Fitness Trail: 10 great gift ideas to improve health

One of the best gifts you can bestow upon your family and friends is the gift of fitness, and the gift may be packaged a number of ways depending upon the individual you are giving to and their specific fitness goals and objectives.

The following 10 great holiday fitness gifts include a broad spectrum of cost and uses and are truly the gift that keeps on giving 365 days a year. As always, prior to beginning any exercise program, please consult your physician.

Fitness Gift No. 1 — Heart rate monitors are excellent fitness gifts for just about everyone on your holiday gift list. These range from $60 into the hundreds of dollars in cost; however, the primary features should include heart rate, caloric expenditure and allow the user to store fitness data so this data may be referred to when tracking their progress. Do a little due diligence before purchasing one to make certain that the face of the device may be read easily and only has the features that your recipient requires. Visit www.heartratemonitorsusa.com for a broad variety of choices.

Fitness Gift No. 2 — Resistive tubing and an assist-a-strap to anchor the tubing is inexpensive and extremely versatile. Tubing may be thrown into a suitcase for travel workouts, utilized at home to provide the user with supplemental workouts when it is not possible to make it into the gym on that day. There are dozens of exercises that may be performed with tubing to improve muscular strength. Visit www.powersystems.com for simple fitness tool on-line purchases.

Fitness Gift No. 3 — Foam rollers are excellent fitness gifts. These, or any of many rolling products, are utilized to perform self-myofascial release (i.e. SMR) and vary in price depending upon the product (i.e. we sell the foam rollers for $20.00). Visit www.powersystems.com for on-line purchases or stop by Mountain Life Fitness to pick one up for your loved one. I purchased five SMR sticks for a client last year so they could give those as gifts to their family!

Fitness Gift No. 4 — Health club or gym memberships are also wonderful gifts. You may buy gift certificates for the entire membership, or pay for the membership yourself. This is a popular choice for loved ones to give to one another so they may workout together.

Fitness Gift No. 5 — Personal training, massage therapy or nutritional consultation gift certificates are also terrific gifts.

Fitness Gift No. 6 — Give exercise DVDs or downloadable apps and programs. Prior to choosing one though, chat with your fitness professional for suggestions to ensure you are purchasing the best quality choices.

Fitness Gift No. 7 — Stability balls are one of my favorite fitness tools to give as gifts. You may include an instructional DVD or downloadable app with the ball.

Fitness Gift No. 8 — Weight lifting, Pilates socks or cycling gloves and other lifting/cycling/running accessories and gear are great stocking stuffers.

Fitness Gift No. 9 — A gift card to one of the major fitness attire designers/providers such as Nike Air, Under Armour, or Lululemon is a safe bet providing your recipient with the flexibility to choose what they like and will fit their body comfortably.

Fitness Gift No. 10 — Create a basket or workout bag with all of the above-referenced goodies for a fun filled fitness holiday mega-gift.

Jackie Wright is the owner/manager of Mountain Life Fitness in Granby. She may be reached at her website at www.mtnlifefitness.com and her email at jackie@mtnlifefitness.com