If your plan to get fit by 2024 is already failing in the notoriously difficult first week of January, fear not: some new data from Garmin has arrived to give us all some new inspiration, based on the biggest fitness trends from last year.
The Garmin Fitness Report 2023 is based on data collected from tens of millions of Garmin Connect users around the world. So while it doesn’t tell us what new types of workouts Apple Watch fans are doing, it does reveal some interesting trends that could help guide your 2024 plans.
The biggest takeaway is the rise of gym workouts, particularly HIIT (high-intensity interval training) sessions. Among Garmin users, its popularity increased 112% year over year, which is the largest increase in the entire report.
In fact, the use of fitness equipment increased across the board, with stair climber sessions (up 31% compared to 2022), strength training (up 30%), elliptical machines (up 17% ) and indoor rowing (up 14%). It all shows the popularity of these machines, whether used in the gym or at home.
It’s not that indoor strength training and cardio have surpassed traditional classic exercises. Garmin’s report reveals that running, walking and cycling remained the top three activities among Garmin Connect users, ahead of indoor alternatives. But there are also some interesting subsets within those three main categories.
For example, track running saw a 76% year-over-year increase in Garmin data, making it the fastest-growing form of running at some distance. It was well ahead of indoor, treadmill and trail running in terms of annual increase, and with Garmin watches like the Forerunner 235 able to record track running for some time, the data will not have been influenced by the arrival of new Garmin features either.
However, some of the 2023 increases in Garmin’s report may have been influenced by hardware and software changes. For example, Garmin devices only started supporting e-bike data starting in mid-2022, so some year-over-year increases were always likely.
Indeed, e-bike and e-bike mountain tracking increased (62% and 49% respectively) last year compared to 2022. Similarly, yoga (up 23%) and pilates (which grew 48% ) were more popular. than in 2022. Although these again may have been influenced by the arrival last year of muscle map graphs (which help you plan workouts based on training loads) for those activities on some Garmin watches.
Wait, esports tracking exists?
Another interesting example of the influence of Garmin activity profiles on your fitness report data is esports. Yes, on some of Garmin’s more premium watches (like the Epix Gen 2, Fenix 7, Forerunner, and Venu series) you can track esports activity to help improve your gaming performance. According to the report, esports tracking also grew in 2023, although more slowly than HIIT sessions.
Garmin says heart rate, stress, sleep, and energy can have a big impact on pro gaming skills, so its activity profile tracks all of those metrics and even syncs with a Garmin GameOn desktop app to so you can see how your body reacts during and after games.
Still, it’s fair to say that most of us are still using Garmin’s older tracking profiles. And although tennis and bouldering saw big increases in Garmin data (up 76% and 68% year-over-year respectively), walking remained the second most popular activity overall in 2023.
But does walking 10,000 steps a day really keep you fit? We tried doing just that every day for a week instead of going to the gym, and you can read our findings. Spoiler: everything went well and the 10,000 steps a day goal is certainly not just for seniors.
