Why body weight and functional training go hand-in-hand in the ACSM’s global fitness trends list

When the ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) unveiled its 2023 worldwide fitness trends, they made for interesting reading; we offered our take on them in this blog.

Now, in a new blog series, we’re taking a deep dive into the trends where we specialise – something Physical is uniquely placed to do as a market leader in 13 of the ACSM’s top 20 fitness trends for 2023.

The topic this time: body weight training and functional fitness training, trends 3 and 5, which we’ve grouped together for the purposes of this blog. Why? Because in so many cases, functional and bodyweight moves are part of the same workout.

Indeed, the ACSM defines body weight training as a ‘functional way to exercise’ that uses ‘minimal equipment’.

Meanwhile, functional training has gone from being a buzzword a few years ago – one that tended to specifically refer to gym floor workouts in designated functional zones – to being the principle that rightly guides a large proportion of workouts and programmes these days.

Functional training is best defined as a workout that trains the body in all the forms and planes of movement it naturally has to use on a daily basis. As such, it’s a broad term that in many cases is inclusive of body weight training: your body weight becomes one of the tools you use in a functional workout.

Viewed through this lens, disciplines like yoga and pilates also fall into the functional training category (and very often, the body weight training category). But functional training is still about gym floor ‘exercise playgrounds’ too – innovative spaces packed full of versatile equipment to ensure there’s always something new to try.

So, what’s so great about functional training, and body weight training as a sub-set of that?

Firstly, it’s a highly inclusive, engaging workout: whatever your fitness level or experience, movements can be modified to allow you to take part and reap the rewards, with a huge variety of exercises that can be done.

Second, it’s easily done in a small space with minimal equipment, making it cost-effective for gyms and individuals alike to do, and do well.

But perhaps most important of all – for all the multi-planar reasons outlined above – functional training goes beyond simply getting you fit. It gets you fit for life.

That’s why body weight training and functional training consistently rank in the ACSM’s top 20 worldwide fitness trends.

And it’s why Physical is proud to have specialised in this field for over 30 years, as you’ll see by visiting the functional section of our website: physicalcompany.co.uk/functional

Whether you’re looking for free weights or battle ropes, fitness tyres or weighted balls, plyo boxes or weighted bags, TRX or BOSU – or, for that matter, world-class yoga and pilates equipment – we’re here to help.

Get in touch now and we’ll help you create ultimate functional training experience: exceptional quality, unbeatable variety, and all delivered for a highly competitive price.