The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has published the global fitness trends that will be highlighted and most present in the sector during 2024.
The report was released in the last days of the year and was attended by several professionals from the fitness sector. The conclusions of the report show that wearable technology in training will continue to be a present and consolidated trend, maintaining what has been observed in the last 5 years. The promotion of health in the professional environment enters the top 20 for the first time and immediately moves up to 2nd place on the list. In addition to this second place, the health and longevity aspect is also present in the trend of training programs for older adults, occupying 3rd place, with weight loss exercises following in fourth place.
TABLE 1 – Top 20 global fitness trends for 2024
For the 2024 survey, 45 trends were analyzed and divided into eight distinct categories. The 2023 trends were peer-reviewed for inclusion in this year’s analysis, and potentially emerging trends were identified by the report editors through a literature review and a pilot study. The primary response format was Qualtrics, and was initially sent by email to 24,566 people who were either connected to ACSM or the Health & Fitness Journal (up from 125,940 last year). On average, the report took about 18 minutes to complete and yielded a total of 1,997 valid responses for analysis (up from 3,735 last year). In addition to this global analysis, ACSM reported on the study at a more local level, analyzing fitness trends in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Europe, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. We illustrate in Table 2 the trends in Portugal, Europe and worldwide.
Table 2 – Comparison World/Europe/Portugal
In Europe, digital services, technology-driven trends and fitness activities that take place outside of traditional gyms appear to be less popular than more “traditional” trends. Health-oriented trends, particularly exercise for health and special populations, are still attractive, comprising 7 of the top 20 trends. Boutique fitness studios, although down in the rankings (#18, down from #7 last year), appear to be a popular fitness environment in Europe, offering fitness services focused primarily on other current trends such as personal training (#1), high-intensity functional training (#2), small group training (#3), bodyweight training (#5), functional training (#6) and Pilates (#19). Looking at the evolution of global trends over the past 3 years, we see that technology has been at the top of the charts, but that health and longevity is increasingly prominent (Table 3).
Table 3 – Comparison from 2022 to 2024
Some of the main findings from this year’s survey show that licensing for fitness professionals and the employment of certified fitness professionals have remained the main trends for three consecutive years. Trends related to health and well-being are a constant presence in these analyses and this year is no exception. This reality may be due to the high rate of obesity experienced by Portuguese residents. Analyzing all the data, with a greater focus on the national panorama, we realize that our market follows the main trends that were reported in previous years in global reports. We realize that our market is different from others and that it has a peak of evolution, also different and at a less technological stage and very focused on service and health.
