The Independent, Star, Mercury and Telegraph: Trend Hunter Featured

In a recent article about health trends, Trend Hunter was featured in The Independent (UK), The South African Star, The Mercury (NZ) and The Belfast Telegraph.  The article, written by Lucy Mayhew, is shown below:

The fast-moving world of fitness

By LUCY MAYHEW

Most of us enjoy having our finger on the pulse - being in touch with what’s hot and what’s not. But knowing and predicting consumer trends is also a serious business.

Trendhunter.com, the world’s biggest online cool-hunting magazine, receives millions of hits a month and has almost 20000 trendspotters scattered across the globe, with about 25 trends from 190 countries reported every day.

And according to Jeremy Gutsche, the site’s founder, the fastest-changing subject area is new ways we can munch, glug, cook, move, stretch and exercise our way to hardcore health with minimum effort.

"Little intrigues consumers more than what should be on our radar for feeling fit and fabulous," he says.

So if power plates, goji berries and antioxidants are all so last year, read on for the latest things to try if you’re up for new ways to stay trim and radiant. - The Independent

Greatest contraption since the dumbbell

Dangling like a monkey with your feet in two industrial nylon straps doesn’t sound like the ultimate way to work every muscle, and sculpt the body faster than you can say functional fitness. But the newfangled fitness contraption called the TRX Suspension Training Kit has an army of American devotees, from soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq to trainers who work with A-listers including Gwen Stefani and Ben Affleck.

It’s also exciting everyone from Pilates aficionados to professional athletes. It doesn’t look that special, but there are 300 exercises you can do either hanging by the legs or leaning back while gripping the straps. The moves require you to engage your core and stay balanced and aligned, so you work up a sweat and hit muscles you could never target with standard machines.

# http://www.totallyfitness.co.uk

Look good with gizmos

This year’s ultimate hi-tech fitness gizmo comes courtesy of Nintendo. The recent Nicole Kidman commercials ratcheted up excitement for the company’s brain-training games - so this year its big focus is ultra-female-friendly fitness programmes.

Jessica Alba is already a fan of the forthcoming Wii Fit packs - they measure body mass index - and targeted exercise plans done on a balance board.

These help to build core strength and include cardio, aerobic and yoga moves. Nintendo will also launch its facial yoga (aka "facening") game, where your console will become a compact mirror that gives you beautifying and youthifying exercises to improve your facial muscle tone.

15-minute, 3-in-one wonder workout for fitness phobes

Everyone - from the FBI and US Marines to Kim Cattrall and Penelope Cruz - is crazy for Russian kettlebells, the quick, three-in-one wonder workout from the Soviets. Kettlebells hit the news last year as Geri Halliwell used them for her remarkable tone-up.

You could be forgiven for thinking that these weights are a bit manly, but fitness gurus say that once you’ve seen the benefits of using kettlebells, you’ll never return to the gym or use standard weights again.

Fifteen minutes of Russian kettlebell exercises will produce similar results to an hour spent switching from running machines to weights and mat-work in the gym, according to the fitness consultant and former athlete Svetlana Writtle, who teaches and has produced a DVD explaining the killer moves.

# http://www.russiankettlebells.co.uk

This year’s power plate?

Kiefer Sutherland, star of the cult series 24, has had the TreadClimber - touted as the true all-in-one modern gym - in his Californian home since 2006.

Twenty-two trials, including one clinical test conducted at Adelphi University in New York, show that the machine, which acts as a three-in-one stair-climber, elliptical trainer and treadmill, burns the same number of calories and works more muscle groups (including the all-important abdominal muscles) than can be achieved by running.

Gloriously for those of us who are opposed to exertion, you would need to run on a treadmill for an hour and 20 minutes to burn the same number of calories as you would on the TreadClimber in only 30 minutes.