First Published: 18th February 2022, written by Olivia Doonan | Last Updated on 16th March 2022 | Reviewed and Edited by Chloe Safilo
Looking at the home fitness trends for this year offers a few surprises. Among the wearables and the different types of exercise, some trends have been slowly growing in popularity over the last few years. So there’s a chance that you’re already ahead of the home fitness trends of 2022!
The future of fitness seems to change constantly, with industry leaders proclaiming ‘the next big thing’ that you never hear about again. Other times, something that you’ve been doing for a long time starts to pop up on lists of trends, and you’re left wondering what has taken everyone else so long to catch up?
Whether you’re ahead of the trends or completely mystified, we’ve identified the five home fitness trends that might just inspire you in 2022.
Wearable Technology
Once again, the biggest health and fitness trend of the year is set to be wearable technology. While wearable tech is no longer something new, it dominates fitness trends every year. The market growth for this sector has been astonishing, and it’s likely to only grow in 2022.
Wearable tech is great for home fitness, but it’s important to use only those technologies and brands that you trust. With so many wearables and so many apps to match them with, there can be risks. Following the exercise advice of tech designers rather than experts in the health and fitness sector could lead to unwanted effects or even injury.
Tech wearables are fantastic when it comes to tracking your health-related goals. The data they provide you with makes it easier to understand your performance and to make changes where results are less than promising. When you can track your performance, you’ll know immediately if you’re overtraining or undertraining. For that reason alone, wearable tech is here to stay.
HIRT (High-Intensity Resistance Training)
You’ve probably heard of HIIT (High Impact Intensity Training). Well, it might be time to say goodbye to your HIIT workouts and look at the next big thing — HIRT. At first, the two look very similar, and they are based on the same principles. However, the results each gives can be very different.
HIRT involves you doing short, intense periods of exercise, which are then followed by that all-important rest. However, where HIIT is all about muscle growth, HIRT uses heavier resistance exercise. What this does is add some strength and cardio elements to your workout. HIRT workouts are slower than HIIT but can involve heavier weights (including the exercise machines that are avoided with most HIIT workouts).
HIRT workouts will tire you out, make your heart rate spike, and are great for those that only have a limited time available for their home workouts. That time element may be why HIRT is one of the biggest home fitness trends of the year.
Hybrid and Virtual Workouts
With gyms opening and closing throughout 2020 and 2021, it’s no surprise that home fitness has become the most significant health and fitness shift of the last decade. Even now, with gyms reopening cautiously, the hybrid and virtual approach to exercise doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere.
The hybrid approach certainly looks like becoming the norm for much of 2022 and could be a long-term shift in the industry. While gym-goers are returning to the gyms they love, those same gym-goers are also continuing with their online workouts. Whether it’s via YouTube videos or online personal trainers, the hybrid workout experience is more popular than ever.
The convenience is hard to beat. Combining in-person exercise sessions with home workouts looks likely to be something we see as a trend in the health and fitness sector for the foreseeable future.
The Mini Workout
This is an emerging trend, and it seems set to become one of the most popular changes to how we exercise at home. With people working from home, or those that are finding that their available exercise time is limited, the mini-workout is a great idea. After all, not everyone has an hour to spare multiple times a week.
Rather than doing one big workout, the mini-workout is cardio, mobility, and strength exercises that you can do throughout your day. Taking just a 10-minute break from your day to hit the weights or do some yoga can be much easier to justify when you’re busy. Do those 10-minutes of workout a few times every day, and you’ll be getting an intense workout that’s doing more good than you might think.
Exertainment
The combination of exercise and entertainment is a relatively new trend, but it’s already growing in popularity. Combining exercise with music, fashion, and other forms of entertainment is sparking a wide range of new collaborations and products that are innovatively mind-bending. Known as both exertainment and fitutainment, this is one of the most surprising home fitness trends of 2022.
It’s largely being driven by Gen Z, who want more from their fitness offerings. Rather than being a siloed activity usually accompanied by little more than a motivational playlist, exercise is fast becoming an entertainment lateral.
Fitness gamification is leading the way, and there are emerging gamified fitness platforms and apps taking advantage of this new way of working out. Some of them rely on wearable tech, tracking your steps or heart rate to score points or escape in-game threats. While this trend is only in its early days, expect it to become much bigger and more popular by the end of 2022.
2022 and the Home Workout Trends
For the gyms and the personal trainers who haven’t made the move to online sessions, the last few years have been challenging. However, the health and fitness sector continues to grow year on year and is larger than ever. As fitness facilities reopen, gym-goers have been keen to head back as quickly as possible.
However, things have changed. Now more than ever, people exercise in new ways with new goals. From the hybrid approach to the games that might motivate us, 2022 is likely to be an unusual year for the fitness industry. If you’re looking for motivation that will help you get started on your healthier journey to 2023, the above home fitness trends could be a game-changer.