The new year is almost upon us, and many of you may be wondering what hot new diet and fitness trends 2017 will bring. There are bound to be some surprises in the coming year, but the truth is that we’ve seen at least some hints of 2017’s top fitness trends over the past few months, even years.
So, what kinds of exercise products promise to help accelerate your journey towards physical fitness in 2017? Let’s take a look…
1. Wearable Tech
First there were pedometers that tracked the number of steps you took each day. In the years that followed, companies released far more advanced devices capable of tracking everything from heart rate to sleep quality. Today, the wearable technology industry has grown to become a multi-billion-dollar industry, and it’s expected that growth will continue in 2017.
So, what’s ahead for wearable technology? Expect greater refinement, in other words, while yesterday’s trackers monitored heart rate, those to come will be able to provide accurate calculations of how many calories you’ve burned in a day, with specific breakdowns based on the types of exercise you engage in.
2. Home Training
In much of the United States, January brings frigid temperatures, slush and snow. It’s miserable out there, a fact that hardly helps Americans desperate to burn off holiday season calories. Unsurprisingly, many turn to gyms for help getting into shape and for a few months at least, the number of gym memberships spikes.
However, that may be a dying trend. That’s because many fitness experts now talk of how you can use your own body and the forces of gravity to get a good workout. Called body weight training, it’s dependent on simple exercises we all know, from push-ups to sit-ups, pull-ups, and jumping squats. These moves don’t require weights or complex machines. Instead, they uses your own body weight to burn serious calories at zero cost. With the economy remaining troubled, it’s only a matter of time before people start realizing how cheap getting in shape can be.
3. Interval Training
A nice, long jog through the city or countryside on a bright, sunny day can be great exercise and relaxing. But it may not be the best way to burn calories and get into shape. Instead, to maximize your calorie burn, try intervals, or as they’re frequently called these days, high-intensity interval training.
The difference between a normal run and intervals is simple: while a long run keeps you at a steady pace, with intervals you push yourself close to your maximum capability before returning to a more manageable pace. The goal is to get your heart rate up faster and burn more calories in less time, making this a great workout for people with busy schedules.
4. Personal Trainers
It used to be that only the wealthiest people could afford to go to a personal trainer. But now many fitness centers offer affordable programs that make it easier to access expert opinions. For example, rather than work out with a fitness pro every day, you can have them create new exercise programs for you once a week or even once a month.
In essence, you can treat a fitness pro like any other professional you visit on an irregular basis. At the same time, there’s also the option of working with a fitness expert more regularly, which is a popular option for those with less experience at the gym.
5. Strength Training
In the past, people who wanted to lose weight focused virtually all of their time and energy on cardiovascular exercises like running, biking, swimming, or the eliptical machine. But many fitness experts now believe that cardio must be just one part of a balanced exercise regimen that also includes strength training.
That’s because using weights (and especially free weights) helps to build lean muscle, which can make cardio workouts easier and allow you to burn calories even at rest. In addition, strength training can help boost your metabolism, helping keep your energy levels and fat-burning potential up.
6. Group Fitness Activities
What’s one of the top reasons people stop working out? The monotony: put simply, if you work out on your own a lot, there’s a good chance you’ll start to find your routine boring. This can lead one to stop working out altogether, increasing the chances that they’ll gain weight and stop meeting their exercise goals.
Group training can be the answer. Working out with other people gives you the support you may need to reach your exercise goals. And this doesn’t just have to involve workouts at the gym, it can also mean attending exciting, high-energy classes or playing intense group sports, such as soccer or hockey.
