Crystal Ball: What Will Be the Hottest Health and Fitness Trends of 2014?

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You might remember that a few months ago the American College of Sports Medicine reported their annual prediction of fitness trends for the upcoming year, and the results were pretty surprising. To refresh your memory: Spinning fell out of the top 20 and high-intensity interval training claimed the number one spot. So when I came across Well + Good NYC’s predictions for the top 10 fitness and wellness trends of 2014, I was curious to see how they matched up. Interestingly, there was pretty much zero overlap.

So, what trends do the folks over at Well + Good predict will be dominating the fitness and wellness scene come the new year? Number one on the list: Juice. So much juice. But not the ubiquitous juice cleanse that we became so familiar with in 2013. Rather, juice as a lifestyle. So, an “a green juice a day keeps the doctor away” kind of mentality. And they also predict that companies will start offering more affordable options as the juice industry grows. Amen to that!

What else is on the list? Probiotic-everything will take over your local health food store, thanks to author Michael Pollan’s popular New York Time’s piece dedicated to his newfound “superorganism” identity. The gist of the article is that we’ve got to learn to love the bacteria that live in our body, and eat foods that promote their health. So expect to see lots of Kimchi, kombucha and, of course, yogurt on restaurant menus and grocery store shelves.

In terms of fitness trends, hot yoga is the new Bikram, hotels will become fitness hubs and “indie” Spinning studios will rival big brands like Flywheel and SoulCycle. Oh! And black yoga pants are so over.

Tell us Be Wellers, what do you think of this fitness and wellness forecast? Got any predictions of your own to add to the list?