Health trends for 2017

With the New Year commencing today, new workout regimes, diets, health gadgets and apps will create a buzz in the next 12 months. On the other hand, some traditional ones will find less takers and begin to fade away. What piques our curiosity are the new ones to make waves and the existing ones that are here to stay and grow stronger thus, helping improving our lives for the better. We asked some experts what health trends they predict for 2017...

Swapneel Hazare, Sr fitness consultant, Prosport Fitness Centre

According to Swapneel Hazare, who has trained the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Angad Bedi to name a few, the latest trends in the coming year will be functional training. Today, more and more people are getting aware of functional training and its benefits. People are bored of doing the regular gym workouts and want to try out something new. Functional training aids in burning greater number of calories and these kinds of exercises are more functional and applicable to your daily activities.

With marathon being around the corner, 2017 will see people being more inclined at triathlon which is a combination of running, cycling and swimming. The triathlon gives people the advantage of doing all three activities together and challenging themselves to different heights.

Group activity is another emerging trend. Group activities help to motivate each other while working out. It’s the best way to get everyone together and workout in a group, which is sure to motivate all.

Hazare doesn’t think there can be any style or form of exercise pattern that can go out of fashion. May be today one particular form of exercise is popular and after a while some other form of fitness exercise might pop up that might be more popular that the fi rst one. But the form and the basic concept of exercising won’t change. People might get bored of regular gym workouts like body part training as it gets monotonous after a while and is time consuming, and will lose its charm soon.

As for yoga, aqua yoga, Pilates, etc. these forms of exercise will always be strong as the basic patterns never change. Different variations may come up. Power yoga and aqua yoga are the variations which have come out from Pilates and yoga. The base won’t change it’s just the variations will keep on emerging and fading away.

Shalini Bhargava, Director, JG’s Fitness Centre

People won’t spend one hour on the treadmill, cycling, elliptical, etc. as they don’t have the luxury of time. Instead they will graduate towards High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), which involves high intensity exercises in a shorter duration of time, Metabolic training, Dance training, Crossfit, etc. However, one has to have good conditioning of working out when gravitating towards these kinds of workout as there’s a risk of getting injuries.

Speaking of dance training, Bollywood dance, Masala Bhangra, Zumba already have a fan following and will get even more stronger because of the fun factor involved. Besides these, new dance forms like the Pound and Bokwa will come on the scene.

Aerobics will find less takers because of the increasing popularity of new dance training regimes which rank high on the fun quotient.

Alternative ways of keeping fit like power bocking, cryotherapy, altitude training, etc. will be there as people are always on the lookout for new things. However, these alternative ways to keep fit won’t become mainstream as such because the novelty factor fades away in sometime.

Yoga and Pilates will continue to grow stronger because they give results and make a remarkable difference, making people swear by it. Also, they have plenty of scientific evidence and studies backing their efficacy.

Aerial yoga created a buzz in 2016, however, it won’t match up to the popularity of traditional yoga. It’s fun for people wanting to try something new but it’s mostly a mainstay for dancers and gymnasts.

Dhvani Shah, Healing diets specialist, The FIMS Diet Clinic

Since the last few years it has been noticed that fad and starvation diets are losing their stint, this is one practice that will definitely go out of fashion soon. People have begun realising the importance of eating right and eating to lose weight. For a healthy and fi t body, it is essential to have a combination of a good diet along with exercise.

A new trend focusing on nutrition for children and pregnant women is gaining popularity, until now, weight loss nutrition was the focus. It is essential to focus on core nutrition in the coming years as only a healthy child will grow into a healthy adult.