Many of us are hooking onto new fitness trends while striving for weight loss, fitness and overall better health. Like diets, you might be wondering if these fitness trends are anything more than just this year's inflated hype.
Here's some information on some fitness trends that have been proven to be more than just hype.
Seven Minute Workout
This involves 12 exercises at a high level of intensity that are done for 30 seconds each. Between each routine, there's a 10 second rest interim.
Excellent cardio and weight loss results follow, and participants get their daily workout in significantly decreased time.
These high intensity workouts get you in shape with little time commitment when time is of the essence.
Lateral Trainer
Although similar to an elliptical machine, lateral trainers have pedals that not only move up and down but sideways too. They follow something similar to a figure-eight pattern.
They involve more of the lower body muscles and core. That's where the body's larger muscles are, so the lateral trainer will provide a strenuous cardio workout. Tension is adjustable.
They're available both at gyms and for home use.
Group personal training
This sure sounds like an oxymoron, but it involves two or three people in a class with a personal trainer.
They pretty much get the same individual attention they'd get in individual sessions, but groups come at a reduced price.
A variety of gyms offer small group but individualized sessions.
Cardio tennis
When interest in tennis dwindled, we were left with thousands of tennis courts around with nobody using them.
These vacant courts gave rise to cardio tennis which is a series of exercises and movements based on tennis that are done on a court to music. Cardio tennis is now at nearly 1,000 locations in the country.
Cardio tennis is social, and you can burn over 600 calories an hour.
Body weight training
These are both strength and cardio exercises that don't require weights or machines. The individual's own weight provides the resistance.
It's growing in both group and personal training.
With body weight training, we've now gone full circle. Look for areas uncluttered with machines and open for body weight training where people are doing push-ups, jumping jacks, lunges, burpees, movements and other traditional body weight exercise.
Stream and stretch
There's a surge in digatal workout services that stream workout videos. Some are free and some require subscriptions. You can even customize an exercise routine by targeting the body area or fitness level by just typing it in.
Some people don't like gyms. Others don't like being around a room packed with strangers. Stream and stretch is perfect for them. So long as they have some type of internet connection, stream and stretch is perfect for them.
Although gyms will remain popular, look for people that turn to workouts that they can do just about anywhere without the necessity of machines, weights or bands. More traditional workouts are time proven, and they're not just inflated hype.