The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the world’s largest multidisciplinary exercise science and sports medicine organization, released the worldwide survey of 2022 fitness trends last week. Four thousand five hundred forty-six (4,546) health and fitness professionals from countries like Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Serbia, the United Kingdom, and the United States responded to the survey.

The results are essential to the business owners and professionals of the health and fitness industry’s commercial, clinical, community, and corporate divisions.

Awareness and knowledge of the fitness trends can benefit exercisers in choosing fitness services and programs to achieve the health and fitness goals this year effectively.

Here are the worldwide fitness trends (ranked accordingly) for this year that you need to watch out for.

1. Wearable Technology

Fitness and health trackers that monitor and analyze the number of steps, heart rate, calories burned, blood pressure, and sleep time are helpful for exercise motivation. Knowing the most important details about your exercise performance and recovery can encourage you to improve your performance while staying consistent with your exercise habits.

How to choose a wearable fitness gadget

• Know your budget and research the features and benefits of a tracker.
• Match your fitness and health goals with a fitness tracker’s design and features. If your goal is to manage weight while doing simple exercises at home, you can get a basic watch that monitors the number of steps, calories, and heart rate. If you are into serious sports like long-distance outdoor cycling or running, then get a tracker with GPS capabilities and longer battery life.

2. Home Exercise Gyms

After almost two years of working out at home because of the pandemic, you might be thinking about how to improve your exercise experience to maintain your exercise motivation. 

For your cardio workouts, you need to consider investing in exercise equipment like a walking pad, mini treadmill, indoor bike, indoor rowing machine/elliptical machine. For core and strength, you can consider getting a cable machine.

How to choose a home gym equipment

• If you are just about to create your home gym, assess your needs, budget, and exercise environment. Get two cardio machines, preferably a walking pad or treadmill and an indoor bike or elliptical machine for exercise variety if you have enough space. If you have limited space at home, get a walking pad, a folding treadmill, or an indoor bike.
• Consider your current medical condition. Suppose you have back issues and plan on buying an indoor bike. In that case, you need to consider some bike features like having a backrest (recumbent bike) instead of getting an upright bike that mimics the components of an outdoor cycle. This type is used for high-intensity indoor cycling classes. If you are on the heavy side, instead of a walking pad that has a weight limit, consider getting a heavy-duty treadmill that can carry more than 200 pounds or an indoor bike.

3. Outdoor Activities

One of the safest activities with a group to do right now is an outdoor workout. It also promotes bonding among friends and family that results in exercise consistency. Engage in outdoor sports and adventure activities like hiking, trail running or cycling.

How to start your outdoor workouts

• Make outdoor workouts a family affair. Involve your family for a weekend outdoor walk around your village, park, or sports club.
• Get a running buddy or a group for weekend runs.
• Try outdoor cycling. You can get a straightforward outdoor bike at first, and then feel free to upgrade once you get used to the habit and experience.
• You can also schedule monthly short hikes with a small group of people in your hometown or home province while practicing health protocols.

4. Strength Training with Free Weights

Strength training is essential for muscular strength and endurance, effective weight management, and faster metabolism. Always be prepared to have the most basic strength training tools and props that can be done even in your bedroom and even while you are on vacation. 

How to workout with free weights at home

• Get basic resistance training tools like dumbbells and resistance bands. You can also upgrade your home gym by getting kettlebells, body leverage tools, and medicine balls.
• Use your workout mat for floor exercises and wear your workout shoes for safety purposes.
• Use a mirror to see your form while exercising especially if you don’t have a coach to give feedback on your exercise form and execution.

5. Exercise for Weight Loss 

It’s the time of the year once again when people are resetting fitness, health, and weight goals. Exercise programs should be integrated with proper nutrition to get a well-balanced schedule and desired results without compromising health and energy levels. 

How to make your workouts effective for weight loss

• Engage in fitness programs that combine healthy eating and stress management. 
• Get a lifestyle and fitness coach to help you find the right balance between rest, exercise, and diet while effectively guiding you in your journey.
• Join online support groups.

6. Personal Training

There’s always confusion in fitness because of numerous information and exercise videos you see online. Maybe it’s time to get a personal trainer who can effectively assess your health and fitness needs and give you the correct exercise program based on your goals. 

How to choose a personal trainer

• Get a fitness coach who can match your personality, needs, and preferences. 
• You might want to connect with your previous trainer or ask for referrals from friends.
• Get a credible, certified, experienced personal trainer who can work with your fitness needs online. Ask for the current fee, areas of specialization, and experience. It is important to get a well-educated and experienced trainer since safety is crucial during online workouts, unlike face-to-face sessions when trainers assess clients thoroughly and can see muscle imbalances, posture, and detailed changes in the body.  
• Get someone who can inspire you to improve your lifestyle on a long-term basis.

7. High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

HIIT is a short (usually 30 minutes or less) cardiovascular workout involving a short, intense work duration followed by a short recovery period. Studies that HIIT workout is as effective as doing longer duration exercise sessions. 

How to do a simple HIIT routine

• Warm up for three to five minutes doing dynamic flexibility exercises and mild to mediate cardio moves to increase your heart rate gradually.
• Make high-intensity cardio moves for 30 seconds like sprinting on the treadmill, jumping jacks, burpee, skipping rope, high-knee jogs, and then do 30 seconds of active recovery as a brisk walk light jogs, core workout. You can always vary the duration of work and rest intervals according to your goals and fitness level.
• For cool-down, do flexibility exercises at the end of the workout by holding a particular stretch for 15 to 30 seconds.
• Incorporate HIIT workout in your routine once to three times a week.

8. Body Weight Training

You can use your body weight without any resistance training equipment to burn calories and maintain or improve your muscle strength. Learn simple bodyweight exercise routines that you can quickly and safely do at home for as short as five to ten minutes on some days of the week that you can’t workout (live or online) with a trainer or with a group of friends. 

How to do simple bodyweight training at home

• Always start with a warm-up and end cool-down (refer to the HIIT warm-up and cool-down)
• You can time yourself doing 30 to 45 seconds for each of the exercises below and allow yourself to have 10 to 20 seconds of recovery before doing the next exercise.
• Full-body strength day: squat, lunge, leg lift, single hip extension, glute bridge
• Cardio day: jumping jacks, step-ups, jump squats, punches, kicks,  dance moves.
• Core day: plank, side planks, curl up or crunch, bicycle, superman, reverse crunch.

–   You can combine full-body strength day with cardio, strength with cardio, core with cardio or core, cardio and strength in one session.

9. Online Live and On-demand Exercise Classes

Zoom workouts and recorded exercise classes for home workouts will still dominate this year because of the uncertainties we’ve been experiencing with COVID-19.

How to start your online exercise classes

• Choose the best live online workouts that can match your schedule, exercise preference, current health condition, and fitness level. 
• Workout online with your group of friends or while following recorded exercise sessions: HIIT, yoga, total body strength training, or dance workouts.

10. Health/Wellness Coaching

Behavioral health and wellness coaching include goal-setting, self-monitoring, learning ways to incorporate and integrate physical activity and healthy eating into one’s lifestyle, focusing on attitude change, relationships, and giving oneself non-food rewards for lifestyle change accomplishments.

How to start healthy and wellness coaching 

• If you want to effectively jumpstart your lifestyle change this year and prepare your mind to stay away from quick-fix weight-loss strategies like fad diets, extreme food deprivation
• Schedule an online appointment with a lifestyle or wellness coach so you can discuss goals, step-by-step action plans to pursue healthy eating, fitness activities, and renewed mindset.

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