2014 and 2015’s Hidden Workout Trends at the Gym

There always seems to be a new fitness trend going through the gym when you go. The kettle-bell was huge for a while, and while it’s definitely ensconced now, it’s become a bit of old hat.

Every day there are new ideas in what’s healthy, what’ll give you the perfect abs, gluts, or pecs, as a result the new gym enthusiast can become more than a little bewildered at all the things going on, and which is right for them. While you’re best talking to your Personal Trainer on those points, we’re going to point out a few new things that are trending through the fitness world.

Tabata Workout

This was developed out of professional Speed Skating coach Irisawa Koichi. He developed this grueling cycle of 8 segments of 20 seconds long high-intensity exercise to determine how well it benefitted his skaters.

The result was an amazing boost in anaerobic capacity, and in their maximum potential level of oxygen. This routine is excellent for burst-building muscle and getting the endurance level you need to keep going.

This routine is not for the faint of heart however, consisting of a cycling routine of high-knee running, jump rope, burpees, and an ever intensifying series of never repeated exercises, 16 in all.

Perineal Strengthening

This one is a woman’s only trend, though men can certainly benefit from its side effects! The overall intent of this exercise regime is to strengthen the muscles of the vagina.

There’s a lot of concern among women about the damage done during child birth, and this increasingly popular exercise regime is dedicated to getting that pre-baby firmness back!

This isn’t all about keeping your sex life aerobic though, losing the strength in your pelvic floor has all sorts of negative connotations, with incontinence being the most prevalent of all of them. None of us want to wind up in adult diapers, and this exercise routine will help you ensure that never happens!

Bare Foot Running

A famous cat once said “Show me someone who likes to jog, and I’ll show you a masochist.” Garfield never had much good to say about exercise in general, but even he would have looked askance at this new trend.

There has been a great deal of research lately indicating that one of the major causes of injuries in the running and jogging world is that we’re teaching our feet to run in a way that is in no way natural or good for them. The amount of damage done in running has been shown to be greatly reduced by an awareness of body posture and how we run, tied in with the unnatural way that shoes mold our feet while running. It shouldn’t be any surprise, as there have been moves among the shoe industry to create shoes that are molded more naturally to our feet, with one of the most recent being toe shoes and their related socks.

More Compound Exercises and Workout Routines

Every year the people doing more compound exercises (as opposed to isolation exercises) increases, but from speaking to personal trainers more and more people are now requesting help with compound exercises.

They are a great way to work out multiple muscles at once. We think half of the rise in popularity has been from things like Starting Strength (and on reddit) and Stronglifts. And of course we can’t forget about Cross Fit’s influence.

Technology

While there have been plenty of high tech gadgets for years to measure your running speed, heart beat rate and more, in late 2014/early 2015 we can expect many more high tech developments. Apple seems to lead the way quite often when it decides to release a new type of product (think how popular tablets are now, after the iPad came out).

Unless you have been living under a rock recently, you will know about the Apple Watch. “The Apple Watch can track fitness, run third-party apps and use an Apple feature called “Handoff” (see iOS 8) as long as you own another Apple device. It can control the Apple TV, as well as act as a walkie-talkie and a viewfinder for an iPhone camera”. We expect there to be a big focus on health and fitness related apps once this becomes a bit more popular. Expect this to become a big trend (although some may say ‘fad’!) soon!

Conclusion…

There will always be new trends forming in the world of fitness, and these are a few that are prominent right now. They’re always worth checking out, as is any new trend, but we always suggest looking into the science behind your workout regime before you throw yourself into it too hard. After all, just because it’s popular, doesn’t mean it’s good for you!