Wellness Trends in 2020

The health and wellness industry gained momentum at a rapid pace over the past decade and we don’t expect the growth to slow down over the coming decade. Below are our top 5 predictions for the biggest wellness trends in 2020.

5. Fitness Wearables

With Apple’s continued focus on improving the Apple Watch and Google’s acquisition of Fitbit we can expect to see huge advances in wearables beyond simple fitness and step tracking into more advanced health tracking. The latest Apple Watch can detect atrial fibrillation and future wearables may have full ECG capabilities to measure abnormalities in heart function. Fitbit has a focus on heart health with a goal of being used in hospitals in the near term. New devices may also include advanced functions to detect dehydration, fluctuations in blood glucose levels and sleep apnea.

4. Fitness Streaming

New technology is revitalizing the concept of working out at home. The popularity of the Pelaton bike has led competitors to create their own home based spinning software. Equinox will soon be launching home based SoulCycle classes with personalized digital content. In addition an American company called Mirror has launched a US$1,500 product which functions as a personalized gym and allows people to follow along with their favourite instructor on a mirror like screen. Mirror plans to start expand it’s offering to include personal training and meditation sessions. Despite this trend, we don’t expect to see gyms or studios disappear anytime soon. That industry is experiencing a growth spurt of its own.

3. Integrative Health and Alternative Healing

We expect the mind body connection to become further recognized and gain importance in complimenting traditional medicine. Alternative healing practices will become more mainstream and new types will continue to emerge. Non-traditional healing practices such as acupuncture and naturopathy have been around for many years and remain popular. Several new trends are also starting to emerge including holistic breathwork, sound healing and chakra balancing. Practitioners can be found in most large cities as well as a number of wellness hotels.

2. Mindfulness and Meditation

As noted above the mind body connection is becoming more accepted as mindfulness expands beyond spirituality and into science. While many people claim they are still too busy to meditate or don’t see the value in it, this will likely change as more and more studies show the beneficial effects of meditation on stress, anxiety and depression. Mindfulness studios have been popping up in large cities, with studios like Hoame and MINDSET Brain Gym offering meditation classes in Toronto. We expect to see more of these studios as meditation becomes as mainstream as yoga.

And of course our number one prediction for 2020:

1. Solo Travel and Wellness Retreats

Solo travel no longer has the stigma attached to it that it used to. Although it may be scary to travel alone for the first time, more and more people are trying it and wellness retreats are becoming a p0pular way to venture into solo travel. With itineraries that are completely optional and customizeable, wellness retreats allow individuals to tailor their own holiday with as much or as little activities and socializing as they would like. There are no awkard dinners or drinks alone and there are plenty of opportunities to join group tours and excursions to explore the destination while also having that much needed alone time to refresh and rejuvenate. Wellness travellers are seeking personalized and transformative travel experiences that are fully planned so all they have to do is sign up and arrive at the destination. We expect (and hope!) that wellness retreats will continue to grow in popularity in 2020.

Lisa Gordon

Co-Founder, Movement Travel