Future Fitness Trend: Infinity and Beyond

There are few things my baby boy Christopher loves. He loves music; he loves to go around in circles; he loves to sing two songs at once; he loves sand and dirt by the bucket; he loves mountains of blueberries; he loves to model his spiffy preppy clothes; he loves, and I mean loves, his mommy; and he LOVES his books. In his book bin he has a book given to him by a former client of mine titled “Toy Story”–you know the Pixar movie made famous by Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen).

​Well, Buzzlightyear, although he can’t really fly, does this thing where he extends his jet-like wings and says, “to infinity and beyond!”

So that got me thinking recently about what direction the fitness industry is headed. Last year, American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) did a survey of global fitness trends for 2016.

​Here are the top five:

1. Wearable Tech
2. Body weight training
3. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
4. Strength Training
5. Formally educated fitness professionals

The ACSM survey’s predication has been so far right on. We see plenty of peeps wearing Fitbits and using smartphone apps to track every calorie burned and consumed and every step taken. With popularity of Crossfit, it is undeniable that Crossfit has brought body weight training, HIIT, strength training like powerlifting and Olympic lifting to the greater general public.

In the world of fitness, however, fads come in and go like the tides. One minute a must, then is collecting dust in the back closet–remember the Thigh Master or the Gut Buster? So what will be the next hot trend? How would we be working out infinity and beyond? What trends will endure?

For the two years, I’ve been working on my handstand; I have learned a lot, mostly from all the mistakes I’ve made along the way. After trying to figure it on my own for about a year, I decided to seek some guidance from Christopher Sommer’s material on GymnasticsBodies.com. It has been the best money I’ve spent in years. Not only has it given me a solid understanding of the exercise progression for gymnastics strength training (GST) but has allowed me to cultivate functional strength and usable flexibility, which I did not posses when I was doing bodybuilding, powerlifting, and Olympic lifting in my glory days. In fact, Sommer’s training method is all about developing a well-rounded flexible balanced bodies versus bodybuilding world, for example–typical training method for most trainers now–is all aesthetics.

Unlike a gym membership you need to buy or expensive fitness equipment you need to purchase, you already possess all that is needed to stay fit and healthy: Your Body. If the goal is to be strong, limber, mobile, and injury free, gymnastics strength training or body weight training is where it’s at. Although GST might be a lot harder than lifting a dumbbell and it might take much longer to master, it is far superior to any other training modalities I have used in my 20 years of fitness. Despite having plenty of milage on my knees, lower back, elbows and shoulders, I can honestly say that this is the most mobile and pain-free I’ve been in years.
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Here are some of the GST moves I have been working on for the past two years​:

I still got ways to go but I am pretty happy with the progress so far.

Until next time,
D