ACE Details Fitness Trends for 2015

The new year is under way, but that doesn’t mean you can’t cash in on the top new trends in fitness. ACE expert Pete McCall, MS, shares some of the organization’s theories about what’s hot in fitness in 2015:

Wearable technology. The new year saw the release of the Apple iWatch, which is ushering in a whole new category of wearable technology that can help us develop a greater understanding of how our bodies function. The most interesting feature is that Apple’s new mobile operating system (iOS 8) will create a dashboard on your phone that you can use to monitor and record a variety of important health data that can help you live your life to the fullest.

Online personal training. When it was first introduced, online personal training was considered a poor substitute for working with a real live trainer. But innovations in technology—from video conferencing to wearable devices that record activity levels—have recently made it more feasible to offer personalized fitness coaching services via an online or mobile platform. 2015 will see further growth in this segment as personal trainers become more comfortable using technology to offer virtual coaching services.

Obstacle course racing and training. Thanks in part to the success of Kacy Catanzaro in the American Ninja Warrior challenge, the fact that NBC Sports is now televising Spartan® Races, and the emergence of gyms designed specifically for parkour
or free running, this category of extreme body weight training will continue to experience exponential growth over the coming year. To learn how to capitalize on this growing trend, see the feature article “Thinking Outside the Gym Box” in this issue.