A significant majority of Gen Z and Millennials, often referred to as Generation Active, discover new fitness trends through platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
If you want to stay up-to-date on what’s next in fitness, social media is where it begins. That’s where trends first surface, whether they come from influencers, personal trainers, or gym owners.
What you see often depends on your corner of the internet, but one thing’s consistent: the trends evolve quickly.
In this article, we break down the key exercise trends shaping the fitness industry in 2025 and how they’re influencing how people train, recover, and stay engaged
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Top 6 Exercise Trends in 2025
#1: Expanded Fitness Tech & Wearables
In 2025, clients come up to your door already wearing a fitness tracker or smartwatch with years of data to work on. Most people have moved past the calorie and step features and regularly review their HRV, sleep, stress, and recovery scores.
Why it’s trending now:
The wearable fitness device market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 17.4% from 2024 to 2033. Running tracking accounts for 23.5% of usage, followed by heart rate monitoring (21.2%) and sleep tracking (20.3%).
And as sensors and AI improve, wearables will continue to become more accurate, more personal, and more embedded into daily health decisions.
Application for trainers and businesses:
The average client is more aware than ever of how their body responds to stress, movement, and rest. But they don’t always know what to do with the data. That’s where trainers come in.
So you’re not just blasting workouts that work for everybody, or classes to sweat, you offer optimization of their health based on the data they already have.
Trainers who can connect the dots between recovery trends, sleep quality, and stress patterns into their programs will stand out as strategic health partners, not just fitness guides.
How ABC Trainerize supports it:
At Trainerize, we believe that wearables have immense benefits in helping users maintain an active lifestyle, achieve their goals, and optimize for a longer, healthier life. That’s why we integrate with leading platforms like Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin, and more, so trainers can turn client data into better results, without adding manual work.
Check Out: ABC Trainerize Full List of Integrations with Wearables, Apps, and Tools
#2: Hybrid Training & In-Home Smart Gyms
In fitness, ‘hybrid’ means freedom – the freedom to train in-person or remotely. Many clients now have smart mirrors, resistance systems, VR gear, or even just a yoga mat and a Wi-Fi connection. They’re building micro-gyms in bedrooms, garages, and living rooms, or training with no equipment at all.
Why it’s trending now:
The hybrid model continues to thrive, not just among time-poor professionals and parents, but anyone who now realizes they don’t have to work out at the same time, in the same place, with the same people, or in the same way.
The global smart home gym equipment market is projected to reach $4B by 2030, driven by demand for customizable, tech-integrated at-home training.
Application for trainers and businesses:
Trainers who embrace this shift, rather than fight it, win. Instead of forcing clients into outdated models, ask what they already have at home. Adapt your programming to fit their lifestyle, not the other way around. Offering both in-person and remote options isn’t a downgrade; it’s a business advantage.
Blending structured app-based programs with optional live check-ins, video feedback, or group sessions allows you to scale your reach while maintaining a personal connection.
How ABC Trainerize supports it:
Platforms like ABC Trainerize were built for this exact shift. We knew personal trainers and gyms needed to stay connected to clients beyond the workout hour, and that’s what hybrid delivery enables.
Upload on-demand video workouts, assign programs, schedule virtual sessions, and communicate with your clients, all in one place. Whether your client is at the gym or training from their kitchen, they stay supported and accountable.
Check Out: Step-by-step guide to creating video workouts
#3: Micro & Intermittent Training
Micro workouts, short bursts of exercise lasting 5 to 15 minutes, have gone mainstream. Instead of blocking out an hour, clients are fitting movement into the margins of their day — between meetings, during lunch breaks, or while their kids are napping. This style of training fits remote work, parenting, and modern attention spans.
Why it’s trending now:
People are realizing that “all-or-nothing” workout mindsets aren’t sustainable. Research backs this: short bouts of movement can still improve health, reduce sedentary time, and boost mood.
Micro workouts reduce decision fatigue, require minimal equipment, and enable clients to stay consistent without experiencing burnout.
Application for trainers and businesses:
This is a massive opportunity for trainers to create “low-friction” programs:
- Daily 5–10 minute routines
- Movement snacks clients can stack
- Busy-parent programs
- Desk-worker micro mobility flows
You can package these as habit-stacking plans, monthly subscriptions, or upsells for existing clients who need flexibility.
These short, actionable workouts also make great social media content. They’re highly shareable, easy to save, and have strong viral potential, especially when framed around everyday struggles like “too busy to train” or “desk body problems.”
How ABC Trainerize supports it:
ABC Trainerize provides trainers with flexible tools to deliver short, targeted workouts, ideal for busy clients who want to incorporate movement into their daily routines. It makes micro-coaching scalable and straightforward.
With ABC Trainerize, you can create a variety of workout types:
- Regular workouts
- Circuit training
- Interval sessions
- Video-guided workouts
Clients can start their workouts on demand from their preferred device, whether it’s a mobile app or desktop. You can program timed intervals with countdowns or upload full-length or short guided sessions.
You can even monetize micro-training through digital memberships and program packages alongside your traditional offers.
Check Out: Discover ABC Trainerize’s Key Features
#4: Gamification & XR Fitness Experiences
Gamification in fitness refers to the application of game mechanics, such as leaderboards, badges, points, and streaks, to non-game environments to enhance motivation, engagement, and consistency.
XR (Extended Reality) fitness combines physical activity with immersive digital environments, such as VR cycling, boxing, or exergaming platforms that simulate interactive worlds.
Virtual reality fitness takes this further. VR platforms are testing a big hypothesis: if we can motivate people both internally (autonomy, mastery) and externally (rewards, status), we can help them build long-term habits, even if they’ve always struggled with fitness.
