The ninth annual survey by thousands of fitness professionals worldwide to determine health and fitness trends has been published in the ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal.
The survey has been designed to confirm or to introduce new trends (not fads) that have will have a perceived impact on the industry in 2015.
This should help commercial health clubs determine whether or not a new trend fits into their own business models and how to best use the information.
Taking over the top spot from high-intensity interval training is body weight training.
It will be very interesting to watch body weight training and high-intensity interval training during the next year to see if these are truly trends or fads.
Zumba, Pilates, indoor cycling, stability ball and balance training again failed to appear on the list of top 20 trends in the health and fitness industry, supporting the theory that these were fads and not trends.
The top twenty trends listed in the survey are
1. Body weight training
2. High-intensity interval training
3. Educated, certified and experienced fitness professionals
4. Strength training
5. Personal training
6. Exercise and weight loss
7. Yoga
8. Fitness programs for older adults
9. Functional fitness
10. Group personal training
11. Worksite health promotion
12. Outdoor activities
13. Wellness coaching
14. Circuit training
15. Core training
16. Sport-specific training
17. Children and exercise for the treatment/prevention of obesity
18. Outcome measurements
19. Worker incentive programmes
20. Boot camp