Fitness Trends 2021: How the New Normal is Shaping Fitness

CESENA, Italy, Jan. 14, 2021 '/PRNewswire/ -- Technogym (TGYM.MI) - Every year since 2007, ACSM - American College of Sports Medicine – publishes the results of the 'Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends', a comprehensive review that involves thousands of fitness and wellness professionals from across the globe including experts such as personal trainers, exercise physiologists, medical professionals, and gym club owners. The final report aims to monitor, assess, predict and introduce new fitness trends that have an impact on the evolution of the sector itself.

During 2020, we have witnessed an unprecedented acceleration in the awareness of how much physical exercise impacts one's well-being with the reaffirmation that it's one of the most powerful forces for good health. The most important trends have emerged from this study in the fitness and wellness sector at a global level for the coming year. Topping the list for the projected 2021 trends by the annual ACSM's Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends are the online exercise, wearable technologies and body weight training.

1)  Online Training

This upward trend success with online and virtual training is certainly due to the alternating long lockdown periods and fitness center closures, but it has also opened up new perspectives for the foreseeable future, when the pandemic emergency has finally passed. So, whether it's at home or at the gym, they want to follow their passions – like running, cycling, rowing, strength or functional training – feel part of a community and workout with their favorite trainer or on their preferred virtual landscape. With the Technogym Live platform, available on all Technogym cardio equipment, one can choose their Training Experience from an extensive on-demand library of video contents: live classes with a favorite indoor-cycling trainer, one-to-one cardio or strength training sessions, athletic training routines, basic workouts or virtual routes set in nature or in favorite cities. Or again for those who love spinning Technogym Bike, the innovative bike, which allows one to participate from home to indoor cycling classes, live or on-demand, of  favorite trainers from various fitness studios around the world.

2)  Wearable Technologies

Wearable technologies, which have been on the podium every year since 2016, are also premiere standout trends for 2021. Fitness trackers, heart rate monitors and smartwatches are useful for both consumers and practitioners to monitor and store biometric data, prompting people to work on their performance and improve it over time. In this regard, Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 can be synchronized to all Technogym cardio equipment, or to the Mywellness 5.0 platform (also compatible with Fitbit, Garmin and Polar) for a fully connected workout experience. Users can therefore keep track of their progress on each device for every workout on Technogym equipment or even outdoors.

3)  Body Weight Training

The global COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions have also encouraged the development of bodyweight training, virtual training and free weights (among others), all of which can be done at home with the right guidance. Body weight training uses the weight of the body as resistance, performing simple to complex movements. Technogym's Mywellness platform offers users a full library of on-demand body weight workout and fitness clubs the possibility to produce their own workouts – both bodyweight or with equipment - and offer them to their members also at home.

4)  Outdoor training

One of the most current growing trends, can be combined with indoor training. It can also simultaneously monitor and track other workouts with wearables and apps such as Technogym's Mywellness 5.0.

5)  High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

It involves interval training sessions consisting of high intensity exercises followed by medium to low intensity breaks, which is also a novelty. Its key element lies in the reduction of workout time, which, due to the level of intensity, is effective even when performed for short periods. This type of training can be done in fitness clubs, but also at home or outdoors, and is therefore also one of the trends for 2021. Technogym's answer to this trends includes different training experiences – such as SkillRun Bootcamp or Skillathletic Training – designed around Skill Line, the equipment range designed for those willing to improve their athletic performance.

6)  Virtual Training

Technology makes us more and more connected; and is increasingly able to provide us with personalized experiences based on our tastes, passions and personal goals, exactly when we want to experience them: at the gym, at home or on our mobile. Virtual Training is a key element of most of Technogym's products: from Technogym Live, that offers on all cardio products the possibility to exercise in immersive natural or urban backgrounds, to MyCycling that allows you to try your hand at some of the most legendary stages of cycling, such as climbing the Alpe d'Huez or the Stelvio Pass for home.

7)   Exercise is Medicine

The medical fitness trend is booming in the market. Since the beginning, Technogym has always been an active forerunner in this field that also includes rehabilitation, with its offering of specific protocols for healthcare and prevention. A leading innovator in this field is Technogym's Biocircuit - the circuit training solution and method that offers a personalized workout to help users achieve their goals in a short amount of time. Thanks to its Prescribe Mode, physiotherapists and trainers can record customized session training programs remotely with the Prescribe App, while curtailing specific training methods and personalized parameters based on the individual user's needs.  

8)  Strength Training with Free Weights

Technogym Bench - the new functional training station -  has been designed to combine maximum exercise variety with minimum footprint by enabling the user to perform the largest range of exercises for resistance, strength and core training in a limited space, thanks to its innovative design and enclosed tools. All the tools needed are rationally stored in dedicated spaces within the training station. Exercise options include the possibility to combine weights, elastic bands, dumbbells, weighted knuckles, and a training mat to empower you to perform endless total body workouts.

9)  Fitness Programs for Older Adults

Exercise is perceived as an opportunity for wellbeing for everyone, including the elderly. People are living longer, working longer and staying healthy in retirement. This trend underlines the fitness needs of Baby Boomers and older generations, who generally have more money than younger generations. Fitness clubs could therefore benefit from this growing market. Technogym's Biocircuit represents the ideal answer also to this trend, thanks to its unparalleled safety and ease of use: after the initial log in, every single equipment adjusts automatically on the user physical size and on the personalized workload and program.

10) Personal Training

Over the years, the figure of the personal trainer has evolved and become more accessible thanks to the internet in fitness clubs, as well as at home or in workplaces with gyms. People have finally realized that the role of the trainer is essential in assessing one's condition, prescribing the correct training program, and offering achievable goals based on concrete needs.

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