6 Fitness Trends to Watch Out for in 2025

At Men’s Health, we dedicate ourselves to providing you the truth regarding what’s real and what’s not, so you can make the best choices for your own personal health and wellness. Here’s what we predict to be the biggest fitness trends in 2025, and what you need to know about them.

Training Diversifies

Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., Fitness Director

This will be the year when fitness disciplines stop feeling so siloed. More and more, people are starting to understand that hybrid training isn’t an outlier; it’s the best way for you to train. Everyone needs a dose of classic strength work, but you also need the mobility that can come from yoga, and the aerobic conditioning that comes from cardio will fuel better strength work, too. Watch for more group fitness concepts that dare to fuse disparate disciplines together. Life and longevity demand bodies that can move in many ways. The fitness world is slowly but surely beginning to understand that.

Competition Will Rise

Brett Williams, C.P.T., Senior Fitness Editor

Racing (and other similar “experiential” events) will be a big focus for fitness in 2025. The past few years have seen the rise of hybrid training. People who traditionally focused on only weight room workouts are switching up their routines to try marathons and hybrid races like Hyrox. More everyday exercisers will jump in for that type of fun run this year.

Wearables Get Deep

Charles Thorp, C.P.T., Fitness and Commerce Editor

Wearables used to be clunky devices with unreliable results. Now with new partnerships (like Oura Ring’s relationship with Dexcom) and better technology, things are starting to get real. We’re no longer worried about about step count competitions and standing up every hour. We’re watching sleep habits, cholesterol levels, even blood glucose trends with new over the counter continuous glucose monitors like Abbott’s Lingo, and Dexcom’s Stelo. The marriage of wearables and health data will take fitness tracking to heights we haven’t yet seen.

A.I. Gets Smarter

Cori Ritchey, C.S.C.S, Associate Health and Fitness Editor

Whether you deem it good or bad, artificial intelligence (A.I.) going to become a main player in fitness. Wearable companies like Whoop are already incorporating it into their product as a way to extend their offerings, assisting users in finding resources to help them better their sleep or improve their recovery plans. From my experience, A.I. still has a lot to learn about training—but with a little more advancement, it could provide some much needed accessibility and education to those who can’t afford a qualified personal trainer. Until it gets a few more lessons under its belt, use it consciously.

Gamified Fitness Gets Better

Charles Thorp, C.P.T., Fitness and Commerce Editor

Gamified fitness blew up during the pandemic. Now that we’ve been back in the gym for a few years, and only the real winners of gamified fitness will be left standing. Not everyone is going to jump into a fitness game, but greater technology and accessibly have made these devices and games really good. And with Meta pushing the envelope, along with other large tech companies, they’re only getting stronger.

Power Shifts

Cori Ritchey, C.S.C.S, Associate Health and Fitness Editor

No doubt: we all want to feel as young as we can, for as long as we can. One way to do that is to train movements we frequented as children—sprinting, jumping, and hopping. As hybrid training becomes more popular, power movements becomes more prominent. Traditional bodybuilder-types are incorporating Olympic style lifts. Training “like an athlete” has become a marketing ploy for many group fitness joints. Plus, new research is finding that low rep ranges (1 to 5 reps), typically associated with training power, can still help you build muscle. Win-win, if you ask us.

Race Fuel Gets a New Look

Marty Munson, Health Director, Triathlon Coach

Tweaking your nutrition in the hopes of gaining an extra second is a perm-trend in sports, but the nutrients keep changing. Right now, sodium bicarbonate… a.k.a. baking soda, is having a day. There’s some research that it can help increase exercise performance by helping your muscles get rid of byproducts that keep them from contracting efficiently. But let’s face it, it’s not the research that put it on the map; it’s the fact that numerous Olympic athletes say they used it and that sports fuel manufacturers are coming up with fancy products to help you stomach it. Ketones are another category to watch: pros say they use them to sustain their energy and maybe even recover better. Science isn’t sure. But that uncertainty will likely only fuel the market for them as everyday athletes try it for themselves.