|
Fitness Trend #2 - Big gyms profiting from people NOT turning up.
This one will make me pretty unpopular with big gym owners but the fact of the matter is that most big gyms want you to sign a long term contract and then not turn up and use their facilities. If your average large gym actually had to service all it’s members 3x a week it would need to be much, much bigger!
The big gyms have also got you tricked into thinking that if you fail at your fitness program then it’s YOUR fault. Most people don’t see that a lack of floor supervision, overcrowding and poor support from trainers also contributes and that’s the gym’s fault.
I predict that people will realize what’s going on and a lot of people will seek out independent studios and personal trainers who actually care about their clients and who don’t have a debt collection department to threaten people who stop paying their fees because they are disgruntled.
Fitness Trend #3 – Lazy exercise for lazy people
A disturbing trend is the increasing amount of money being invested in devices that claim to make exercises effortless. I’ll give you all a tip. The reason Australia is already one of the fattest nations on earth is because people are unwilling to get up and move!
Going to the gym to stand on a $10,000 vibrating plate is hardly going to help the problem.
I predict this problem will continue to get worse before it gets better.
Fitness Trend #4 – Harder exercise for harder people
As a reaction to all the high tech gizmos for making exercises easier there is now a strong counter gym culture developing in the US and Australia. Kettlebells, sandbag training, Olympic lifting, Power Lifting and strongman are becoming more popular and will continue to do so as a segment of the population says no to being lazy.
These forms of exercises are generally cheap, have excellent communities of people involved and kettlebells, sandbags and strongman don’t necessarily require gym membershipa. The only “disadvantage” is that they take sweat!
Fitness Trend #5 – Bodybuilding, it just won’t die.
Bodybuiliding and aerobics have dominated the fitness industry for 30 years and their stranglehold will continue. Unfortunately bodybuilding is a fairly poor training method for the average fitness enthusiast who needs to lose some weight and gain functional strength for day to day activities. Bodybuilding is fine if you are going to compete but otherwise you are better off doing functional mixed training like Kettlebells, strongman or crossfit.
Fitness Trend #6 – Core stability
Remember when swiss balls came out and all of a sudden EVERYTHING was being done on them? Squats, bench press, crunches, one legged, one arm overhead pressing, nothing was safe from the swiss ball menace.
Now there are swiss balls, wobbleboards, wobbly sticks, vibrating plates and shoes with funny soles all designed to increase your core stability. The only problem is that working out on a lot of these devices doesn’t carry over to real situations like lifting boxes or sports.
I predict that at some stage people will get bored of this stuff and go back to bodybuilding or they’ll find activities like Olympic lifting and strongman that develop REAL core strength.
Future fitness trends
People will get fatter and blame genetics, the government, fast food, voodoo or whatever it takes to avoid facing up to their own responsibility.
Crossfit workouts and gyms will grow in popularity as people seek alternatives to big gyms. In early 2005 there were 7 or 8 CrossFit affiliates in the US. Now there are almost that many in Australia and over 80 worldwide.
Children will get fatter and it will be their parents fault.
Old school training including kettlebells will become more popular.
The government will spend tons of money on researching new drugs for diabetes, heart disease and stroke but won’t devote the same effort toward solving the root causes of the problem.
Big gyms will get bigger and people will get more annoyed with them.
In 10 years time Australia will have the most cutting edge fitness industry and the worlds second highest rate of heart disease.
If you don’t want to be part of this doom and gloom statistic you have a choice!
Do real exercise, that covers strength, cardio & your core. Don’t be afraid get sweaty and discover muscles you didn’t know you had.
If you want to try this, come along to one of the CrossFit class, try some strong-man/old school training or take up a sport like olympic lifting.
| 
