Fitness Trends for 2019

Online personal training, increasing use of apps among some of trends for new year

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

GymWhat’s new for fitness in 2019? Local fitness experts offer their top picks for the coming year’s hottest trends.

• “Online coaching and fitness streaming will be really big, where clients bring in their phones and follow a coach on their phone. With Wi-Fi being open to members, I see that growing even more.

• “Small group training. That’s growing in popularity because it offers a sense of community. It’s team-building and motivating instead of one-on-one training.

• “Also, another popular trend is alternative fitness classes and more options to appeal to a broader population, like pole dancing studios. We can’t guarantee they’ll last, but they’re becoming big.

• “In general, shorter workout sessions with higher intensity. Everyone’s super busy. They want to come in, do their thing and leave. Thirty-minute sessions instead of an hour are huge.”

Victoria Fontana, personal trainer and certified health coach at Crunch in Amherst

• “We’re going to see more and more people performing less cardio and a little more focus on weight training for both men and women. There seems to be a lot more science backing that and what the body needs and what complements men and women.

• “Aside from exercise, nutrition is a huge component. As science progresses and social media emphasizes more and more in importance, we learn that nutrition and exercise complement each other. You can’t outsmart a bad diet. If we have 80 percent compliance we get 20 percent results. There’s an emphasis on having balance between the gym and your eating habits.

• “A continuance of high intensity interval training (HIIT) and circuit training. HIIT is a good way to minimize the time it takes to do cardio.”

Aubree Shofner certified personal trainer, group fitness instructor and nutrition coach at Jada Blitz Training, Inc., Williamsville.

• “The majority of our people are really into the fundamentals programs. There’s not a lot that’s flashy and new. They want good, solid training that are Crossfit-based or fundamentals-based. With our fundamentals program, it’s primarily a lot of conditioning and body movement and strength focused on overall base of strength and agility and when we move to the Crossfit, there’s more skills that are more intense with gymnastics, running intervals, rowing intervals and barbells. It’s more towards the weights and skills. A lot of gyms in the area do Crossfit. We do it in a little different way where it’s more individualized than cramming 30 people in a small space to do burpees and things.

• “Group training is big. The community aspect of it makes going to the gym much more of an experience, even more than personal training. You want to motivate yourself and others. It’s a team aspect for people who maybe never played sports. Especially during workouts where they partner up, it’s motivating. It makes the mood a lot lighter in the gym. People come in for the other members and coaches. Everyone works out hard.

• “About half the people coming in are 35 to 70 who want to stay healthier and live independently longer and have fun doing it.”

Tom Corradino, head strength coach, Absolute Performance, Williamsville