2013 Fitness Trends

What will be hot and what not in  the 2013 world of fitness? The ACSM has published the results of its annual questionnaire among fitness professionals and here are the results.

Are You There?

By the time this article gets published, December 21 should have passed without incidence (hopefully), and we can therefore take a peek at what trends in the fitness sphere we can expect for the next year.

In their annual survey, ACSM’s top spot once again goes to “educated, certified and experienced fitness professionals” – a wish being in the #1 position for six years in a row now. As from my experience there are more fitness professionals around than salt in the Dead Sea, the “educated” and “certified” bit is where it’s lacking. As it is right now, certificates of dubious quality are handed out likepopcorn by organisations of shady pedigree, resulting in fitness instructors that sometimes can’t tell an over- from an underhand pull-up.

Strength training remains in the second spot, which, as I said last year, is for me a very welcome development, as too long we solely focused on cardiovascular health.

Body Weight Training

And now a little sensation, as at #3 we have body weight training. Yes, people are getting more interested in simply using their bodies to get stronger and fitter, instead of expensive machines. Or, as the ACSM writes:

[...] people have been using their own body weights for centuries as a form of resistance training. Packaging it as an exercise program has now made it popular in all kinds of gyms. Body weight training often uses minimal equipment, which makes it an 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 may be a trend to watch as more people get “back to the basics.”

I’m so tempted to say that I played a role in that development. Seriously, this in my opinion is great news. The less complicated people perceive fitness, the better.

At numbers four and five we then have “children and obesity” and “exercise and weight loss”. And for both I do doubt that fitness can have that big an impact. Children’s eating habits are made at home, because they are led by the examples of their parents, and while you can burn a lot of calories with fitness, you can easily outeat whatever you burnt through fitness. Any interventions for these two will  have to take the whole picture into account.

Zumba Gone, Core Training In

What happened to Zumba? Last year it was for the first time in the top ten, and now has already dropped to #12. I’m not going to miss it. While dancing no doubt can promote fitness, I always found it a bit preposterous to spend big money on these DVDs and courses. Just turn on some of your favorite music and dance away – the effect is the same.

In its place at No. 9 we find “core training”, which lately seems to me is about to become the latest fad. If that proves useful remains to be seen. During whole body workouts, the core is exercised and mainly concentrating on it while neglecting the rest doesn’t strike me as a very wise move.

Picture courtesy of “Port of San Diego“.