Fitness Trends: What's hot to trot in 2016

06 January 2016 - 02:39 By Shelley Seid

Wearing your heart on your sleeve takes a more literal meaning this year. Wearable fitness gadgets will soon do far more than measure your 10000 steps and count calories.Mio is about to launch the Slice, a new activity tracker that uses a Personal Activity Intelligence system to show how hard you have pushed yourself.The system gives the user a personalised reading based on age, gender and heart-rate response.The second quarter of the year will see the launch of OMSignal's OMbra, a new smart sports bra that tracks biometric data.Fighting fit is another buzz term for 2016, with martial arts, boxing, kickboxing and shadow- boxing adding to a growing combat craze.And you don't have to let up when you go on holiday. "Wellness travel" is peaking, with holidays tailor-made to your needs and abilities, "back to nature" fitness training on beaches and healthy food holidays.The 10-year-old Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends says that flexibility and mobility rollers - devices that massage and relieve tight muscles - are a growing market and adds that new trends include more young people using smartphone exercise apps, some of which can provide real-time feedback.At the other end of the spectrum, fitness programmes for older adults are "an exponentially growing market", while body weight training is here to stay for the foreseeable future and outdoor activities such as hiking, canoeing and sport remain popular.But nothing beats the technology trend.The report states that the wearable technology market will be worth $6-billion this year.Dropping out of the top fitness trends are boot camps and exercise programmes aimed at children...

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