China Survey of Fitness Trends for 2020

Abstract

Apply It! • Nation specificity of fitness trends should be considered by international fitness organizations or companies when making strategic plans in other countries. • Ten trends can be recognized as the current stable trends within the health/fitness industry in China.

National Survey of Fitness Trends in Greece for 2021

“…Specifically, personal training was ranked #1 in the present study, which is an outcome totally aligned with the primary finding observed in Europe [16]. In addition, this particular trend appears to be popular worldwide as the fifth most attractive fitness trend [14] while it was ranked #3 in North America [15], #4 in Brazil and Argentina [18], #7 in Spain [19], and #8 in China [17]. Fitness services focused on personal training seem to be significantly popular for Europeans and thus almost 3 out of 4 of the offered exercise services are traditional one-on-one training sessions [20].…”

“…Considering the fact that several lifestyle-related chronic diseases are currently increasing in Greece [9], our findings these outcomes may be an interesting sign for the future state of the national fitness industry highlighting the pivotal role of fitness practitioners and businesses in public health. Additionally, these outcomes corroborate the majority of the literature showing that 25%-35% of top 20 fitness trends are associated with exercise training for special populations and thus health-related trends systematically gain popularity in the global fitness industry [14,[16][17][18]. Taking these findings into account, it seems that the local fitness industry supports the scientific evidence underlining the critical role of structured exercise in health, performance and quality of life of individuals suffered from chronic conditions [34], including adults [35], and children with obesity [36] as well as elderly [37] and persons who regularly exercise in a clinical setting [13].…”

“…Interestingly, technology-oriented fitness trends such as outcome measurements (#27), online training (#30), mobile exercise apps (#34), virtual training (#40), and electrical muscle stimulation training (#41) were not in the top 20. Only wearable technology (#11) demonstrates a noteworthy popularity that is aligned with data recently reported from similar surveys conducted in North America [14] and China [17], but not in Europe [16] and South America [18]. Despite the fact the digitalization is currently changing the fitness sector by transforming the old-school business models widely used in the gyms and studios [24], this observation may highlight the role of socioeconomic status in the magnitude of use of technology.…”

“…Furthermore, considering that individualized exercise training clearly shows high attractiveness among respondents in Greece, it is notable that mind/body-oriented fitness trends such as Pilates (#22), Yoga (#29), and Tai Chi (#36) demonstrates low popularity resulting into their absence from the top 20. Such alternative exercise modes also are not very popular in other regions [15] and only Yoga was ranked in the top 20 in North America (#14) [14], China (#15) [17], and Europe (#20) [16]. Moreover, even though group training (#12) appears to be an attractive exercise mode in the Greek health and fitness industry, specialized group training programs such as dance-(#39), boxing-(#38), and aquatic-based (#35) workouts show limited applicability and thus they were ranked outside the top 20.…”

“…The present study used the ACSM's methodology applying exactly the same criteria with those that have been widely used since 2006 in the worldwide [14], North American [15], European [16], Asian [17], and South American [18] surveys of fitness trends. The survey was designed to identify the trends (not fads) that are considered attractive because they may have a positive impact on the local fitness industry while demonstrating high popularity among fitness industry stakeholders who are based in Greece working with several types of populations.…”