Health & Wellness Trends 2012

For the sixth year in a row, the Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends published by the American College of Sports Medicine has reported global trends for 2012 to help professionals in the sector – from personal trainers to gym owners – and help guide their choices and how they organise their services.

A study that interviewed over 2,600 people, including regular citizens as well as experts in the sector, identified these priorities:

• Increasingly well-trained and certified personal trainers: personal trainers are in ever greater demand, and growing numbers of people want to pursue this career. That's why education and certification for trainers is increasingly important, to make it easier for gyms to find the right people.
  To that end, Technogym's Wellness Institute offers a series of online courses and on-site consulting – including technical, product, and management training – around the world for everyone interested in getting some in-depth certified training.
  
  
• Strength Training: not just cardio, but also training to correctly develop and maintain muscle tone so it can be integrated with aerobic workouts. Technogym's offer ranges from the new line of Kinesis Stations, to the classic isotonic Selection and Element, or the plate-loaded Pure Strength.
  
  
• Training programmes for seniors: it will be come increasingly important to pay attention to specific workouts designed to meet the needs of older gym members, given how the average life span is growing. Designed to transform training into a natural motion that is easy for anyone to perform, Easy Line by Technogym is the metabolic circuit training system created for the physical and psychological wellness of all your clients.
  
  
• Exercise and weight loss: physical exercise must become a way to lose weight, and diets must also be paired with the right training. Diet alone is not enough to achieve weight loss goals. In addition to the complete cardio line from Technogym, the innovative approach to functional training offered by the entire Kinesis line delivers an effective and engaging solution for the end user.
  
  
• Focus on children and the fight against obesity: the rate of juvenile obesity, especially in Western countries, is increasingly high, and it is becoming more and more important to create specific programmes for this portion of the population, in part for preventive purposes.
  
  
• Personal Training:education and certification for trainers and the owners of facilities are crucial to meet the growing demand for personal training and small group training for a growing group of users who want to train more effectively and with greater personalization.
  Business solutions such as the Personal Wellness Solution and the MyWellness Coach Solution were created to provide support for all of technical training, management, and marketing needed by professionals and personal trainers interested in implementing an effective and profitable PT or coaching service.
  
  
• Core training: this year's big innovation. It is becoming increasingly important, since it helps achieve physical stability and agility. That is why Technogym offers the Core Centric Training Method with the Arke kit, the only complete platform for functional training, ideal when offered as part of a PT programme.
  
  
• Group personal training: on one hand the trend in personal training, on the other hand closer attention to expense. It is increasingly common to "rent" a group personal trainer, who can work with small groups to lower the cost of training.
  
  
• Enjoyable exercises, like dancing: 2011 was the year of Zumba. In 2012 we expect to see other dances and disciplines whose primary goal is to help people enjoy themselves. Group Cycle by Technogym is one example: in a Group Cycling class you can work out without giving up on fun in an energetic environment brimming with vitality. Functional training circuits, which integrate Arke and Kinesis, and also fall into this category.
  
  
• Functional Fitness: this is largely strength training to improve balance, coordination, strength, and endurance in daily activities. To date, only Technogym can offer complete solutions designed to provide maximum comfort for the end-user. How? With the exclusive and patented Full Gravity Technology in Kinesis Stations, which delivers a workout free of tangled cables, and using the Core Centric Method with Arke, which gets back to the roots of movement, reviving the fundamental concepts of balance, ability, and speed.
  
  On WeKinesis.com you can access a library of exercises delivered as videos as well as training programmes from the world of functional training.
  

Adapted from: http://www.acsm.org/