Home-based activities that surged during Covid lockdowns fell sharply in 2022, according to Garmin, as people returned to the outdoors for fitness and leisure.
That’s the takeaway from the annual year-end Garmin Connect Fitness Report released Dec. 19. The report, Garmin said, helps shed light “on the changing exercise of Garmin customers around the world as millions returned to pre-pandemic routines.”
The number of activities logged in the Garmin Connect fitness community app reached an all-time high in 2022. The data reflects a shift in the movement of active lifestyle customers as they resumed travel to the office, gym and favorite vacation spots.
Garmin Highlights
Here are some high-level insights:
- Home-based activities that skyrocketed amid lockdowns such as indoor cycling and yoga leveled off, while indoor activities that couldn’t be performed in a home gym such as indoor running, indoor rock climbing and lap swimming rose sharply.
- As leisure travel roared back in 2022, so did vacation-based activities such as resort skiing, scuba diving, sailing and surfing. Skiing/snowboarding was the fastest growing Garmin Connect activity, up 143 percent year-over-year.
- Gravel cycling continues to be on a roll, with total activities logged up 40 percent over 2021.
In its press release, the company said its Garmin Connect data “looks like most other years — with the number of activities logged in every major category, including running and cycling, up considerably. But with presumably less time for morning runs and lunchtime walks near the home office, we found within the data a return to pre-pandemic fitness habits — with strong growth in indoor activities that can’t be performed at home, including indoor swimming, rock climbing and gym-based activities such as HIIT workouts. Meanwhile, home-based workouts such as yoga and indoor cycling, both of which spiked during the pandemic, appear to have stabilized.”
Other Garmin Findings
Some other highlights from the report:
— Strength training activities were up 20 percent from 2021, although 2022 was the first year Garmin offered the HIIT profile feature in its Connect app.
— Road biking percentages were up 8 percent, and gravel cyclists completed an astounding 40 percent more activities than in 2021. Duathlon bikers probably saw a few more people on the roads this year.
— Indoor running increased 17 percent and treadmill activities were up 13 percent. Folks still are going to get their workouts in during winter, rain or whenever possible.
— Lap swimming activities were up 34 percent in 2022, and swimming was up 13 percent. Anyone doing trialthons may have noticed an uptick in participation at events, too.
See the full breakdown here.
