Every year, wellness experts predict the top fitness trends for the season, but what happens to last year’s trends? Do old favourites suddenly become unappealing or do we just keep on adding to that list? Plus, how do you know which trends are actually going to be worth your time? According to Walter Thompson, lead author of an American College of Sports Medicine survey predicting what will be hot in gyms this year, ‘At this time of year, everyone’s trying to sell machines and gadgets, and people buy them by the millions. And within three months, you find them in a closet or under the bed. We’re trying to focus on things that are effective and going to be around for some time’
Wellness expert Angela Haupt, an editor with the Health and Wellness section at US News, details, ‘One goal: fitness. Countless ways of achieving it. And every year, they change. But only some actually last. As it does annually, the ACSM surveyed more than 3,800 fitness professionals in Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa and North and South America to identify fitness trends for 2014.’ So what happened to 2013’s trends? Let’s take a look at the fitness activities that simply didn’t make the cut, or should never have been on the list in the first place.
1. High-Intensity Interval Training: ‘These exercise programmes typically involve short bursts of high-intensity activity, followed by a short period of rest or recovery – think P90X or CrossFit,’ Haupt explains. ‘HIIT clocked in as the No. 1 trend for 2014, despite expert warnings about potential dangers, such as musculoskeletal injury and cardiac events.’ Thompson, who’s also a professor of kinesiology and health at GeorgiaStateUniversity, adds, ‘I’m sort of hoping it doesn’t stay on this list. All kinds of injuries have been reported, and there hasn’t been a single study on it. There needs to be a lot of caution.’ He recommends that only people already in good shape even consider this kind of training.
2. Fitness Fads: ‘Pilates, Zumba and spinning have all crashed off their thrones,’ says Haupt. ‘So have stability balls, which tend to be stuffed in the closet these days.’ But why? Thompson comments, ‘They just weren’t creative enough. People got bored with the exercise and with doing the same thing all the time. These are perfect examples of fads, not trends.’
3. Children Doing Sport at School: In the US in particular, expect to see a surge in after-school exercise programmes for children – but not in school. Haupt points out, ‘No one doubts that childhood obesity is plaguing America – yet schools are cutting physical education and recess. Expect commercial fitness clubs to take advantage of the opportunity, [and] focus on after-school exercise programmes for ‘the most needy kids.’ Thompson adds, ‘We’re going to start seeing them reaching out to school systems and saying, “We’ve got personal trainers that specialise in kids’ weight loss. Let us come into your schools.”
4. Unqualified Trainers: Thompson warns, ‘Right now, we could all get on the Internet, and if we had a good credit card, we’d be certified personal trainers by a half dozen different organisations. There’s no regulation of the industry – and I think these educated, certified personal trainers are saying they’re tired of star high school football players all of a sudden not being able to get into college and then becoming trainers.’ Haupt outlines, ‘The fitness trainer industry is expected to grow 24% by 2020. And it’s crucial for trainers to have experience and be educated. That’s where third-party accrediting organisations enter the picture. We can begin to expect some degree of regulation from within the industry or from external sources.’