Top 20 Health Trends That Will Stand the Test of Time

HIIT-ification of Everything

No doubt that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a popular trend now, and one that is also pretty damn effective for getting you huffing and puffing and, according to multiple studies, burning more calories than traditional steady-state cardio. The training protocol—which usually employs a few minutes of intense activity followed by periods of low activity—helps get you lean and mean during standard cardio exercises, and now it’s starting to spread to lots of other disciplines like boxing, rowing, and yoga.

Expect it to keep up its relentless (and effective) march across the fitness landscape.

Fitness Data

Wearable fitness trackers have been building in popularity over the past few years—most of us gym rats now rock some kind of digital band like an Apple Watch or a Garmin or a Whoop strap.

Fitbit just got swallowed up by Google a few months ago, so you can expect the wearable fitness gadget wars to start heating up even more in 2020. And with the widespread adoption of the devices, the avalanche of daily activity data—which covers heart rate variability to total hours slept—is going to become only more and more detailed, helping you dial into peak performance.

Diet-ification of Everything

Grapefruit diet, South Beach Diet, Atkins Diet, keto diet, Paleo-keto diet, and on and on… The list of diet plans that have come and gone and stayed keeps building each year—and that trend is not going to go away anytime soon. Why? Because slapping a new label on the same basic eating plan (with a twist!) brings in the bucks.

So instead of predicting the newest, let’s just say there’s going to be another one, and another one. Try this time-tested diet trend that’s M&F-endorsed: Eat whole foods in moderation.

Fermented Foods

Our understanding of the microbiome, or the populations of bacteria that live and thrive in our bodies, is becoming more nuanced.

One of the best ways we can help keep our beneficial population of bugs healthy and strong, which will help tamp down any bad bugs, is by ingesting lots of fermented foods like kimchi, kombucha, sauerkraut, and kefir.

Hybrid Yoga

Yoga is a great way to increase strength, flexibility, and mindfulness, and more heavy hefting guys should get into it to up their iron game. It’ll be easier than ever to try out the limber discipline, as the newest meld, hybrid yoga, starts to ramp up in 2020.

This subset of yoga is simply using yogic-like moves within other workouts, like mixing it into CrossFit or Pilates, for example. Or even goat yoga—no, really, yoga with goats. It’s a thing, we swear.

Percussion Massagers

This is a trend most weight­lifters can get behind—punishing your sore muscles with a power tool. These have been out for a bit, but most come with a hefty price tag, so only elite lifters could afford them. New ones, such as the sleek and inexpensive NordicTrack Percussion Recovery Gun, can help pound tight tendons into supple submission.

Wellness Culture

Planned sobriety, made popular by comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan’s Sober October move­ment, has gained steam. One study in BMJ showed that ditching booze does you all sorts of good (shocker). Expect more of this.

Meatless Meat

Meat analogues had a big year in 2019, with the Impossible Whopper debuting, along with a Beyond Sausage Sandwich at Dunkin’ and even meatless taco and burrito meat at Del Taco. Primed by the runaway successes of these brands’ pivot to plant-based meat alternatives, don’t be surprised to see the once novel meat substitutes popping up in even more fast-food brands and fast-casual restaurants. Last September, even burger giant McDonald’s successfully test-marketed a “PLT”—plant, lettuce, tomato—Beyond Meat sandwich in Canada. 

On a related note: Lab-grown beef and fish are also purported to be making a splash on the market sometime soon.

Focus on Sleep

You know you need sleep, but you probably didn’t realize how crucial it was to your overall health. The Stanford Basketball study, which took place in 2011 but was popularized more recently, showed that athletes who got 10 hours of sleep for five weeks sprinted faster and improved their field goal percentage by almost 10%. The National Sleep Foundation even links insufficient sleep to a risk of cancer.

Companies like Zoma and Sleepenvie, which produce performance-focused mattresses, and Purple, which now makes weighted blankets, are taking notice—all in an effort to up your sleep game.

Mindful Breathing

Hardcore lifters know that breathing is important to executing smooth and strong lifts, but lately the whole idea of really concentrating on breathing—when doing any activity and even while at rest—has been catching on with athletes. Even the Army has been pushing for a greater focus on mindfulness—achieved through breathing techniques—to help its soldiers deal with stressful situations. Expect to see more integration between exercise and breath control in 2020.

