Credits: Social Media
The biggest health and fitness trends of 2024 so far
As we begin 2024, everyone is looking to kickstart the year with new health and fitness habits.
From Dry January to 75 Hard, all kinds of trends have dominated the first two months of the year. While viral trends are always a hot topic of conversation on social media, with loads fads coming and going, which health and fitness trends are actually here to stay?
1. Exercising outdoors
Forget sweaty gyms and home workouts, this is the year for getting outside and exercising in the fresh air. Whether it’s going for a run, organising a class in your local park, going for a bike ride or even just doing a daily walk – being at one with nature is going to be a big one this year.
As explained by MedlinePlus, exercising outside can offer many benefits from improving your mood, to exposing you to Vitamin D for maintaining healthy bones and increasing your energy levels. It’s also known to decrease stress, help your mental health and improve sleep.
2. Ice Baths
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The next thing is ice baths and cold water therapy. You’ve probably seen everyone putting plunge pools in their backyard and filming videos of themselves braving the freezing temperatures on social media – and for good reason!
Dipping yourself into icy water for a few minutes every day can reduce muscle pain and soreness and wake you up. Plus, you don’t even have to buy a fancy outdoor pool. A report in the National Library of Medicine found that even just having a cold shower is a potential treatment for depression.
3. Competitions
This year, people already seem to be taking their fitness to the next level with competitions that not only improve your health, but bring a sense of achievement. People are challenging and pushing themselves more than ever, and it’s a great way to stay motivated.
Hyrox is going to be a big one for 2024, a race where participants run 1km, followed by one functional workout station, repeated eight times, and they have competitions in major cities across the world. More and more people are also training for marathons.
4. Pilates
When you’re not outside breathing in that fresh air, pilates is the next big thing. The mind and body exercise grew hugely in 2023, and the trend is only going to get bigger this year as people aim to strengthen muscles, improve posture and get more flexible.
Particularly, it’s reformer pilates classes that are all the rage right now. They use a bed-like piece of apparatus with a rectangular frame that provides an even harder full-body workout which can hugely strengthen your core.
5. Digital Detoxing
Next up, 2024 is the year for a social media cleanse. Put that phone down, shut that laptop and switch that TV off. Do an activity that doesn’t involve a screen, like reading a book, going outside for a walk or meditating.
Making time every day to be away from those pesky devices can do wonders for your mental health, help your sleep quality, reduce stress, increase productivity and improve personal relationships. Try it and reap the benefits.
6. Less Alcohol
Goodbye drinking, hello sober life. We can expect to see a further decline in alcohol use as getting drunk becomes a thing of the past. A study by the NIAAA found that alcohol consumption has “declined significantly” among adolescents, with 18% drinking in the past month in 2002, and just 9% in 2018.
Gen Z are drinking far less, and it’s a great thing. Excessive drinking has many health risks including liver diseases, heart diseases, certain cancers and increased injuries, Medline Plus reveals. Going without it can increase productivity, help sleep, save you money and so much more.
7. AI Fitness
Our final health trend of 2024 is AI fitness. Artificial intelligence is all the rage right now, and it’s making its way into the fitness industry too, with computers quickly changing the way we exercise forever – and it can actually be really useful.
An app called FitnessAI uses AI to generate personalized workouts, optimizing sets, reps and weights for each exercise, unique to you. Chatbots like ChatGPT can help with fitness too by recommending healthy food and drink recipes and curating fitness plans.
So, which trend are you going to try this year?
