Fitness Trends in Portugal for 2023

Abstract

The present study aims to identify the Fitness trends for 2023 in Portugal, characterizing and comparing them with the world trends, and comparing them between types of professional title (Physical exercise technician, Technical director or Untitled), between who is and who is not working as a Fitness professional (PF), between genders, and over the three years in which this study has been carried out specifically for Portugal (2021, 2022 and 2023). Reproducing the methodology of the American College of Sports Medicine study on global trends in Fitness, an online questionnaire was administered to 507 PF and exercise-related health professionals and to students in the Fitness/Physical education/Sports sector. It was found that the main Fitness trends for 2023 in Portugal are, in descending order, “Licenses (titles) for PF”, “Employing certified PF”, “PT”, “Exercise for weight loss” and “Healthy lifestyle and behavioral change”. This top 5 trend has been maintained since 2021, which shows stability with the top trends, with greater variability, between years, in trends with lower rankings. Portugal has its specificities in terms of Fitness trends, which are more similar to those in Europe than to the worldwide, emphasizing the importance of knowing about national trends. Significant differences were identified in terms of the opinion of the sample subjects about some Fitness trends for Portugal in 2023, with greater magnitude between genders and between who is and who is not performing FP functions.