Look away now if you're a personal trainer: Tech, data, and AI are forecast to be the biggest fitness trends of 2025

Every year the American College of Sports Medicine publishes its survey of worldwide fitness trends for the coming year. It predicts top 20 fitness trends in the U.S. and around the world, calling on a host of professionals and stakeholders from the fitness world.

2025’s trends have just dropped, and it’s going to be another massive year for wearable technology. The best smartwatches aside, however, there are some other big movers and shakers that point to a world of personalized, data-driven fitness in your pocket, and a worrying sign for personal trainers.

So which trends are in, and which are out? What are the mainstays of fitness for 2025, and what’s new and exciting? From a survey of personal trainers, coaches, students, researchers, medical professionals, and more, here are the top takeaways from the intersection of fitness and technology.

Apple Watch SEries 10 activity monitor — (Image credit: Future)

Wearables are still on top

Wearable technology has been the number one trend in all but two of the last 10 years, and it’s another top spot for 2025. ACSM notes the field of wearable tech “is constantly advancing” and highlights the benefits of the best fitness trackers, smart rings, and more.

But not without issuing a warning, too. ACSM warns “more work is needed to improve concerns of validity, reliability, and data privacy.” Personal training will feature later, but the trends list encourages exercise pros to use wearable tech to support their clients. Interestingly, full-time personal trainers were the only group from the exercise professionals polled in the survey who didn’t list wearable tech as the top-ranked trend.