Over the past several years one popular news story item that seems to keep coming up is that Americans don’t exercise enough and are comparatively out of shape with regards to other countries. Taking a short break from designing torturous exercise programs I decided to investigate a little into what upcoming trends are coming in the hopes that some as yet unknown force is going to change that.
I began with a simple search for ‘popular exercise trends in europe’ and an article from the Huffington Post UK comes up listing said trends for 2013. After updating myself on the currents status of Kim Kardassian’s baby(she’s fine btw) I read through the list of 20 coming trends to the British Isles.
There were some interesting ones like the Ugi Ball classes, and whatever cardio tennis is that I will have to revisit here at another time. Conversely, there were some not so interesting ones like Aqua Zumba and hot Pilates. I’m not judging, mind you, if you want to get jiggy in the pool or sweaty on the reformer that’s cool, it’s just not for me. Still, of the 20 trends that HuffPo/UK posted, 5 of the first 6 are exercise classes, #3 is some fancy stationary bike that costs 7500(I don’t know how to make the symbol for pounds). The underlying suggestion is that the overarching trend in England is get out and get moving, and that’s great no matter what it is you’re doing.
Now then, lets see what’s becoming popular in America shall we? In order to keep my scientific research equal let’s enter the search term, ‘popular exercise trends in America’. I am astounded to see that another HuffPo article comes to the top of the list. Both articles piggyback off of an annual ACSM list composed of actual industry research.
However, just as with the UK version, they have done a bit of research on their own. Here is the American 5 out of the first 6 trends.
- Fitness Apps – running trackers, nutrition logging etc.
- Self Monitoring of physiology – HR monitoring, diabetic tracking
- Mobile platform classes – a yoga class on your iPad in the park, not weird at all.
- Gluten Free fast food – oxymoron
- Fresh Juicing at the supermarket – I gotta have more KALE!!
- More women doing heavy lifting – That couch isn’t going to move itself!
The missing trend, #1 actually, is that fitness professionals, like yours truly, will become even more popular in 2013. That’s great for me, but I couldn’t help but notice that most of the American trends seem to be geared more towards appeasing convenience and less about actually doing something. Downloading a running or heart rate app is cool, but will it really get you out running on the road or to the gym? If there were any actual consequence for leaving an app unused, my Angry Birds will have all mellowed and died from neglect by now.
Fresh juicing at your local supermarket is nice but often it’s expensive and still removes the person from actively choosing and preparing their foods. I will not dignify gluten free fast food with space here. More women doing heavy lifting I like quite a bit, so that’s good. There are so many benefits to strength training that too many women discount or are afraid of.
I am joking, of course, about the scientific validity in these simplistic pieces, however, the gist of each felt true to me. We are a very innovative and tech savvy people here in the US of A, yet when it comes to fitness, nutrition, or other healthy lifestyle choices there still seems to be a sense of, “With the latest and greatest gadget I just bought, I can finally start that exercise program I’ve been putting off all these years!”
That seems like the wrong point of emphasis to me. The new Xbox One comes out this year with a built in Kinect motion sensor for both regular and fitness related games and is projected at $499. For that same amount of money I could get 2 heavy kettlebells and a nice pair of running shoes and perhaps have some left over.
Do something that requires tracking rather than track what you aren’t doing. Go to the supermarket and buy up some weird produce that you’ve never tried and make your own disgusting flavors of juice. After some time you will find a combination that really tastes amazing(a little green apple helps btw) and away you go. Finally, for Pete’s sake don’t go to a fast food joint for health food, just get the cheeseburger and fries and tell yourself to make your own lunch tomorrow.
Me and my iPhone:
My lovely wife is enjoying the fact that after watching the new Star Trek movie i’ve been listening to the Star Trek Pandora radio station. She loves it, just ask her.
Lots of short circuit based workouts, Kettlebells and body weight mostly. I’ll be posting a good one later so check back on Thursday.