What's trending with health and fitness

Every year I take a brief look at what is trending in health and fitness. This year has a few new interesting trends and a few that have been trending for a few years now.

Here is a look at what's popular across the country.

* High intensity interval training or HIIT is trending up this year. HITT is described as bursts of intense activity for short periods followed by a longer recovery period of less intense activity. High intensity interval training works both your anaerobic and aerobic systems. The anaerobic aspect comes from the sprint portion of the workout when you push to make it up a hill or sprint for 6 to 8 seconds. This in turn builds up your aerobic endurance since you are strengthening your VO2 max, which is the maximum amount of oxygen you can uptake during the exercise.

* Wellness Coaching. This continues to be a pretty exciting trend that takes a 360-degree look at a person's lifestyle, nutrition and physical activity. Once a complete assessment has been done, a health and fitness professional starts the client on a course of fitness, nutrition, and in some cases mental wellness programs. Wellness coaching is most often a one-on-one program similar to how a personal training program works. More and more fitness professionals and health care providers are starting to use a wellness coaching approach to guide clients with a full scope of health and fitness management techniques.

* Treadmill Desks. New findings show that treadmill desks not only help burn calories, but can improve productivity over time, according to a study reviewed in The Huffington Post. The study found that in the initial transition to using a treadmill, work performance did take a hit, but employees' overall performance, over the course of a year, improved.

* Body Weight Training. BWT is becoming a popular trend with personal trainers. BWT is gaining ground as a lasting trend here in the U.S. with more and more people looking for alternatives to pumping iron. Standard PT training like push-ups and jumping jacks have been used for centuries as a form of resistance training. Some gyms and certified Personal trainers are re-packaging those long-standing exercise programs along with adding a few new exercises to the mix. BWT uses minimal equipment, which makes it an inexpensive way to exercise effectively.

* Fitness Programs for adults north of 50. This trend is not going anywhere soon. As the baby boomers start to hit retirement, gyms, fitness trainers and other health professionals are developing programs at an amazing rate. Our highly active older adult population is doing everything from mild NIA (Non-Impact Aerobics, Neuromuscular Integrative Action) to a bit more extreme, like training for triathlons. For older adults, this range of training programs from intense exercise to strength training and even simple yoga can add years to their lives and help them maintain mobility and slow the onset of age-related illnesses. This trend has been growing at one of the fastest paces worldwide.

* Health through lifestyle eating. There has been a study shift in people moving to specific lifestyle eating on a daily basis. The more common are vegan and vegetarian, with a steady growth of primal, pescetarian, flexitarian, fruitarian and raw foodist, to name a few. Health and fitness folks have long touted that the best way to lose weight and live a healthy life is through a clean, whole foods diet. In recent years, these rather odd nutritional trends have really started to take off within mainstream society. Health and fitness professionals have both started building lifestyle programs into their wellness and fitness programs.

* Strength Training. This is a trend that comes and goes. Currently, it is one of the fastest growing trends in fitness. In recent years, health science has begun to show that strength training has a much more positive impact to your overall health than previously thought. Many new studies prove that adding strength training to your exercise routines can drastically help with chronic health issues. Both health and fitness professionals today recommend or include strength training into their rehabilitation and/or exercise regimens when dealing with cardiac care, fighting obesity and reversing osteoporosis.

* Workplace/Working Incentive Health Promotions. This is trending up very quickly with so many changes around health care in the workplace. These programs are designed to improve the health of workers and reward them for their efforts. There are many forms of this trending around the country, from a non-smokers rebate on their monthly health contribution to free gym memberships. Some companies are installing gyms in their facilities, others are contracting with outside fitness professionals for programs and services. It is very possible that down the road, companies will get tax breaks along with lower health care costs for providing these incentives. I only see this growing in the next few years.

* Yoga. This trend just continues to grow year after year. Yoga is a very old practice and continues to be one of the most popular and ever-changing health and fitness regimens. Yoga in both old forms and in completely revamped forms is one of the very best exercise routines you can do for both your mind and body. There are so many choices with yoga, such as Yogafit, Power Yoga, Yogalates, Hatha, Anusara, Bhakti, Ashtanga, Bikram, Vinyasa, Kripalu, Anuara, Kundalini and Sivananda Yoga, to name a few. Each year, the heath and fitness world adds a few new trends and drops a few old ones. The last two years has seen Zumba, spinning and boot camps drop in popularity and sport-specific training, tango and children's fitness are moving in popularity. There are so many innovative health and fitness trends happening there is no doubt everyone can find something to keep them happy and healthy.

Judd Jones is a director for the Hagadone Corporation.