New entries for 2023 include balance and stabilisation training, stretch training and VR exercise training Trending now

The ACSM has published its fitness trends survey results for the 18th year running, as Frances Marcellin reports

Wearable technology is the number one worldwide fitness trend for 2023 according to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), which has released a list of 20 industry trends taken from its annual survey.

Launched in 2006 and designed to help sector stakeholders make informed business decisions, this year’s survey was sent to 125,940 people, including more than 32,000 ACSM-certified fitness professionals, with 3,735 (58 per cent women and 41 per cent men) responding from almost every continent.

The results were released in the article Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2023, penned by ACSM’s past president, Walter Thompson, the lead author of the survey, and published in the ACSM Health & Fitness Journal.

Top ten trends are: wearable technology, strength training with free weights, body weight training, fitness programmes for older adults, functional fitness training, outdoor activities HIIT, exercise for weight loss, employing certified exercise professionals and personal training, as detailed in this HCM report, while trends making up the rest of the top 20 are: core training; circuit training; home exercise gyms; group training; exercise is medicine; lifestyle medicine; yoga; licensure for fitness professionals; health/ wellbeing coaching; and mobile exercise apps.

Thompson says trends that have disappeared from the top 20 for 2023 include online live and on-demand exercises classes (number nine in 2022) and online personal training which moves from 17 to 26.

New entries include balance and stabilisation training (in at number 23), stretch-based training (debuting at 36) and virtual reality exercise training (in at number 41).

ACSM also released a 2023 Fitness Trends from Around the Globe, highlighting the top 20 fitness trends for Australia, Brazil, Europe, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States.

The number one trend for Australia is fitness programmes for older adults; for Brazil, it’s personal training; for Europe, body weight training; for Mexico, exercise and weight loss programmes; Portugal has licensure for fitness professionals in the top spot; Spain puts functional fitness in first position; and the US has wearable technology as its number one trend. www.hcmmag.com/ACSM2023

Wearables have been in the number one slot for six of the last eight years

2. Strength training with free weights

This includes the use of barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells to improve or maintain muscular fitness. It dropped to number eight last year, but has become more popular over the last 12 months, bouncing back to the number two slot, so they are continuing to hold their appeal.”