to improve or maintain strength. Many contemporary health and fitness
professionals incorporate some form of strength training into a
comprehensive exercise routine for their clients and for their patients. It is
not uncommon at all for cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation or
metabolic disease management programs to include weight training in the
exercise programs for patients.
- Personal training. As more
professional personal trainers are educated and become certified (see trend no.
3), they are increasingly more accessible in all sectors of the health and
fitness industry. Personal training has been in the top 10 of this
survey for the past 9 years. Attention has been paid recently to the education
and certification of personal trainers. Although there have been some minor
variations of personal training (e.g., small groups as opposed to
one-on-one). Personal trainers will continue to be an important part of the
professional staff of health and fitness centers.
- Exercise and weight loss. The
combination of exercise and weight loss is a trend toward incorporating
weight loss programs that emphasize caloric restriction with a sensible
exercise program. Exercise in weight loss programs has been a trend since the
survey began. Organizations, particularly those that are in the business of providing
weight loss programs, will continue to incorporate regular exercise as well as
caloric restriction for weight control according to the 2015 survey. The
combination of exercise and diet is essential for weight loss maintenance and
can improve compliance to caloric restriction diets and in particular weight
loss programs. Most of the well-publicized diet plans incorporate exercise in
addition to the daily routine of providing prepared meals to their clients.
- Yoga. Moving up the list for 2015
is Yoga after occupying the no. 10 spot last year. Yoga comes in
a variety of forms including Power Yoga, Yogalates, and Bikram Yoga. Other
forms of Yoga include Iyengar Yoga, Ashtanga, Vinyasa Yoga, Kripalu
Yoga, Anuara Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, and Sivananda Yoga. Instructional tapes and
books are abundant, as are the growing numbers of certifications for the many Yoga
formats. Yoga seems to reinvent and refresh itself every year, making it
a more attractive form of exercise/physical activity.
- Fitness programs for older adults.
Health and fitness professionals can take advantage of this growing market by
providing age-appropriate and safe exercise programs for the aging sector of
the population. The highly active older adult (the athletic old) can be
targeted by commercial and community-based organizations to participate in more
rigorous exercise programs, including strength training and team sports. Even
the frail elderly can improve their balance and ability to perform activities
of daily living when provided appropriate functional fitness activities. Health
and fitness professionals should consider developing fitness programs for
people of retirement age and fill the time during the day when most gyms are
underutilized (typically between 9:00 and 11:00 A.M. and 2:00 and 4:00 P.M.).
The concern for the health of aging adults has been consistently at the top of
this survey, and this year is no different.
- Functional fitness. Replicating actual physical activities someone might do as a function of his or her daily routine, functional fitness is defined as using strength training to improve balance, coordination, force, power, and endurance to enhance someone’s ability to perform activities of daily living. Some of the survey respondents said that they typically pair functional fitness with fitness programs for older adults (see trend no. 8) depending on the needs of the client. Functional fitness also is used in clinical programs to replicate activities done around the home.
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Group personal training. The
personal trainer can continue to provide the personal service clients expect
but now in a small group typically of two to four, offering potentially deep
discounts to each member of the group and creating an incentive for clients to
put small groups together. In these continuing challenging economic times 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.
SUMMARY
Consistent with the previous ACSM worldwide surveys, some new trends from last year were embraced (e.g., body weight training and high-intensity interval training), others were once again supported (e.g., educated and certified health fitness professionals), and still others failed to make the top 20 trends (Pilates, indoor cycling, stability ball training, Zumba etc). In the top 10 fitness trends for 2015, all have been on the list in previous years. Taking over the top spot from HIIT is body weight training. It will be very interesting to watch body weight training and HIITduring the next year to see if these are truly trends or fads.
SOURCE: http://journals.lww.com/acsm-healthfitness/Fulltext/2014/11000/WORLDWIDE_SURVEY_OF_FITNESS_TRENDS_FOR_2015_.5.aspx
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