If you’re a gym rat or just someone who loves being active, keeping your exercise routine fresh is incredibly important. After all, the worst thing that can happen to your fitness routine is getting bored with it, leading you to become less motivated and active over time. By trying out some of the fitness trends below, you might be surprised by how much you enjoy hitting the gym, hopping on your bike, or getting out for a run. Sometimes, all it takes is a little bit of variety and fun!

Here are the top 3 fitness trends transforming how people stay in shape:

Wearable fitness technology

One of the best ways to see if you’re making progress with your exercise or weight loss goals is by tracking each step you take in your athletic multicolor shoes, your heartbeat, and every minute of sleep. Fitness trackers have exploded in recent years and there are many different kinds available on the market for all kinds of lifestyles. You can choose a general smartwatch that gives you basic biometric information or choose a tracker that’s sport-specific for more relevant data. Here are a few of the most popular:

• Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music: Even though your phone might be everything to you, sometimes it's nice to leave your phone at home while you’re out running around. The Garmin Vivoactive 3 holds up to 500 songs and can measure sophisticated metrics like your fitness age, stress, and your VO2 max. 
• Fitbit Inspire HR: This is an affordable option for those who want fitness tracking but don’t want to spend a ton of money. Lauded for its intuitive functionality, it’s a great basic fitness tracker for those just dipping their toe into the wearables industry.
• Samsung Galaxy Fit: A long battery life, a large display, and a simple, easy-to-use interface make this tracker a perfect option for fitness buffs looking to drop less than $100 on a fitness tracker.

Fitness apps

Fitness apps are a great tool to have in your exercise arsenal, not only can they keep you motivated to work out – they also serve as a great accountability buddy. Below are some of the most popular fitness apps:

• Strava: Strava is known among cyclists as the premier ride-recording app but it’s also capable of accurately tracking pretty much any kind of physical activity such as swimming, cross-country skiing, and running.
• MyFitnessPal: If you’re coordinating your diet and exercise together and trying to make sweeping changes for the better, MyFitnessPal is an amazing app to use. It is a food diary app at its most basic definition – but it can be integrated with your fitness apps so you can get a more accurate measure of how many calories you’re consuming versus burning. You can also get a summary of your macronutrients and create a target calorie range depending on if you’re trying to gain, maintain, or lose weight.
• Freeletics: Instead of relying on an in-person trainer, Freeletics serves as your virtual trainer. There are more than 900 workout variations and tutorial videos to help guide you to make sure you’re doing the exercises correctly. If you upgrade to the paid version, you can get customized training plans for as little as $2-$3 a week.

Personal training

Ignoring notifications from your fitness app may be pretty easy, but it’s a lot harder to ignore an in-person trainer. A great personal trainer can help motivate you, push you harder than you thought possible, and help you accomplish your fitness goals much faster than you would on your own. 

To find the right trainer, ask around your network of friends and family. Or, check out apps like Thumbtack, which allow you to search for the right trainer based on your exercise goals.

Takeaways

Getting back into shape or keeping up with an exercise routine can be difficult, especially with the responsibilities of adult life. Family obligations, social obligations, bills, and work-life is busy! But one of the best things you can do yourself to stay mentally and physically healthy is taking the time to exercise.  If the trends in this article don’t excite you, there are plenty of other ways to get active – and most importantly – stay active. Go for a walk, hike or jump on your bike! Small, daily changes add up.