Calling all Personal Trainers. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has recently announced its annual fitness trend forecast for 2015. The survey has been based on responses from over 3,400 fitness professionals worldwide.
This is the list you need to know about. As a Personal Trainer, it’s paramount to keep on top of new trends and hot topics. You don’t want to get left behind, and more importantly, you want to stay in touch with what your clients are interested in and design and shape sessions to suit.
The results of their survey, now in its ninth year, were published in the November/ December issue of the ACSM’s Health and Fitness Journal.
Each fitness professional was given a choice of thirty-nine potential trends and asked to vote on what they thought would be the most popular in 2015.
While the survey is designed to reveal trends in various fitness environments, it’s a valuable source of information for Personal Trainers to keep one step ahead.
Let’s take a look at the results…
- Body weight training: Using your own body weight as resistance is a cheap and effective way to improve fitness. Exercises such as the plank, lunge, squat and press up require little equipment and can be performed by your clients in the comfort of their own home.
- High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): This type of intense training, which many presumed would just be a fad doesn’t seem like it’s going away anytime soon. So build on this and develop your programs accordingly.
- Educated and Experienced Fitness Professionals: This is good news for all Personal Trainers. The buzz continues to grow. However, more Personal Trainers means more choice for clients. So it’s important you stand out above the rest. Qualifications, experience, reputation, dedication and networking are fundamental, to ensure you are people’s first choice.
- Strength training: Another key element that Personal Trainers need to know inside out. Strength training is such an important element of fitness. A strong, conditioned body is more efficient, and works far better. Don’t just focus on aerobic endurance.
- Personal Training: It’s the job that everyone wants to do! Each year, more and more students are graduating with Sport Science degrees and fitness qualifications. It’s a healthy position to be in; competition is a good thing.
- Exercise and weight loss: A trend you would expect to see, thankfully. While nutrition is such an important factor to one’s health, exercise is a key component of a weight loss program.
- Yoga: Yoga can help improve flexibility, posture as well as improve health and relaxation. Start incorporating it into your sessions.
- Fitness Programs for Older Adults: A market you may not be too aware of. As many people start to retire and enjoy a more relaxing period of their life, a lot are taking to fitness classes to keep fit and healthy. In 2015, expect to see health and fitness professionals taking the time to create age-specific fitness programs.
- Functional Fitness: Training your body to handle real life situations. Strength training has been shown to improve balance and ease of daily living. Functional fitness and fitness programs for older athletes are closely linked.
- Group Personal Training: Although we are starting to emerge from the recession, it’s still hitting people hard. One-on-one fitness sessions are expensive for some people; group sessions of twos and threes may be more appealing to those who want to lose weight and still keep the pounds in their pocket.
Things to look out for
There’s enough to look out for in 2015 and to keep you busy. The world wants to get fitter, which is good news for Personal Trainers and Fitness Professionals. But it’s down to you to tailor your programs to suit each individual. In summary, according to the research, body weight training, HIIT, strength training and functional fitness will grow significantly next year. Plan now and be one step ahead.
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