Top 7 Fitness Trends for 2018

This time every year a global survey of reputable institutions including the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) looks at what’s hot, and what’s not, in relation to health and fitness in the year ahead?

The responses from  4,033 health, fitness and medical professionals were narrowed to 40 possible trends, then distilled to a list of 25. Knowing how busy you are, I’ve shrunk it even further to give you the time-efficient Top 7.

1. HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training

HIIT has been in the top 10 for a few years and I’m sure most people have heard about it. HIIT involves high intensity exercise followed by periods of rest and recovery, and a typical session is between 30 to 40 minutes. Think interval training, boxing, circuit training, sprint training or a good game of tennis.

WARNING: I love that you get a lot more bang for your buck, however if you are not MatchFit, start slow and gradually build your fitness levels before ‘being HIIT’. Otherwise you can go from being inactive to injured, making lots of money for doctors, physios and surgeons

https://omny.fm/shows/better-living/top-10-fitness-fads

2. Functional Fitness

Functional Fitness is defined as ‘using strength training to improve balance, coordination, force, power, and endurance to enhance the ability to perform activities of daily living’. There is no point being able to bench press over 100kg if you can’t get up out of a chair without lower back pain.

Functional Fitness is increasingly being used in clinical programs for rehabilitation and for treating illness and disease.

3. Group Training

No surprises here considering you see expanding packs of people exercising each morning in your local parks, beaches, ovals, health clubs and swimming pools. Not to mention being scared by Lycra-wrapped, caffeine-inhaling cyclists (I refuse to single out MAMIL’s as more and more women are jumping on their bikes too) when you grab your morning coffee.

Humans are social beings, we are primarily pack animals and for many (myself included), adding a social and competitive component makes training a lot more fun, and effective.

With an ageing population, there is a big increase in the number of group programs being designed/offered to the over 50’s, and specifically the highly active older adult (now referred to as ‘the athletic old’). This demographic also tends to have a lot more disposable income (money) and time.

Cross Fit combines all three – HIIT, Functional Fitness and Group Training.

4. LIIT – Low Intensity Interval Training

You’re going to hear a lot more about the benefits of low intensity training in the coming years (especially as we see a lot more oxidative stress in older adults experiencing erosion of the endothelial line. I’m planning on writing a post with exercise physiology guru Paul Batman on this topic early next year. In layman’s terms: exercising for long periods of time at a high intensity can possibly cause you more harm than good).

LIIT training can still burn the same amount of calories as HIIT, it just takes up to double the time to achieve. LIIT includes going for a walk, an easy swim, steady state cycling, lifting light weights and stretching/yoga.

5. Rapid Recovery

In our drop and drag, digital world we require everything to come in a faster form. Welcome to the notion of rapid recovery.

If you just do huff and puff (HIIT, resistance training) this will take a toll on your body. Active recovery has been hot in professional sport for over a decade and it’s now going main stream. Infrared saunas, according to Fitness First Magazine, are purported to “detoxify, cleanse and heal the body using infrared light that heats the body from the inside out”.

Cryotherapy involves enveloping the body with a super cold mist (-150 degree Celsius) for 1 to 3 minutes. Cryotherapy works by “decreasing cell growth called cellular metabolism, inflammation and pain and increasing cell survival”.

6. Yoga and Pilates

I’ve been banging on for a good 18 months about the myriad of benefits for the body and brain by locking yourself into a yoga studio at least once a week. As we age our tendons and joints cease up, like a rusty barn door. The best way to increase mobility and flexibility is a weekly date with a yoga or pilates instructor.

Regular stretching enhances mood, improves mobility and reduces risk of injury, helps you relax, enhances concentration and creativity, improves breathing, and more.

7. Wearable Technology

The Quantifiable Self Movement is a group that ‘incorporates technology and data acquisition looking at a person’s life including inputs (food and alcohol), state (mood), physiology (heart rate, steps, sleep) and bio markers like blood, cholesterol, cortisol and more.

Our fascination with tracking sleep, daily steps, heart rate, exercise intensity, sitting time and recovery rates continues to grow. I am a big proponent of wearable technology to help embed or change behaviours and I feel naked without my Garmin Fenix 5 or on the bike my Edge 1030.

8. Bonus Tip – Disguised Fitness and Adding Seasoning

Here’s an early Christmas present. The above 7 are really ‘nice’, but THE BEST way to make fitness training a habit is to incorporate what I call disguised fitness or athletic play. Choose fitness activities that you enjoy, train with other people, and make it fun.

My all round fitness staples include weekly cycling, weights and yoga. Then I add some seasoning:

Summer – dragon boat racing, surf ski, SUP

Autumn – a good time to add more hot yoga

Spring – dust off the surf ski, swimming, and dial up the cycling for CAN4Cancer each year

Winter – a weekend or two at the snow with my little ones.

Summary – Get It Up, Get It Down, and Track It…

My Top 7 Fitness Trends for 2018 involve three activities that help ‘get it up’ - to elevate heart rate to burn calories, increase VO2Max and build lean muscle mass through resistance training (HIIT, Functional Fitness and Group Training); three activities to help ‘get it down’ - to relax, recover and regenerate the body and brain (LIIT, Rapid Recovery and Yoga/Pilates); and ‘track it - using wearable technology and a bunch of cool Apps.

What are your fitness predictions for the year ahead?