The American Council on Exercise just released a report on the fitness trends for 2012 and I have to say I am not surprised by them at.all.
In fact, this being a fitness site (and above all community) and many of us being immersed in fitness chats on Twitter and Facebook constantly, I think we were pretty aware of these trends: in fact, I’d dare to say that we were some of the people taking part in creating the fitness trends.
Yeah, I said it. Fitness bloggers and tweeters are a powerful bunch.
So what does this report say?
I’m happy to see that the main two trends listed in the report are about life changes. Which is what it is all about anyway, right?
Many of us have already learned the hard way that fad diets don’t work (i.e. frying up cheese cubes wrapped in bacon as part of the Atkins Diet.)
Many of us have all already learned the hard way that the pills (and people who push them and promote them) suck. And I speak from experience here having fried up the cheese cubes myself and having been sent to the ER (I suspect) on account of the evil pills. (I was fine, thank you for asking.)
So I’m proud to see a general change in attitude about getting healthy. Because it starts with your mind and all of the factors surrounding weight-loss, the who-what-when-where-and ESPECIALLY-the why.
So here’s the state of the (fitness) union as according to the American Council and the Fitness with its 2012 Top Fitness Trends to Watch:
- Americans are still obese. HOWEVER, the news looks better this year. There is more obesity awareness. Despite the fact that three out of five Americans are considered obese (yikes!), there is a “modest improvement” for the first time in three years in the obesity rate. Hey, any upwards swing is good! Go us! Now, let’s keep it moving, America!
- More Americans are looking for a full-life-makeover. In addition to “personal training,” it’s “WHOLE LIFE training.” And that’s a good thing. Personal trainers are working to educate people not only in the gym but outside the gym. To me, it starts outside the gym anyway. A whole lot of factors contribute to getting inside the gym and then a whole lot of factors contribute to consistently making it to the gym. (I use the term “gym” here loosely. I really mean whatever workout makes a person tick.)
- Ugh. Americansstillthinkthattheycanloseweightwithfaddiets. I’m saying it that fast. That’s a real bummer but it’s not surprising. Now more than ever, we want things quickly! After all, we can get everything else quickly, why not significant weight-loss? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. In fact, it just makes the whole process longer when you gain it back and have to do it all over again. So fitness experts are expecting to focus more on behavior modification in 2012. I hope it works. There is no quick fix. And to be perfectly honest, in hindsight I WOULDN’T WANT ONE. I learned a lot from doing the work. About myself and about my body. Quick fixes never taught me that.
- However: technology (social media) will continue to change things for the better by giving people apps, and as we know very well here, support, and also it helps personal trainers have more access to clients and vice versa. We love social media for weight-loss!! Don’t you??
- Some of the popular workout trends are: ZUMBA!! (Yeah we rocked it up at Fitbloggin ’11 this year, that’s fo sho!) Boot camps and interval workouts, with balance and core looking to be a main focus in the coming year. Actually all of these are on my personal radar.
These are just the cliff notes though, you can read the rest of the American Council on Fitness’ report here.
In the end though, there is still more work to be done. And we’re in that one together.
So what are your thoughts? Are you surprised by any of the findings?