Meal-Prep Brands Are Expanding

Once a niche part of the food industry, these food-delivery services have blown up in the past few years, with multiple offerings from companies like Plated, Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, and Freshly.

Ready-to-eat brands such as Trifecta Nutrition have partnered with big companies like UFC and secured endorsements from UFC fighter Nick Diaz and World’s Strongest Man Brian Shaw. And with the closure of Kettlebell Kitchen, there’s bound to be other companies looking to fill the void.

Strong Seniors

The iron game is not just something that young and strong people should engage in. More and more evidence is showing that seniors can greatly benefit from strength training into the twilight of their lives. Boons include stronger bones, better balance, soothing sleep, and more mobility and resiliency.

So make room for that silver-haired senior at your gym and feel free to offer up some solid weightlifting tips in 2020.

Pickleball

Tennis too demanding? Ping-Pong a little too fast-paced? Badminton too boring? Check out pickleball, the latest multisport craze you’ve never heard of. A meld of the previously mentioned disciplines, pickleball is played on a tennis court and uses bigger paddles than table tennis, while the ball is your garden-variety Wiffle ball.

The court and net are sized down a bit from what’s used in regular tennis, the games are quick and social, and the sport will get your heart pumping.

Considering that the numbers of players has increased by 650% between 2013 and 2019, you’ll probably pickle-up a paddle yourself at some point soon.

Athletic Fit Jeans

If you love to squat and deadlift, then you may have been resigned to the husky-jeans section. Those days are behind you. Thankfully, clothing companies are embracing society’s turn toward being active and looking good naked. Now multiple companies (big ones like Levi’s and American Eagle, and smaller guys like Revtown and Barbell Apparel) craft flexible denim for people with muscles who want to move around even when not in the gym.

Ergs

Arguably one of the best full-body, strength and cardio workouts you can get is on an erg, or ergometer, or you know, a rowing machine. They’ve been around for decades and have gotten more exposure lately—often it’s the only machine found in a CrossFit box.

The humble rower has recently been elevated to smart machine status. Connected ergs with big screens and classes are now available from NordicTrack and Hydrow, and boutique gyms like Rowgatta and Orangetheory build their training sessions around the erg.

Being a Vegan

Veganism, which means you don’t eat or consume anything related to animals and their by-products—meat, honey, eggs, leather, wool, silk—has been on the rise in the past few decades after being regulated to “crazy hippie” status.

Now even powerlifters, strongmen, and elite athletes are becoming vegan cheerleaders, and Arnold Schwarzenegger backed the documentary The Game Changers, which touts the benefits of a plant-based diet for athletes—so maybe now’s the time to check it out? 

Enhancing Pliability

Functional was the buzzword of the past few years, but it seems as though we’re moving on to pliability—and it’s all thanks to Tom Brady, whose 2017 book, The TB12 Method, jump-started talks of pliability. So what is it? It’s said to focus on making your muscles longer and softer, instead of just longer, as in stretching, or with more mobility, as what happens with flexibility moves. So keep those foam rollers around and start building up your pliability game with daily self-massage sessions.

Celebrity Training Apps

Want to get jacked like Thor (pre-Endgame, that is)? Or train with a 14-time Major League Baseball All-Star? With the rise of workout apps started by celebrities, like Centr with mega-actor Chris Hemsworth, or invested in, like superstar athlete Alex Rodriguez with Fitplan, fitness apps are moving beyond bland and basic workouts.

Being a Carnivore

People often feel the need to go to extremes to prove just how badass or dedicated they are to whatever the fad du jour is. Case in point: the carnivore diet, which was popularized by ex-doctor and superjock Shawn Baker. Meatheads are saying f*** it and going full flesh—no fruits, veggies, legumes, grains, nuts, or seeds, just meat and eggs and dairy. While anecdotal evidence shows men and women getting ripped up while staying healthy and improv- ing cholesterol levels, the science is not out.

Home VR Workouts

We may not be completely immersed in fantasy realms indistinguishable from reality—yet—but some serious gains have been made in the world of virtual reality as far as fitness is concerned. Home gym units like Tonal and Mirror, which provide virtual coaches and an array of gut-busting workouts with little to no equipment, have just hit the market. Also, Peloton, the originator of the VR cycling experience, now offers a treadmill, and other brands like NordicTrack are following suit.