Vickey Nolan explores the biggest fitness trends of 2019 and looks at future proofing your workouts for maximum gain.
At West Wood Club, our motto is Fitness and Wellness of the Future. We always try and make fitness fun here are the top trends we see here at West Wood Club.
Yoga
The ancient art of yoga has never been as prevalent as it is now and it is only getting more popular. Yoga has burst onto the fitness scene with everything from pure yoga, fusion yoga classes, even hot yoga along with Les Mills Body Balance classes. This trend is around to stay! Yoga can be spiritual, restorative and taken to help improve your flexibility, mind, balance and life. Pair this type of with other training to deeply improve strength and flexibility and mobility. At West Wood Club, we offer all yoga and Les Mills Body Balance as part of our membership with over 52 classes per week.
(For more on the importance of movement and yoga, read this interview with Tine Boles, who teaches Les Mills Body Balance among other things at West Wood Club)
Personalisation
This is the biggest thing we have seen and it continues to grow. People want to be able to have tailored programs and hit specific results. Here at West Wood Club, we have recognised the need for personalised plans, workouts and nutrition based on the person sitting in front of us. At the West Wood Club at Westmanstown, Clontarf Road and Sandymount, we have the Tanita and Styku Body Scanner and this revolutionary piece of technology accurately scans the body and will tell us exactly how much body fat we have the areas we hold it, our muscle mass right down to our bone density, our potential health risk associated to our body composition. With this type of equipment creating tailored personalised programs is easier than ever.
We get a clear picture of the good, the bad and the way forward. It will save our clients’ money, time and effort as the programs are tailored exactly to their needs and get you focused results fast.
Wearables
This is huge! Since Fitbit, Polar, Apple, Samsung etc have launched the fitness tracking technology that you can wear and track your daily activity and workouts we all of a sudden are more aware of how our NEAT activity impacts on our health, fitness and wellbeing. Now not only do you have the ability to track your workout, your sleep and your daily movement but you can look at your intensity levels, how long you spend in your different training zones and maximise your performance. You can set your set heartrate goals, calories goals and watch your fitness improve. This technology can even help you to monitor your intensity and help you prevent injury and overtraining. But what do you do with all the fitness data? At West Wood Club we can help you decipher your way through the results show you what to look out for and what to aim for and we offer this complementary as part of our Free 6 Day Personal Training Plans. There is already talk that this is phase one and next we will have ingestible technology along with mainstream genetic testing to tailor our technology further to meet our needs.
Older Adult exercise plans and classes
With an aging population, we have seen an increased need for older adult classes, programs and plans. Exercise and active healthy lifestyles and are key to maintaining good bone density, muscle mass, blood pressure control, weight management, heart health , coordination and balance along with all the other healthy benefits you get from being active. Research from the institute for sports science along with the German Centre For Neurodegenerative Disease have found that Dance holds age-defying benefits on the brain and may help to reduce the onset of Alzheimer’s and degenerative conditions on the brain. Along with the benefits of getting or staying healthy we have the social benefits be being out with people. At West Wood Club we have no age limits to our classes.
We have 10 classes a week aimed especially at the Young at Heart and an additional 12 dance classes!
Group training is a huge trend for 2019
With people pushed for time there are lots of at home technology, such as the Peloton bike, on demand workouts any time you like and YouTube fitness channels but nothing comes close to working out together with others. Group training is defined as training with 5 or more people. I see it every day. People work harder when they train together, even though you are working out for yourself your effort and intensity drives on in the presence of others. The biggest advance we have seen in group training at West Wood Club is the Les Mills Trip Classes. You cycle fully immersed in a digitally-created world on an IMAX-style screen and surround sound amplification. Click the link to register now for your free trial and try the Trip for maximum energy output, getting fitter, faster with an experience that totally engages body and mind.
HIIT style workouts
High Intensity Interval Training burst onto the mainstream in 2014 and have been a steady favourite since.
HIIT training is designed to do the following:
- Cut fat
- Maximise calorie burn
- Build lean muscle
- Be time-efficient
This type of exercise is designed to push you into your peak training zone of 90% of your heart rate max for a short burst and then you recover to go again. There is a lot of research out there that helps you to make the right decision to whether this is the right type of training for you and your goals. Watch out for over training. If you are doing HIIT style training and spending more than 40 minutes a week at 90% of your HRmax, feeling increasingly fatigued or noticing your resting heart increasing then you run the risk of over training. You may need to contact your personal trainer who will quickly analysis this data for you and advise you on the best course of action for your training and to help prevent injury. Les Mills Grit and Sprint are excellent short HIIT style classes to ramp up your fitness.
Bringing all these fitness trends under one roof and having them interconnecting is the future of fitness. There is no point having a fitness watch if you have no idea how to use it our interpreted the results. Likewise being able to use technology to personalise programs, fitness plans and health goals you save you money and time all go along way to creating a fitter, healthy society, if you would like to experience any of the classes or programs discussed click the link now to get your free trial in a West Wood Club near you.
SEE ALSO: 7 Steps To A Winning Fitness Plan
Vickey Nolan is a Personal Trainer, General Manager, and Fitness Director at West Wood Club, Dun Laoghaire. She has a BSc (Hons) Degree in Health Promotion and Physical Activity and has been working in senior roles in the fitness and wellness industry for over 12 years. Follow Vickey on Instagram and follow West Wood Club on Instagram.
