5 At-home Wellness Trends That Are Here to Stay
After over a year of on-and-off lockdowns, it’s fair to say that at-home wellness trends are here to stay. In fact, according to the MindBody Wellness Index 2021, 33% of Australians will join for live stream workouts at least once a week even with gyms and studios opening.
With that in mind, here are some of the top at-home trends that Australians are loving in 2021.
Live sessions
On-Demand workouts and meditations have been around for a while, but during lockdowns LIVE sessions really made their mark.
“I have always been drawn towards live sessions because it brings everyone together” says Luke McLeod founder of Soul Alive.
“Live sessions allow members to chat and connect which in turn creates a greater sense of community.”
“The set class times is also a bonus as it encourages people block out that time in advance and makes it easier for them to stick with meditation.”
Mark Blackman from FLOE agrees.
“In bringing one of the largest gym brands in the world to Australia, I know that fitness and wellness is a high tough game. It is about connection, motivation and accountability” says Blackman.
“With FLOE, all of our workout require people to book in so that they receive reminders to attend. All classes are live and two-way video means the instructor can support and motivate you.”
“We find that having this approach keeps people motivated to keep going. It is a lot harder to stop mid-way through a workout when an instructor can see you and it feels like they’re in the room with you.”
Hybrid workouts
Flow Athletic were one of the pioneers of hybrid workouts in Australia when they launched 7 years ago, yet inadvertently many of us who are using online platforms are enjoying the perks of a hybrid workout without even realising it.
“When we first launched Flow Athletic, we had classes such as STRIKE (Strength x Bike) among others which consisted of 30 minutes of each discipline says Ben Lucas, founder of Flow Athletic and Flow Athletic TV.
“These classes were huge hits, so when we launched our online platform during lockdown last year, we decided to keep most classes to 30 minutes so that members can mix and match their workouts themselves. Now they can choose from spin, HIIT, strength, Pilates, Barre and Yoga.”
Hybrid workouts are brilliant for so many reasons. For starters, when training at home it is a lot easier to stay engaged in a 30-minute class than it is in a 60-minute class, so starting a fresh session 30 – minutes in will give you a better chance of completion. You also get the perks of reaping the benefits of two different styles of workouts in one session.
Running
Running has certainly made its mark in Australia last year, with it becoming the main excuse for being outdoors during the lockdowns. In fact, independent research by Athletics Australia found that over 3 million Australians participate in recreational running, meaning that many of us do enjoy a chance to be active outdoors.
“Running is such as great activity, not only because you can do it anywhere and it is good for you, but because there are so many events that you can train for which gives it some purpose outside of just getting fit” says Ben Lucas.
“Our run club has always been popular both online and offline and it is one of the most social communities within our community.”
“The members always want to do events and weekend runs together. Both in and out of lockdown the group has been a key support for so many members”
Innovative home gym solutions
Last year when it became apparent that lockdowns would be lasting for more than a week, people went crazy for fitness equipment. Even finding a 1kg dumbbell was hard work. Fortunately though, a lot of innovations made their way into the wellness industry in Australia.
The latest innovation to launch is FLOE, a fitness game-changer that integrates live workouts and purpose designed gym equipment.
FLOE aims to bring motivation and connection to at-home fitness and for those who want equipment, they also have a very stylish option.
They use live two-way technology to teach their live classes, meaning that the instructor on the other end can easily see you and coach you along the way. To help them do this, the team send you a stand to ensure your phone or tablet is at a good height where the instructor can see you and you can perfectly see the instructor.
If you want to add optional equipment, they have also created a beautiful FLOE Gym which is a furniture grade plywood storage unit that transforms into a workout bench and Barre. This unit houses a wide range of fitness equipment such as dumbbells, a kettlebell, yoga blocks, pilates circle and more. It is a beautiful piece of equipment that will fit into even the most stylish home.
Vitruvian is another clever Australian invention that has hailed from Perth. Fitting into the connected fitness market, their V-Form Trainer is one of the most intelligent pieces of equipment the world has seen in this space.
The V-Form Trainer is a slimline carbon fibre platform that enables lifts from 5kg to 180kg. The innovative adaptive weight acts as a spotter, learning the user’s ability and adjusting over 40x a second. It pairs with the Vitruvian App for access to custom workouts, motivational classes and tracking fine-grain performance data.
You can also compete with friends and users world-wide, and focus on honing your technique with professional tutorials. Compact enough to store just about anywhere, the sleek carbon fibre design also sits pretty as a talking point in your home.
There are also some interesting equipment options that just use water or sand to add resistance to your workout. HydroCore for example is a purpose built bag that you fill with water. It uses the power of water dynamics to build stability, strength, and explosiveness. As the water is sloshing around every time you move the bag it keeps you wanting to move in the direction you are swinging it in. Overcoming the inertia builds head-to-toe stability. It’s a great option if you want to add resistance but you don’t want your space to be filled with weights. Its also good because you can take it outside with you pretty easily
Wearables and step tracking
Finally while Apple Watches and FitBits have long been popular, tracking steps, sleep and food has never been so popular as it has been in lockdown. Social Steps for example is the latest app that has taken off during the recently lockdown as it allows friends to compete against each others steps. The gamification element is a great motivator to keep active and it is going nowhere anytime soon