At a time when the fitness industry is looking at what consumers will demand in 2025, a look at key trends of the past 12 months - identified by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), subscription platform ClassPass and tracking app Strava - offers a picture what activities will be popular in the coming year.
Pilates
As part of its annual workout trends report, ClassPass advised that Pilates was the most-booked workout on an international scale in 2024, its second year in a row in the top spot - with boookings on the platform having increased by 84% since last year.
With 2019 having marked 100 years from when Joseph Pilates developed his eponymous fitness method, has reached new popularity in recent years.
ClassPass said in its report that Pilates’ “strong social media presence” and “devoted following” are the main reasons it’s the top workout of 2024. TikTok metrics support this claim, too, with a representative for the platform commenting that between 2023 and 2024, the hashtag #pilates saw a 105% increase in posts.
Strength Training
Strava reported that weight training was the fastest-growing sport among women in 2024, and the American College of Sports Medicine placing traditional strength training fifth on its top 10 worldwide fitness trends for 2025.
Not only is strength training important for people to build and maintain muscle mass throughout their lifetime, but it can also prevent injury and disease down the line, as well as increase self-esteem.
ClassPass also reported strength training has become a popular complementary workout to Pilates, cycling, running and boxing, emerging as “a necessary component to a balanced fitness routine.”
It’s influence on social media is telling, too. TikTok reported that the hashtag #strengthtraining has seen a 38% increase between 2023 and 2024, with over 1.3 million total posts to date.
Community Sport and Recreation
Group sport and recreation activities saw major spikes in interest in 2024, with both Strava's and ClassPass's reports highlighted the growing popularity of group activities and community-centric sports.
Strava’s trends report revealed that the number of running clubs on the app grew by 59%, with 48% of participants saying the main reason for joining a group is to socialise; 34% reported that they join group activities to hold themselves accountable, while 43% were focused on performance improvement.
Music-themed Classes
The ClassPass trends report showed that music-themed classes dominated in 2024 - with Taylor Swift-themed fitness classes alone secured 15,792 user reservations on ClassPass.
With singers like Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo continuing their international tours into the new year, plus Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay and Dua Lipa confirming upcoming 2025 tours, these beat-dropping classes are likely to shine in the new year.
Prioritising health over intensity
The Strava report explained “in 2024, people shifted from bigger-better-faster-all-the-time to more moderate fitness practices they can sustain for the long haul”, also revealing that many users were interested in prioritising rest, stretching, mobility and mental health over long, intense workouts.
According to Strava, 57% of participants voted 45-60 minutes is their preferred workout length, compared to just 16% who wanted to work out more than an hour a day. The app also looked at the popularity of workouts lasting 20 or fewer minutes. Stair steppers were most popular, followed by ellipticals, yoga and walking.
When looking ahead to 2025, nearly 20% of Strava participants said they want to make stretching and mobility a top health and fitness goal. On TikTok, the hashtag #mobility was used 35% more over the past year.
According to Strava, 65% of Gen Z users said health and fitness is a top priority in 2025.
The ACSM also emphasised the importance of working out for mental health in its trends report, ranking it as one of its top 10 trends to see in 2025, stating “this trend focuses on exercise programming designed to improve aspects of mental health, like reducing feelings of anxiety, stress, and depression.”
Wearable Technology and Data
The ACSM reported that wearable technology - such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, heart rate monitors and GPS trackers - is the No. 1 fitness trend going into 2025, continuing a trend that it has placed in its the top spot almost every year since 2016.
The ACSM advised “these devices can provide information such as physical activity, health markers, sedentary behaviours, sleep, and even stress.
“Wearable activity trackers can support healthy lifestyle behaviour change through goal setting, personalised coaching, or connecting with apps to provide actionable insights.”
Another technology-related trend on ACSM’s list is data-driven training and technology, or a type of training that “can help clients understand the physiological responses to an exercise stimulus in real-time.”
ClassPass noted in its report a 159% increase in body scan reservations in 2024, compared to the previous year, which shows a spike in interest around letting health technology guide “overall health and wellness practices.”
Images: Balanced Body Reformer Pilates (top) Functional Strength with Les Mills Singapore (middle) and Run for Strength (below).
Born in the English county of Dorset, Nigel Benton is the co-founder and Publisher of Australasian Leisure Management, Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific’s only magazine for professionals in all areas of the leisure industry and the www.ausleisure.com.au website - the go to news resource for industry leaders and professionals.
With a long-term commitment to communicating all that is best about the leisure industry (aquatics, attractions, entertainment, events, fitness, parks, recreation, sport, tourism and venues) his career has been defined by an ability to develop and implement industry communications.
Starting his career working in heritage visitor attractions and then adventure travel in Africa and the Middle East, an interest in writing about his experiences led to his change of career into magazine journalism and publishing.
In addition to publishing, Nigel speaks on marketing communications at a range of industry events.
He was made a Life Member of the World Leisure and Recreation Association in 2006 and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (London).
As of October 2024, he was inducted into the Australian Fitness Awards Roll of Honour at the 2024 AUSactive National Awards.
Among a range of published works and features, his comments on a Blog (blogspot) from 2007 to 2011, when this website went live in its current form, may be interesting to reflect back on.
His philosophy on life is to be kind to all and to indulge those that you love.
His passions include family, Newcastle United and motorcycles (especially British ones) as well as caring for Stella the pug.
Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?
As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.
Anti Wave Global is the original suppliers of top performance swim, aquatic sports, leisure and pool programming equipment.
Founded in 1971, Anti Wave Global is proud of its long and tested…
Hadley Australia and Series Australia Pty Ltd are the leading quality theatre chair manufacturers in the southern hemisphere. The businesses work closely with architects, interior designers and…
Exerp is a global IT specialist in member management software for the fitness and leisure industry.
By focusing on the needs of large enterprises, where streamlining, control and scalability are…
Clubware’s online gym software is not your run of the mill management system. It has been carefully designed to incorporate all the elements that a fitness club would need. How did we do that?…
SLE Worldwide Australia is a Managing General Underwriter specialising in insuring risks in the world of Sports, Leisure and Entertainment.
Be it relaxing, playing, organising or watching sports,…
Since 1989 Elite Pool Covers have designed and manufactured an extensive range of high quality affordable manual,semi-automatic and fully-automatic pool cover systems for the harsh Australian…
Ausfit began in 1992, providing software services to the health and fitness sector including ClubWise, a fully hosted web-based product which combines state of the art club management software,…
