The annual survey of worldwide fitness trends is now in its 13th year. Although we know that no one can accurately predict the future, this survey can help us fitness nerds keep an eye on what the rest of the world is up to, and glean some insight into what is a worthwhile trend and what is a passing fad.
Over the past 13 years, the editors of ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal® (FIT) have circulated an electronic survey to thousands of wellness professionals around the world to determine the current year’s health and fitness trends. The first survey was conducted in 2006 and it introduced what was meant to be a systematic way of predicting health and fitness trends. The survey has been conducted annually since that time, using the same methodology.
Since this is a survey that is solely about trends, the participants of the survey were asked to make the very important distinction between what they thought was a fitness “fad” and what was a fitness “trend.” These are the definitions they were given as a guideline:
Trend: a general development or change in a situation or in the way that people are behaving.
Fad: a fashion that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period.
Responses were received from just about every continent and included the countries of United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States. Fitness is important everywhere!
To see all the trends and survey results, click here.
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