Key Fitness Trends in America

Here are just a few highlights from this year’s Tracking the Fitness Movement (2004 edition), a study conducted for SGMA International by American Sports Data Inc.:

• Fitness walking is listed as the favorite form of exercise for 10.3 million people.
• Use of recumbent stationary bikes has risen by nearly 60% since 1998.
• Users of elliptical-motion trainers have the highest average annual household income—$83,900.
• Since 2000, the popularity of low-impact exercises like yoga, Pilates, stretching and elliptical-motion training has risen significantly.
• Training with free weights has been the number-one exercise form in the country since the late 1990s.