Barre Booming

As a hot trend, barre continues to lead conditioning activities, with an impressive 12% growth rate in 2015, according to 2016 Tracking the Fitness Movement: The Annual Review of Fitness Participation in America, conducted by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. Tai chi also continued to see healthy growth in 2015, with a 6% jump. (For detailed information about barre’s growth, see “Barre Boom Bonanza” in IDEA Fitness Journal at www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/the-barre-boom-bonanza.)

Other interesting SFIA report findings: Group fitness was most popular as a fitness activity in the cities of Salt Lake City and New York, where it drew 26% and 25% of exercise participants, respectively. But the state that enjoyed group fitness most was California, with Los Angeles, San Diego and the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area all featured among the top 10 cities.

The Tracking the Fitness Movement report analyzes overall activity trends in the United States and provides demographic profiles related to specific activities. To learn more, go to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association website at www.sfia.org .