Since the start of the year, when most Americans were working on keeping their New Year’s resolutions, there has been some new trends in the fitness world. Listed below are a few trends that are gaining popularity this year as individuals are doing their best to shape up. By working out, your body will feel healthier, and you may sleep better as an added bonus.
1. Body-Weight Training
Body-weight training can help athletes build muscle and eliminate fat using the resistance of their own bodies. Examples of body-weight training include push-ups, pull-ups, squats, lunges, and crunches. Because this type of workout requires literally no equipment, it can be done anywhere.
2. Senior Fitness Programs
As humans age, they often experience loss of flexibility and sore joints due to arthritis. Lots of gyms are now promoting senior-centered fitness classes designed to keep them get in the best shape possible. Most plans will focus on low-impact workout routines like water aerobics, swimming, and elliptical work.
3. Strength Training
Strength training is typically an anaerobic workout designed to help individuals get stronger and build muscle mass. Lifting weights are perhaps the most well-known example.
When incorporating Sprint Interval Training with strength training, studies show that the two together have a synergistic effect on burning fat in hard-to-lose places like the lower abdomen and thighs.
4. Wearable Trackers
Today’s fitness trackers can do more than just track their owner’s steps. Some can monitor their heart rate and tell them how many calories they’ve burned, as well as how many times they wake up during the night.
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5. Personal Trainers
Personal training may not be a bad investment for someone who struggles with motivation. Having the guidance and the push from an exercise professional has helped thousands of people reach their fitness goals.
6. Exercise-Promoted Weight Loss Programs
Diet programs have caught on to the significant role of exercise in helping dieters lose weight. Many of today’s weight-loss programs reward their clients when they engage in any type of physical activity.
7. Zumba Fitness
Zumba combines Latin and African rhythm and dance moves to make for one fun, calorie-blasting class. Zumba aims to keep the participants moving to the beat of the dance music while following a choreographed routine. This isn’t a learn-to-dance class, but rather an upbeat, never monotonous workout.
8. Sprint Interval Training (SIT)
This type of high-intensity workout requires athletes to amp up their workout routine and get their heart pumping for a period of a few minutes, then slow down for a shorter amount of time, and then repeat the 2 steps. SIT should generally only be done in thirty-minute increments because it is so intense.
9. New Variations Of Yoga
Yoga isn’t all about the still, calm poses and meditation anymore. Almost every town has seen new classes popping up for fitness classes like Yogalates and Hot Yoga.
- Yogalates incorporates the exercise routines of Pilates with the position work and breathing styles of Yoga.
- Bikram, or “Hot Yoga” follows the same technique as traditional Yoga, but is performed in a humid environment, like a sauna. It’s designed to detoxify the body while giving the athletes a somewhat holistic experience.
10. Functional Fitness
This kind of exercise routine will be geared towards increasing muscle memory and practice safety habits so that everyday tasks can be accomplished efficiently and without injury. Everyday activities like rotating a mattress, putting away groceries, or carrying a backpack can all lead to muscle strains or pulled tendons.
Functional Fitness helps people build the strength they need to accomplish life’s chores as well as trains them in the safest way to complete daily activities. With so many new fitness trends on the rise, there is certainly something for everyone to assist in accomplishing their goal of getting healthy in 2016.