Batou (Ghost in the Shell).

We’ve looked at the possible future of both health & fitness many times over the years – Workout Clothing, Virtual Training Partners, various medical discoveries and of course the Gymchats. Particularly #224.


Continuing those thoughts, here are a few items that may make an appearance over the next year or so. Health & Fitness Predictions for 2014.

• Many examples of ordinary workout clothing will become ‘smart‘ – heart monitors, GPS tracking and so on.
• Equipment in several catalogues (for gym equipment, workout clothing, nutritional supplements etc) will be computer generated (photo-realistic in most cases).
• 3D printing of some types of workout equipment possible.
• Gradual increase in emphasis worldwide on cycling. Cycle lanes, bike sharing schemes, cycling for general fitness and so on.
• Gradual shift in health-related advertisements from ‘not being sick‘ to ‘actively being healthy‘.
• Increased use of Graphene in medical research.
• The beginning of an emphasis on location-aware technologies in the gym – both at home, and commercial operations. Things like Apple’s iBeacon.
• Greater emphasis on wearable technologies, particularly devices which use things like Apple’s M7 processor. Think a much more powerful ‘Fuelband‘.
• Sensors in many more things (in and out of the gym) – some which make more sense than others. It’ll probably be like digital clocks in the 1980s – everywhere, but not really useful until many years later.

And a few things I’d love to see :

Of course, these are just a few of the things that I’d expect to see personally. I’d love to hear your own thoughts – anything you’d add or change?