It’s that time of year again!!!
You get waste your life away in lines.
Gain weight! YEA!!!!!!
Get into fist-fights over the last Furby.
Spend too much money and vow lie to never do it again.
Wear sweaters that need double A batteries.
Buy things for people that they don’t really want…..
Then in an act of peer pressure have them buy you things that you really don’t want….
Ahhhhhhhh, consumerism.
I’m joking….
not really
OK, for realzzzz, I am………..kinda.
Let’s face it we get lots of crap we don’t really want/ need or we’ll just never use.
I sure as hell do.
Panini Press- Still in the box…I don’t eat many sandwiches
Baby Cakes Doughnut maker thing- Still in the box……..make your own doughnuts? Seriously?
Buffer- Still in the box……I should actually use this one for my car but I’m too lazy to learn how to use it.
All of them great gifts that at the time had visions of grandeur gourmet sandwiches, mini baked cake goodness and pristine showroom shines, attached to them…..and still in the box.
With that in mind I figured that I could lend some help to anyone who has to buy something for the more health/ fitness conscious person in their life.
So here’s a list of some of the more useful fitness gadgets out there…..
Hopefully they don’t go the way of the Baby Cakes……
TRX:
If I could only have one product for a home gym this is it.
For someone with a good base this thing is great for training on the go or at home and it’s light enough to throw in your gym bag and use for some variety at the gym.
The exercises can be very challenging and “different” from traditional moves and the website provides great support through exercise videos, workouts and a forum full of ideas.
That said, the TRX people say you can do a gazillion exercises with it but most of them are simple variations of the same move or totally worthless moves that no one actually does.
For experienced exercisers the TRX is awesome. For beginners it’s a total waste. When the TRX people say, “it’s totally scalable and appropriate for anyone”……they lie, it’s not.
I’ve seen too many beginners struggle to do even the most basic exercises on these….it’s best for intermediate and advanced users.
I don’t own this and have never used it.
But, but, but..
It looks awesome.
It’s a super Gucci pedometer that counts steps, stairs climbed, calories burned and distance traveled. It can even track your sleep and wake you up…
Another thing I don’t have….but some of my clients do.
Basically, it’s a Gucci pedometer that has an accelerometer built-in so it can more accurately account for high velocity movements.
Because of this the Nike Fuel Band is really cool for athletes.
Bands used to be reserved for only the very serious lifters….that’s changed in the past 2-3 years and now you see lots of people using bands in their training.
Sometimes with good intentions and lots of creativity but due to crappy equipment less than stellar results.
Yes, I’m talking to you, guy, who uses the group exercise tubing on the bench…..all 15lbs of top end tension it has.
Word to the wise; if a geriatric woman can do bicep curls with the “bands” you use for your squat training….
That’s not accommodating resistance……..that’s a waste of time……just put some more straight weight on the bar.
If you’re that poor soul put the word out and guilt trip someone into getting you some real bands.
Working too hard?
Not working hard enough?
How hard was that workout?
Who the hell knows.
Without some type of data collection it’s all subjective. It’s all a product of your perceptions (which counts for a lot but is only part of the story).
Tracking your heart rate is a great way of managing stress and comparing the stress of different workouts and measuring progress.
Some high-end monitors even track your HRV (Polar OwnZone) and help guide your training by making suggestions for intensity based on your level of recovery.
Understanding what is happening physiologically at different heart rates is one of the most beneficial things to understand and manipulate in your training.
Built off of a similar platform to the $30,000 OmegaWave system, BioForce allows you to measure the variability of your heart rate.
Heart rate variability (HRV) can provide a world of insight into the level of CNS activation and overall stress levels which directly corresponds to the level of recovery.
Taking the guesswork out of what intensity and volume are appropriate for a training session can help ensure that “optimal” training sessions occur more often.
You need better shoes and minimalist shoes are the way to go.
Typical “athletic” shoes have too much tread and too much cushion in the heel. This drives the shin (Tibia) forward and changes the natural angles of the ankle, knee, hip and back.
I like these for a lot of reasons but mostly they do the job and I don’t have to change them out if I want to do conditioning work.
I love these and I don’t use them enough.
Instantly turn any bar into a fat bar. Really nice way to vary an exercise without changing it.
For those of you who have beat up wrists, elbows and shoulders these can be a God send because Fat Gripz force you to use less weight and really squeeze the bar hard activating the stabilizing muscles in the hands, forearms, arms and shoulders.
Feeling beat up?
Tight?
Immobile?
A foam roller might be just what you need.
One of the GREAT recovery tools (this has NOTHING to do with core training) on the market.
About 3 years ago these became all the rage and now there is the subsequent “go against the grain and say that such and such is BS and doesn’t work so I can sell my e-book” fitness industry crap going on.
So there is a backlash against foam rolling right now.
Here’s the long and short. I use one and know LOTS of people who use a foam roller on a regular basis and about 90% of them say that they feel better after using it than they did before using it.
That tells me something…….it works and (most) people should use them.
FYI: Why they work? We don’t know, lots of theories but no definitive answers…they just do.
I prefer the PB elite from Perform Better.
Basically it’s a really small foam roller….
Only its plastic and you can vary the pressure. But it’s the same basic idea…… self massage.
The Stick is really great for travel and areas like the biceps, forearms, neck, shoulders, calves, shins etc. Smaller muscles that because of their size or placement foam rollers are not as effective on.
Now get out there be a good consumer and help the economy out……
Did I leave out anything good?
Tell me about it in the comments…
P.S. NONE of these are affiliate links. I recommend this stuff cause I think it’s cool and works not cause I make money off of it.
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