Top 10 Health and Fitness Trends for 2012

The American College of Sports Medicine has outlined the ten trends that health professionals think are most likely to become important in the next year. Check out the list to see how your fitness goals compare!

1. Educated Fitness Professionals
   Board-certified physicians and health professionals are taking the lead in the health industry. Certified health professionals are more qualified to help patients heal from athletic injuries, achieve weight loss, and maintain overall health and wellness.
2. Strength Training
   The numerous benefits of strength training are particularly important to women’s health as they age.
3. Fitness Programs for Seniors
   Proactive wellness programs allow seniors the opportunity to improve their strength, mobility and balance in order to continue to live an active, functional, lifestyle.
4. Exercise and Weight Loss
   According to a new data, half of all Americans may develop diabetes or prediabetes by 2020, unless prevention strategies aimed at weight loss and increased physical activity are implemented. If you are overweight, losing as little as 5% of your body weight can significantly improve your health. There are a variety of exercise-based weight loss, medically supervised weight loss, and, if you qualify, surgical weight loss options for those struggling with excess weight.
5. Children and Obesity
   Each year, an estimated 300,000 US adults die of causes attributable to obesity. The percentage of children and adolescents who are defined as “overweight” has more than doubled since the early 1970s. Children need special help losing weight. Experienced, certified personal trainers can help kids get moving. The amount of low-nutrition, high-calorie foods children eat is a special concern. If your child’s diet is a problem, nutrition and weight loss experts can design a personalized diet and nutrition program to help then make healthier choices.
6. Personal Training
   Personal trainers help supervise their customers exercise in order to help motivate them and ensure that they are exercising correctly and safely. Experienced, certified personal trainers also develop personalized exercise program to meet specific health needs and goals.
7. Core Training
   Core stability benefits everyone, from older people to top professional athletes. Core stabilization strengthens the muscles of the core and helps build strength, decrease chance of injury, and prevent low back pain.
8. Group Personal Training
   Trying to lose a few extra pounds? Want to gain strength, speed, or endurance? Looking for a challenge? Group personal training allows you to experience the benefits of individual attention from a fitness professional with the fun of working out in a group environment. Group personal training rates are also typically much more affordable than individual training sessions.
9. ZUMBA and Dance Workouts
   Although Zumba has only recently hits its popularity in the last few years, people have been using music to motivate themselves for decades. Remember Jazzercise? It’s still around and doing well. Music enables people to dissociate themselves from the hard work of vigorous exercise.
10. Functional Fitness
    You don’t have to resign yourself to back or joint pain as you age. If you’ve noticed muscle soreness or tension in your body lately, improved fitness and certain exercises can help you take a proactive approach towards correcting aches and pains before you develop into a recurring, or more serious issue.