Happy New Year! Hope you had a beautiful Holiday with your loved ones and that you are looking forward to an exciting and purposeful 2024! To help you along the path, here are some of the top fitness trends. One of them might even be a little surprising! Keep reading to find out what it is.
To get things started, here’s something new that I have begun recommending to students. I think you’ll enjoy…
| 1. The BrainSpeed Ball® How would you like to improve balance and focus? Not to mention your movements and coordination. I’ve mentioned before that there are 3 systems that work together for balance – the proprioceptive, visual and inner ear. You can read a previous article on the topic here. While Pilates is very strong on the proprioceptive component, the BrainSpeed Ball® is a wonderful compliment to Pilates by exercising the visual component of balance. Developed by fellow Pilates Educator, Trent McEntire, I think you’ll find the BrainSpeed Ball® useful and fun! The bright orange ball has the alphabet and the numbers 1-12 randomly placed on the ball. There are a variety of exercises where you literally keep your eyes on the ball. It is more like playing a game than an “exercise”. It is used for balance & fall prevention, ADHD, enhancing athletic brain performance. They have also had success with programs for neurological conditions. The BrainSpeed Ball® has recently developed a program for Parkinson’s and another for concussion recovery. The BrainSpeed Ball® is appropriate for ages children to seniors. Whether a kid needing focus and motor control, or an adult who stares at a computer screen all day, or a senior who needs to work on balance, the BrainSpeed Ball® can be of benefit to you. Their tagline is “Fire Up Your Brain”. You’ll find it does that and a whole lot more! |
| 2. Recovery – Light Therapy One of the top trends and buzzwords this year is recovery. This is the surprising trend for 2024. That is a bit of a change from the traditional “no pain, no gain” mentality. Post workout recovery is something that sports have used for years but is now moving more mainstream. Whether cryotherapy or specialized massage therapy, there are a lot of possibilities. One I specifically wanted to focus on is light therapy. You might have seen it in the anti-aging arena – from lasers for hair growth like the Laser Hairmax® to face masks like the Omnilux. The benefits of red light therapy include increasing collagen, decreasing inflammation and helping muscle recovery and pain relief. There is light therapy for the whole body where you sit or stand in front of a panel. There are also devices that you rest your whole body on. But you can also find smaller straps that you can wrap around a certain part of a body (like a knee) to give a targeted treatment. |
| 3. AI – Tonal and Tempo still lead the pack The trends for 2024 would not be complete without a look at AI. ChatGPT is being used as a personal trainer along with various AI fitness apps. As you might imagine, there are advantages – like brilliant, speedy computation for recommendations on reps and sets based on all the data it collects from everyone that has used it. But as they are finding in other industries, there are some downsides. Mainly lack of human interaction and feedback to know if you are performing the exercises properly. A couple of years ago, I wrote an article on “Artificial Intelligence in Fitness Equipment”. In it, I cover the Tonal and Tempo pieces of equipment. It sounds like Tonal and Tempo are still leading the way in terms of having proprietary motion sensing technology that is able to offer feedback as you workout. |
| These are just a few of the fitness trends for 2024. The BrainSpeed Ball® could be a valuable and fun addition to your routine. The focus on recovery is a surprising change of trends this year and light therapy is just one of the many possibilities in this category. As the world and technology continue to grow and change, we’ll see what AI and the future holds. Wishing you a Happy, Healthy 2024! With Best Wishes Always, Shannon |