Summary of Sports & Fitness Industry Association fitness survey

The 2023 Topline Participation Report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) details trends in American fitness activities from 2019 to 2022, highlighting changes during a period disrupted by the pandemic. Here’s a summary of the key findings:

• Overall Participation: There's an increase in Americans aged 6+ participating in at least one fitness or sports activity in 2022, with 77.6% engagement, showing growth from both 2017 and 2021.

Three-Year Fitness Trends (2019-2022):

• Increases in Specific Activities: Pilates, yoga, kettlebells, dance/exercise to music, barre, dumbbells, walking for fitness, and barbells saw increased participation. Notably, free weights were categorized into three groups, with kettlebells seeing the most growth.
• Decreases in Gym Activities: Group stationary cycling, cross-training, boot camp style training, machine stair climbing, and cardio kickboxing experienced the most significant declines. These activities, especially the group workouts, were heavily impacted by the pandemic.

One-Year Fitness Trends (2021-2022):

• Rebounding Activities: Cardio kickboxing and group stationary cycling are making a comeback, though cycling is far from its pre-pandemic levels. Pilates also continued to grow robustly.
• Racquet Sports Surge: Driven by pickleball, racquet sports saw a substantial increase of 17.6% from 2021, with pickleball itself growing by 85.7%.
• Continued Declines: Cross-training saw further declines, along with bodyweight exercises, running/jogging, and elliptical training, possibly due to people returning to gyms rather than working out at home.

Top 5 Fitness Activities in 2022:

1. Walking for Fitness: Remains the most popular activity, although it experienced a slight decrease from 2021.
2. Treadmill: Participation is down from 2019, with a marginal decrease from 2021.
3. Free Weights (Dumbbells): Increased participation from 2019 and a slight increase from 2021.
4. Running/Jogging: Saw a drop in participation from both 2019 and 2021.
5. Yoga: Increased significantly from 2019 but dipped from 2021.

The data suggests a trend towards individual fitness activities, possibly due to lingering pandemic effects, with growth in activities that can be performed both at home and in smaller settings. There's also a notable shift towards sports like pickleball, reflecting changing preferences in leisure and fitness activities.