VR workouts are designed to be fun and immersive. You move because you’re playing, not because you’re “exercising.” That’s the unlock.
Why it’s trending now:
Across various studies, VR has been shown to enhance the enjoyment of physical activity, reduce perceived exertion, and improve adherence.
There’s even a theory that suggests people are more likely to engage in leisure activities, such as gaming, when they can access entertainment without exertion. XR fitness flips that by merging movement with the entertainment itself. Younger generations are used to real-time feedback, social validation, and digital achievement systems.
Application for trainers and businesses:
You don’t need a VR headset to tap into this. Trainers can easily apply gamified systems to keep clients engaged:
- Run point-based monthly challenges
- Use badges or milestones to mark progress
- Celebrate streaks and consistency
- Create a sense of competition or team spirit with group programs
These strategies boost accountability and make your programs more fun and sticky. And they double as high-performing social content—people love to share their wins.
How ABC Trainerize supports it:
ABC Trainerize includes built-in gamification features like leaderboard challenges for your clients. You can create and run in-app challenges, track group performance, and build community-driven accountability, whether your clients are in the gym, at home, or in the metaverse.
Read More: Elevate Your Coaching with Challenges
#5: Outdoor & Low-Impact Movement
Low-impact movement like walking, mobility, hiking, or gentle bodyweight sessions is having a moment. But this isn’t just about injury recovery or accessibility. In 2025, it’s emerging as a counterbalance to the hyper-speed of both fitness and life.
We’re calling it “lazy fitness”, not because it’s lazy, but because it rejects the pressure to go harder or faster every time. When tech, AI, and high-effort everything dominate the industry, this type of movement creates space to breathe, while still burning calories, increasing NEAT, and supporting long-term consistency.
Why it’s trending now:
Everyone’s wired. Your clients are managing stress, screen fatigue, and a constant stream of optimization advice. Low-impact movement becomes both a break from that noise and a way through it.
This trend isn’t just about what the body needs; it’s about what the nervous system needs.
Application for trainers and businesses:
Trainers can position low-impact sessions as a feature, not a fallback.
- Build “reset” days into programs
- Create walking challenges or “screen break” mobility flows
- Run outdoor group meetups for connection, not competition
- Market these as nervous-system-friendly, anti-hustle training
This kind of content performs well, too. “Lazy fitness” reels, reset carousels, and nature-based workouts hit save and share triggers on social media, especially among burnt-out scrollers.
How ABC Trainerize supports it:
ABC Trainerize lets you assign low-impact sessions, like walks, breathwork, or stretch flows, and integrate them with tracking and habit coaching tools. Add journaling, mindfulness check-ins, or simply let it be “movement for movement’s sake.” It’s not a step back. It’s a smarter step forward.
Read More: Habit Coaching with ABC Trainerize: Prioritize Your Clients’ Self-Care
#6: Holistic Fitness & Wellness
Holistic fitness blends physical training with habits that support the rest of life, mental health, recovery, sleep, nutrition, stress management, and even self-image. This trend will continue for a long time because it’s the natural evolution of what clients expect from a coach or any type of fitness service.
Why it’s trending now:
The average client is catching up. They’re no longer overwhelmed by tracking one habit; they’re ready for full-spectrum support. After years of consuming wellness content, experimenting with routines, and syncing data from wearables, your everyday client is more aware, more intentional, and more open to coaching that goes beyond workouts.
Application for trainers and businesses:
This is where trainers evolve from instructors to partners in overall wellbeing that goes beyond the simple exercises.
- Layer in habit coaching alongside training
- Track sleep, energy, or mood, not just weights lifted
- Support clients during down weeks or stress spikes, not just when they’re “on”
- Educate them about mobility, flexibility, elasticity, and functional fitness
Give them guidance across multiple areas, and they want it integrated, not piecemealed across different apps or services. They don’t want a trainer who only counts reps; they want someone who helps them feel better, move better, and manage their day with more clarity.
How ABC Trainerize supports it:
ABC Trainerize already supports holistic coaching. You can assign habit goals, track nutrition, monitor progress beyond the scale, and message clients when they’re slipping or celebrating.
Use lifestyle coaching features to track routines like hydration, screen time, sleep, and mindfulness. And bring it all into a straightforward client experience, because it’s all part of the same story.
Trainer Takeaways: What To Do With These Trends
What we’ve listed here aren’t passing trends or short-term fads. These are shifts that, once they land, they stay. And they’re not just “here”, they’re fully here. Which means they’ll soon become the norm, setting the new baseline for how people train, connect, and stay accountable.
Most of these trends are being accelerated by technology, AI, and changing lifestyles. But they’re also driven by clients evolving, more aware, more autonomous, and more willing to invest in systems that match their lives.
Here’s how to start integrating these shifts into your business:
- Sell “mini-workout” subscriptions for busy clients who want consistency without time pressure
- Encourage wearable syncing to personalize plans and automate check-ins
- Pilot gamified programs, like leaderboard challenges, badges, or VR class trials
- Promote outdoor or low-impact sessions to reframe rest and recovery as progress
- Support holistic habits like sleep, stress, hydration, and energy, not just macros and workouts
- Use ABC Trainerize features that make all of this scalable: habit tracking, wearable integration, group messaging, and gamified experiences
Ready to Put These Trends Into Action?
ABC Trainerize gives personal trainers everything they need to meet the new wave of client expectations, from wearable syncing and gamified challenges to habit tracking, video workouts, and holistic coaching tools.
Build smarter programs. Automate the boring stuff. Deliver the kind of experience today’s clients actually want.
Start your free trial today and explore the features designed for the future of fitness.
