Boston Fitness Professionals Predict 2019 Fitness Trends

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If you consider yourself a health nut and an avid consumer of wellness information, the trends and fads being thrown at your face can become a little much. And when they constantly change, how are we ever supposed to know what to eat or how to exercise? It’s downright confusing.

Just compare the first five trends on two recently released lists. According to the ACSM’s Worldwide Survey of fitness trends for 2019, wearable tech, group training, high-intensity interval training, fitness programs for older adults, and bodyweight training are the five biggest things you’ll see next year. On the other hand, Well + Good’s  list of 2019 fitness trends ranks a back-to-basics wellness routine, the boom of CBD products, Gorpcore, oat milk, and home tech as the top five.

While there are some carry-overs throughout the entirety of the lists and equally good trends on each, the ongoing dilemma continues: What should I eat and how should I exercise? Do I need to be drinking oat milk, adding MCT oil to my coffee, and wearing a Fit Bit to track my steps? While it is quite the wellness conundrum, on the bright side it just means that you have more options to find what works best for you.

We chatted with six Boston fitness professionals to get their take on trends and what they see happening in the Boston fitness community as we head into the new year.

1. Erin Bailey—Director of Fitness Programming for ASICS

“Group fitness in general is booming and living in this world, it’s certainly something I see our community leaning into. When we were creating ASICS Studio, we saw an opportunity to replicate the energy in group fitness classes in an app using Boston-based trainers and we’re also seeing digital fitness growing as a by-product of that. HIIT workouts and bodyweight workouts will always be great because they are effective and you can do them anywhere in a short amount of time.”

2. Pat Smith—Strength and Conditioning Coach, co-owner of Lifted Fitness

“Group training stands out from the rest when it comes to Boston-area trends because new boutique fitness studios are popping up all the time, and I think that’s the direction the industry will continue to move. At Lifted, we don’t change based on current trends, though. Our goal is to design safe and effective exercise programs while prioritizing progressive strength training.”

3. Kara Duval—Stott Pilates and Functional Movement Barre Instructor 

“Boxing gyms, running studios, megaformer studios, and rock climbing gyms are growing rapidly in the city. I believe those specific gyms say a lot about the people of Boston. We are an energetic population who values staying active, creating longevity in our lives and (dare I say it) sticking to primal and pedestrian movements. The one trend that I really see blowing up in Boston is running studios. Boston loves to run, but unfortunately our weather makes year-round running difficult. I’d expect to see places like Mystryde, Heartbreak Running Company, and the Equinox Precision Running lab opening up more locations. I also hope to see a growth in fully equipped Pilates studios, and I mean all the bells and whistles.”

4. Alicia Romano—Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Cycling Instructor, instructor at Redemption Boston

“Trends are really interesting to monitor in the world of nutrition and they tend to resurface in different ways with different fads attached. Although I don’t use them as an evidence-based therapy for patients, I do use them as a teaching tool. I see plant-based eating, food as it relates to social media, anti-inflammatory, and a whole host of other trends on the rise. Some of these, at their heart, have great intentions and there is a ‘back-to-basics’ element that some of them embody, but when we start to combine them without proper education they can lead to unnecessary restrictions.”

5. Lauren Pak—Strengh Coach and Co-owner of Achieve Fitness

“I definitely think group training and HIIT are very ‘hot’ right now, with many studios opening up with those specific methods as their sole offering, I’m just a little skeptical about the longevity of facilities that tend to only focus on one trendy modality, and I think the gyms that incorporate principles and ideas from a variety of methods tend to be more successful long term.”

6. Julian Cardoos—Owner of Rebirth Body Transformation Center 

“At Rebirth Body Transformation Center, one trend that we are forecasting, and have been integrating, is the use of group-based habit coaching. In our small groups of 2-4 people, everyone is getting their own personalized workout, but it can be challenging to make sure that people get the nutrition and lifestyle/habit coaching that one-on-one personal training clients are accustomed to receiving. So, to help our clients get the support that they need, and to build a better sense of community, we have been integrating group coaching at the end of sessions where clients help each other pick solutions and share tips for health related topics.”