Look away now if you're a personal trainer: Tech, data, and AI are forecast to be the biggest fitness trends of 2025

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Apple Watch Ultra 2 showing an outdoor locomotion workout alongside a trainer
(Image credit: Future)

Every twelvemonth nan American College of Sports Medicine publishes its study of worldwide fittingness trends for nan coming year. It predicts apical 20 fittingness trends successful nan U.S. and astir nan world, calling connected a big of professionals and stakeholders from nan fittingness world.

2025’s trends person conscionable dropped, and it’s going to beryllium different monolithic twelvemonth for wearable technology. The best smartwatches aside, however, location are immoderate different large movers and shakers that constituent to a world of personalized, data-driven fittingness successful your pocket, and a worrying motion for individual trainers.

So which trends are in, and which are out? What are nan mainstays of fittingness for 2025, and what’s caller and exciting? From a study of individual trainers, coaches, students, researchers, aesculapian professionals, and more, present are nan apical takeaways from nan intersection of fittingness and technology.

Apple Watch SEries 10 activity monitor

(Image credit: Future)

Wearables are still connected top

Wearable exertion has been nan number 1 inclination successful each but 2 of nan past 10 years, and it’s different apical spot for 2025. ACSM notes nan section of wearable tech “is perpetually advancing” and highlights nan benefits of nan best fittingness trackers, smart rings, and more.

But not without issuing a warning, too. ACSM warns “more activity is needed to amended concerns of validity, reliability, and information privacy.” Personal training will characteristic later, but nan trends database encourages workout pros to usage wearable tech to support their clients. Interestingly, full-time individual trainers were nan only group from nan workout professionals polled successful nan study who didn’t database wearable tech arsenic nan top-ranked trend.

The individual trainer successful your pocket

Push app regular workout viewer

(Image credit: Future)

Mobile workout apps person continued their surge from 20th successful 2023, seventh successful 2024, to yet number 2 successful this year’s survey. ACSM reports that immoderate 850 cardinal fittingness apps were downloaded by immoderate 370 cardinal users successful 2023, and speculates that wearable exertion could beryllium fuelling nan emergence acknowledgment to its complementary nature.

The study praised nan elasticity of mobile training apps, particularly for novice exercisers. Indeed, galore of nan best fittingness apps connected nan marketplace tin thief you make an full workout plan, way your progress, thief you pinch your form, and more. With nan advent of AI successful apps for illustration nan PUSH workout app, nan powerfulness of these apps to accommodate and connection customized training to individuals is greater than ever before

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Data: nan bold newcomer

The caller Oura App connected an iPhone and nan Oura Ring 4 successful Silver.

(Image credit: Oura)

New for 2024, data-driven exertion appears astatine number 7 for 2025, acknowledgment to its powerfulness to thief clients “understand nan physiological responses to an workout stimulus successful real-time.”

As workout professionals leverage metrics for illustration slumber and bosom complaint variability successful training and recovery, they tin much readily set training successful consequence to these conditions, making workout safer, particularly for group pinch cardiometabolic conditions.

On-demand workout classes are back

Peloton

(Image credit: Peloton)

On-demand workout classes, which exploded during nan pandemic, are backmost successful nan apical 20 for nan first clip since 2022. Pre-recorded classes and videos for illustration Apple Fitness Plus aliases Peloton supply awesome elasticity to their users because they tin beryllium accessed anytime, immoderate place.

More broadly, nan re-emergence of on-demand workout classes could beryllium a motion of nan deepening desire for customers to return much power of their ain fittingness journey, choosing which classes to do and erstwhile connected their ain terms, alternatively than committing to a workout programme astatine their section gym aliases nan rigors of individual training.

Personal training slides

Chris Hemsworth exercising connected nan formation pinch his trainer Luke Zocchi

(Image credit: Centr)

Personal training has been a apical 10 inclination successful nan ACSM study since 2007 but has fallen to 16 for 2025. While nan assemblage acknowledges it remains “critical” for those who want effective guidance, nan proliferation of distant activity and virtual fittingness solutions (like those aforementioned classes) is reducing demand.

One suggested solution for individual trainers is integrating hybrid modalities, making individual training much adaptable, personalized, and effective. With nan surge of data-powered, personalized, democratized fittingness apps and wearables, could we beryllium seeing a driblet successful nan request for one-to-one individual training? While you get nan astir individual acquisition imaginable from a individual trainer, it often requires important clip and financial commitments, arsenic good arsenic abstraction and equipment.

There's nary guarantee these trends will play retired precisely arsenic predicted by ACSM, but if they do, it could beryllium nan first wake-up telephone to an manufacture of fittingness professionals who request to accommodate to a changing, connected, and data-driven fittingness future.

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Stephen Warwick is TechRadar's Fitness & Wearables writer pinch astir a decade of acquisition covering technology, including 5 years arsenic nan News Editor of iMore. He's a keen fittingness enthusiast and is ne'er acold from nan section gym, Apple Watch astatine nan ready, to grounds his latest workout. Stephen has acquisition penning astir each facet of exertion including products, services, hardware, and software. He's covered breaking news and processing stories regarding proviso chains, patents and litigation, competition, authorities and lobbying, nan environment, and more. He's conducted interviews pinch manufacture experts successful a scope of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. Outside of work, he's a monolithic tech and history buff pinch a passion for Rome Total War, reading, and music. 

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