It’s Christmas season! As we celebrate the season of giving, we know you are on the lookout for the best gifts for the fitness lover in your life.
Don’t worry, we are here to help. We know the essentials every fitness lover needs and we’ve compiled them into one easy list for you. So whether you are looking at gift ideas for a friend, sibling, parent, family member, that special someone, or even yourself - look no further, we’ve got you.
While infrared sauna blankets, adjustable strap heart rate monitors, Bluetooth-enabled headphones, or that top-rated pair of running shoes are great - we want to give you the essentials. The things every fitness lover needs at home.
Just a heads up - some of these items are great for any and everyone. They can be used in almost any space and help provide a great workout, while others are geared more towards home gym owners with a little more space - whether that’s a garage or even a basement.
Alright, let’s find some ideas for Santa starting with #10 - the best fitness gifts.
10) Medicine Ball
Does the holiday season bring a lot of stress into your life? Do you have one of those families?
Well, we have the perfect stress-management gift - the medicine ball. These bad boys are designed to be slammed, thrown, and hurled through the air. All of your holiday stress can vanish with one piece of equipment.
Don’t worry, the benefits of a medicine ball can stretch way past the holiday season. Medicine balls are a great tool for developing power. Exercises like med ball slams, med ball overhead throws, med ball chest pass throws, and many more are great for producing power. Medicine balls are also great for core strength - exercises like med ball situps and med ball rotations. And, if you are really into CrossFit or Hyrox you already know that medicine balls can be your worst nightmare when wallballs come around.
One of the benefits of a medicine ball is you can get a lot of use out of it and they aren’t super big. So, even if you don’t have a home gym, you can store it in your closet or spare bedroom.
9) Rubber Flooring Mats
Okay, okay, hear me out. I know this is not high on the list of most people for fitness gifts, and it seems like a very odd thing to get someone for Christmas. No one has ever gone downstairs on Christmas morning, sat down, and then cheerfully opened rubber flooring mats. Well, at least I don’t think so. Hypothetically, it could have happened, I mean I would be excited.
But anyway, as far as practical gifts go for a fitness lover, this may be near the top - although I did knock it down some spots just because it lacks the “wow” factor.
Rubber flooring mats, though, are some of the most practical gifts for any home gym owner. The biggest reason is the protection they provide to your floors - whether in a garage or basement. Rubber flooring mats give roughly ½” of protection over the top of your concrete floors. This is critical for home gyms - especially ones where weights are going to be dropped - think CrossFit, Olympic weightlifting, or even bodybuilding if you get a little too carried away. Rubber mats protect more than just the floors - they protect you! They are naturally slip-resistant and give you firm footing for whatever your training looks like. The mats also provide a noise-dampening effect, perfect for keeping the kids asleep during the holiday break.
Not to mention, they also look sweet. Adding rubber flooring mats elevates a home gym to a new level by giving it an element of professionalism and as far as fitness gifts go - it's a great one.
8) Treadmill
This one is certainly going to require a little extra space; however, with a little ingenuity and moving around you most likely could fit it in a guest bedroom, garage, basement, or even kitchen if you wanted to.
Okay, maybe not the kitchen. But I mean who knows, a little breakfast, slice of bacon while you run - call it hog and jog? I’m sold.
But in all seriousness, the winter season can be really cold - especially for our friends up north. Now, while most of us don’t enjoy cardio nearly as much as a sick tricep pump, giving the heart an ole’ pump every once in a while is great for our overall health.
So for the fitness lover in your life, you can consider a treadmill. There are tons of options here - I personally love the manual-powered ones, but you will get a similar effect no matter which you use. One of the best ways to ensure you stay committed past the holidays and into the New Year is by setting up systems that allow you to stay consistent with your fitness goals. Having a treadmill in your home makes it much easier to run and walk more often and more consistently - just make sure you don’t forget to add resistance training as well. Stay swole friends.
7) Kettlebells
Coming in hot at number seven, we have kettlebells.
Kettlebells are another tool that any fitness lover can appreciate. You can go as big or as small as you like. What I mean by that is that you can have one moderate-weight kettlebell in your closet and get a great workout at home - you could perform suitcase carries, side bends, goblet squats, goblet lunges, overhead presses, rows, snatches, and the list could go on and on. This is an easy way to give your fitness lover quick access to a workout on days they can’t make it to the gym. We know life happens.
Now on the other hand, if your gym rat has the space, they can have three or four sets of varying weights - giving them tons of flexibility.
I do think there is a better option than kettlebells, so stick around (or skip to the end) and you’ll see my vote. However, the one cool benefit of kettlebells is the ability to swing them. Kettlebell swings are great for your hamstrings, glutes, and core.
6) Air Bike
The air bike is a brutal piece of equipment. If your fitness lover has a love of tough workouts and entering the “pain cave” - this may be the gift for them.
Unlike most bikes you have probably used, air bikes don’t have a damper. They essentially operate with you the human as the damper. When you give a little effort, they move slowly and don’t push you too hard; however, when you start to ramp up, the bike ramps up creating a nasty cardio workout.
Typically workouts on the air bike are short and interval-based (think 10-20 seconds of hard work and then 1 minute of easy work repeated 5-10 times). While it may sound easy, those 10-20 seconds start to accumulate, and suddenly that 1 minute of rest is gone.
