Jan 1, 2009 5:45 pm US/Eastern
Experts Offer Top Fitness Trends For 2009
(KDKA)
If your Christmas gift to yourself or your New Year's resolution is getting back into a fitness routine, experts are now offering some of the top fitness picks for 2009.
Some experts say the future of fitness is Fusion, a laid back class that fuses yoga and Pilates to make yoga-lates.
"Fusion takes a little bit of cardio, a little bit of resistance training - or like in a yoga-lates - a little bit of mind-body connection with the stretch and core toning and stretching and puts it together and helps to illicit the response that the client needs without them investing three, four, five hours in the gym," says certified trainer, Anne Wilkinson.
When she's not putting a class through its paces, Wilkinson is a spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise.
Along with Fusion classes, the ACE's list of trends to watch in 2009 includes a back to basics approach.
"Let's build that cardiovascular base and that muscle toning or resistance base and the flexibility base," says Wilkinson. "And then from there, let's allow the individual to go out and live their lives to have a fuller or a better experience in life because they're more physically fit."
For some, that includes using old-fashioned, yet hardcore, kettlebells.
"It's starting to come back," says Wilkinson. "In the industry, a lot more fitness professionals are seeing the benefit of kettlebells and how that can motivate somebody. A new toy will motivate somebody into, you know, coming into the gym and taking a kettlebell class or a personal training session one on one."
Multi-purpose fitness centers, those that include cardio machines, weights and classes were all the rage. But now, you're starting to see specialty facilities, which feature things like vibrating power-plate workouts.
The power-plate uses whole body vibration to give you more of a workout in a lot less time.
"Now what we're seeing is people specializing in one thing or another," says Wilkinson. "So you'll see the increase in Pilates studios. You'll see the increase in yoga studios where these centers are focusing on, 'come in, all I do is personal training, come in to my studio and it's me and you, one-on-one and we're gonna work together.' Instead of coming into the gym where it's one stop shopping, kind of like the Wal-mart or the Sam's Club kind of approach to fitness."
The bottom line is finding the time to put physical fitness back on your agenda in the New Year.
"I think it's really important going into 2009 for people to, to focus back on basics," she adds. "I think that they need to take a look at in their life where they can fit in the exercise classes or their visits to the gym or how about just a walk outside."
For more information visit the
American Council on Exercise website.
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