by Robin Fiedler
"Happy New Year" means getting in shape, losing weight, and living healthier just a week after holiday shoppers were driving around the mall parking lot looking for the closest parking space. Still, the most popular exercise for 108 million Americans is walking, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association (SGMA). 
Listed by SGMA, "The five most popular fitness activities in the U.S. are walking for fitness, treadmills, hand weights, running/jogging, and weight/resistance machines." SGMA adds, "Roughly 14 million Americans participated in yoga/tai chi." The exercise with the biggest increase was step aerobics with 21% more participants--10.3 million in 2008, compared to 8.5 million in 2007.
Seniors aren't taking the fitness craze sitting down either. SGMA says seniors older than 55 are stepping up their fitness doing "core" exercises, with 30% participating 50 days or more a year. In addition, those 65 and older are joining aquatic exercising and tai chi workouts more than any other age group.
Besides yoga, tai chi, and aerobics, pilates still remains one of the most popular exercises in the US. Pilates was developed by German-born WWI veteran Joseph H. Pilates for rehabilitating soldiers who had been held in captivity. He brought it to New York in the 1920's, but it really took off in the 1990's for its mind-body complete workout, according to University of Arkansas Fitness Center for Medical Sciences.
The most popular exercise equipment is the treadmill for 50 million Americans, while "39 million Americans used weight resistant machines," says SGMA. The SGMA's 2009 "Tracking the Fitness Movement" lists the top two fitness machines sales for 2008 were treadmills at $870 million and elliptical machines at $687 million. The home fitness market is big, reports SGMA, yet "according to the International Health & Racquet Sports Association, 45.4 million people were members of health clubs in the U.S. in 2008."
Popular aside, the 7 most effective exercises according to WebMD are walking, interval training, squats, lunges, push-ups, abdominal crunches, and bent-over row. Brisk walking burns up to 500 calories a hour. Interval training simply means varying your exercise pace, and squats, lunges, push-ups, and abdominal crunches (the best ab exercises) are well-known home fitness exercises. The bent-over row is holding a semi-forward squat while bringing dumbbells up towards the chest. WebMD experts emphasize that for all 7 to be the most effective, it's all in the technique.
So what are the best exercises? Simply doing an exercise we enjoy using the right technique, and walking is the most popular as well as one of the most effective exercises. Add a good pair of sneakers, an iPod, and a BodyBugg or BodyMedia FIT and you are set for success. The BodyBugg, featured on Biggest Loser, and GoWearFit, its main competitor, are wristwatch-like devices that calculate calories burned while tracking calorie intake so you can micromanage weight loss.
Home exercise equipment, exercise routines, and designated workout times rule our fitness psychology. Signing up for the health club that offers valet parking, although satirical, makes sense by saving the serious walking for the treadmill when you are in the right mindset. Because in the end, effective exercising is all in the technique.
Sources
"Innovative Fitness: Pilates." Find Yourself. Summer 2007. UAMS: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Fitness Center.
Sarnataro, Barbara Russi. "7 Most Effective Exercises." WebMD. 29 Dec. 2009.
"SGMA Says Fitness Participation Remains Stable, Despite Decline in Fitness Sales." SGMA. 6 Oct. 2009.
"Tracking the Fitness Movement 2009 Edition - New Release!!" SGMA. 2009.
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