ascm-trends

The ACSM’s 2022 fitness trends paint a very clear picture – and it’s this…

For the health and fitness sector, the last two years have been beyond tough, yet in spite of the many challenges – or perhaps in part inspired by them – positives have emerged.

We’re seeing a huge rise in the number of people recognising the importance of fitness for their health and wellbeing… and doing something about it. This is the positive foot on which we move into 2022, with people of all ages and experience levels now embracing fitness for its full range of mental, physical and emotional health benefits.

Of course, it doesn’t all happen in a gym environment these days: lockdown saw people become comfortable with following the lead of an online instructor and/or taking their workout to the park. But we’ve seen clubs respond with innovation, reinvention and courage, rapidly embracing a hybrid model to serve their members any time, anywhere.

This omnichannel approach sings out from the ACSM’s Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2022. Indeed, you need look no further than the top four trends to understand that hybrid – that combination of physical and digital fitness consumption – is unquestionably here to stay as we move from pandemic to endemic and learn to live with, and alongside, Covid.

Trend #1 – Wearable technology
Ever-smarter technology enables each of us to monitor our wellbeing round the clock. This is no longer just about tracking your activity in the gym. This is about 24/7 insights into your sleep, recovery, nutrition, optimal workouts and so on. Exercisers are being empowered with personalised intelligence. Valuable expertise is being brought to omnichannel delivery. In short, wearables are motivating people to work out anywhere, any time, with confidence.

Trend #2 – Home exercise gyms
This is the first year that home exercise gyms have appeared as a trend in the ACSM survey, and they’re straight in at #2. Equipment purchased during lockdown has become people’s go-to for a convenient workout, supported by a proliferation of online workout content – and, of course, enhanced by guidance from wearable technology. Home gyms won’t replace health clubs, but we will continue to see people doing a bit of both.

Trend #3 – Outdoor activities
Up from #4 in 2021 to #3 this year, outdoor activities can be anything from short walks and bike rides to parkruns, bootcamps and day-long treks – and on-off-on-off lockdown has embedded them as part of people’s normal exercise routines. We’ve found a lot of people investing in our more portable equipment during the pandemic, to add more variety to outdoor workouts in the park – or even their gardens.

Trend #4 – Strength training with free weights
Trend #8 in 2021 becomes trend #4 in 2022 as gyms re-open and free weight training now gets to span both at-home and in-club workouts. We certainly aren’t surprised this one is in the top 5: just cast your mind back to last year and remember how hard it was to purchase a dumbbell, such was the demand!

So, what do we – Physical Company – take from these 2022 ACSM trends?

We may not sell wearable technology (we all use it, though!) but trends #2, 3 and 4 are our absolute heartland. Whether it’s free weight training in a motivational gym or studio space, soaking in the mental feelgood of outdoor exercise, training in the comfort and convenience of home, or maximising fitness opportunities with a hybrid training schedule that combines all of these, we’re here to offer support, expertise and a product catalogue that’s bursting with all the equipment you need.

It’s certainly an exciting place to be when you specialise in three of the ACSM’s top four fitness trends for the year – proof that Physical Company is indeed ‘First for Fitness Solutions’, whoever you are, wherever and whenever you choose to work out.

Let us help you stay on-trend this year.