While the air bike has the ability to crush you (literally, if you haven’t tried it, you need to), it also can be used for LISS or low-intensity steady-state cardio. This is great for building a strong aerobic base, as well as burning fat. You can hop on the bike and ride for 40 minutes at a pace where you are working but can still hold a conversation.
Now, as far as space goes - it’s best to be in a garage or basement, but it could still fit in a bedroom if that’s your best spot.
5) Resistance Bands
As far as fitness gifts go, resistance bands are perfect for the traveling fitness lover, the pump-chasing gym rat, the Westside Barbell gym rat, and even the stretching and mobility fitness lover.
Resistance bands are awesome. They are lightweight, easy to take with you, and they provide a lot of resistance for their size.
So, if your fitness lover is a big traveler and often finds themselves without access to a gym, resistance bands are great for an on-the-go workout.
They also can be added to exercises like the barbell back squat or bench press as a workout accessory. They can be used by themselves for a sick bicep curl or tricep extension pump. They can even be used for mobility and stretching routines to get that extra bit of resistance and pull you need, great for a wanna be yoga enthusiast.
3&4) Rubber Weight Plates & Olympic Barbell
I feel like these next two have to be a combo. I mean together they make an incredible duo, arguably the best duo in the history of lifting weights.
But separate, they both are pretty useless. I mean sure your fitness lover could knock out some barbell curls or plate lunges, but it’s just not the same.
The two combined - rubber weight plates and an Olympic barbell - create an unbeatable combo.
Disclaimer: this combo pretty much requires a garage or basement gym setup. It’s almost impossible to use a barbell and weight plates effectively in a bedroom or anywhere else. Now, I did say almost - I have seen videos of very heavy clean and jerks literally in a one-bedroom apartment kitchen. Highly, highly don’t recommend it.
Okay, so why is this such an incredible combo? Well, honestly I would have put it at number one and two if it wasn’t for the disclaimer above. What makes the barbell and weight plates unbeatable is their versatility, their ability to progressively overload (just ask your fitness lover about that one), and their efficiency.
Sure you can get strong with resistance bands and kettlebells, but there are limits. Take for instance squatting. Even the special someone you are reading this for will have a more difficult time performing a heavier kettlebell goblet squat than they will a barbell front squat.
This is for a few reasons, but the main one is just simply the position of the load. While both the kettlebell and the front squat place the load on the front of the body, it is much easier to rest the barbell across your shoulders than it is to hold a heavy kettlebell.
Now, this matters because if you want to get truly strong legs, you don’t want your limiter to be your grip and shoulder strength. That would mean your lower body had more it could give but you had to stop because your arms got tired.
Now I’m not hating on the kettlebell goblet squat, it’s an incredible movement; however, there’s a reason they say the barbell is king.
The same applies to resistance bands or even dumbbells. While much more convenient, they won’t allow you to make the same strength and muscle gains long term as a barbell and weight plates.
Trust us here, if you fitness lover has the space, this is hands-down the best gift for improving fitness and strength.
2) Adjustable Bench
Alright, I know I just went on and on about how great a barbell and weight plate set are as far as fitness gifts go but the adjustable bench is next level.
Now, you may be asking, better than a barbell and weight plates - well, the jury is still out on that one. For some people, I would say yes, and of course, for others no. Here’s why. The adjustable bench is small. It can fit almost anywhere and provides a ton of functionality.
It can fit in your garage gym and be a staple of your iron fortress or it can fit beside your guest bed.
Adjustable benches are great not only for bench press but for so many other exercises. The bench opens up a ton of different movements that aren’t available otherwise - some of these include seated shoulder press, incline bench press, incline dumbbell rows, incline shoulder raises, Bulgarian split squats, single-leg bench squats, step-ups, and so many more.
Now, none of these exercises are really possible apart from some other piece of equipment on this list - bands, kettlebells, weight plates and a barbell, and maybe even one more piece coming up next.
So for those reasons, the adjustable bench slides in at number two. I would like to add that I strongly recommend going with the adjustable bench instead of the flat bench for additional functionality.
Your fitness lover will thank you.
1) Dumbbells
Drumroll, please.
The best fitness gift has to be dumbbells. I know what you are thinking, that’s so obvious why didn’t I think of that? That’s okay, I got you.
But in all reality, this is an easy pick. Dumbbells are the best overall piece of gym equipment for all people. Now, here’s why I say that - dumbbells are universal. What problems have we talked about with equipment up to this point? Well, some equipment is too big, and some equipment can give you a good workout but not challenge you enough long-term.
Enter the dumbbells. Dumbbells are small enough that they can fit in the corner of a room. They also can be extensive enough to fill a large portion of a garage gym. As a beginner, you can have a pair of 10 or 20-pound dumbbells, or as a seasoned lifter, you can have a set of 60s and 100s. With dumbbells that heavy, you can challenge yourself for a long time.
Not sure, what size to get, another pro for dumbbells is adjustable dumbbells. These make an awesome gift. They are the size of a large set of dumbbells but can be adjusted (depending on the brand) from anywhere from about 5 pounds to 75 pounds.
Now, when compared to kettlebells you may notice some similarities. As I mentioned above, it will be hard to squat heavy with dumbbells. However, I’ve found that dumbbells are much easier for pressing and pulling lifts, mainly due to the handle position and weight distribution.
So whether your fitness lover doesn't have a dumbbell set to their name or already has ten, they will certainly appreciate an addition to their collection.