25 Best Fitness Gift Ideas for the Athletes in Your Life
With the holidays right around the corner, it can be a challenge to shop for the athletes and fitness enthusiasts in your life. Especially finding those perfect gifts that they’ll actually find helpful for reaching their training goals.
Every athlete is different. Some train to master their sport of choice. Others work out in the gym every day to improve their health and well-being. But there are some things that every athlete enjoys regardless of their training style or sport they compete in.
We’ve simplified your search this year by putting together a list of the 25 best gifts that we know every athlete would love.
Top Fitness Gifts for Athletes in 2022:
Here’s a list of the top gift ideas for athletes that 2022 has to offer. Amazon regularly updates the prices of their products, and with the holidays quickly approaching, don’t forget to click the “Check Latest Price on Amazon” button to check for deals and new prices.
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The prices listed in this article are as of 11/17/2021.
Osprey Duro 1.5 Hydration Vest
The Osprey Duro hydration vest is the perfect running companion for athletes who love to spend time outdoors and on the trails.
Unlike most hydration packs, the Duro’s sleek design keeps it form-fitted to your body. There’s less bulk, less weight, and it even comes equipped with quick-connect magnets to keep the hydration valve secured in place while you run.
With a 1.5-liter water reservoir and zippered storage on the back and front for easy access to phones, keys, and energy bars, they’ll be ready to put on some miles and take their training to new heights.
Jabra Elite Active 75t
A quality set of earbuds are an athlete’s best friend. From podcasts on long runs to the songs that ramp up their intensity in the gym, their earbuds are the first thing they check for on their way out the door.
Not all earbuds are created equal for working out. They need to be comfortable, have excellent sound quality, and most importantly, stay secured in their ears while they train.
The design of the Jabra Elite Active 75t is fantastic. They scanned thousands of ears to come up with a set of earbuds specifically fit for the unique requirements of athletes.
The Jabra Sound plus app also allows them to custom tailor the earbuds’ sound to their own individual hearing profile, making for crystal clear audio with active noise cancellation and a battery life that boasts an impressive 24hr of use.
Trigger Point Grid
If you want a simple way to make an athlete happy, adding a foam roller to their gym bag is a sure-fire way to bring a smile to their face.
Self-myofascial release is an essential part of most athletes’ warmup and recovery. Unfortunately, that usually means grabbing a beaten down and sweat-covered roller from the corner of the gym.
The Trigger Point Grid has found its place as the standard for versatile foam rollers. Its patented design gives it a durable, multi-density exterior that’s lightweight and fits easily in a gym bag.
With a broad selection of colors and sizes, you’ll be able to find the perfect foam roller for any athlete and fitness enthusiast in your life.
JAWKU Speed
Do you know a driven athlete that’s laser-focused on taking their performance to new heights every year?
The JAWKU Speed isn’t your typical fitness tracker. Its design is for one purpose and one purpose only, getting you fast. Instead of tracking steps and calories, it combines multi-thousand dollar speed gate systems with a mobile app that provides valuable speed, agility, and reaction time data into one straightforward wearable.
It’s finally a device that allows athletes to track the progress from their hard work in speed training. And a bonus, it also means you won’t have to be recruited to man the stopwatch for benchmarks anymore.
Ultimate Gym Bag 2.0
The Ultimate Gym Bag 2.0 has everything you need to know about it written into its name. It’s the ultimate gym bag.
Its crowdsourced design takes everything into account. It has ten compartments, purpose-built organization, and features you didn’t know you could live without until you had them.
Most notably for athletes, the Ultimate Gym Bag comes with a full-length shoe pocket to keep your dirty shoes separated from the rest of your gym clothes. And for swimmers and triathletes, there’s even a hidden water-resistant pocket for storing wet gear after training.
But the most impressive feature of the Ultimate Gym Bag is its price. Gym bags can typically run you well over hundreds of dollars. The fact that the Ultimate Gym Bag gets you everything you need at a fantastic price makes it a top gift idea this year.
Bowflex SelectTech 840 Kettlebell
Need a gift idea that helps take your favorite fitness enthusiast’s home gym to the next level? The Bowflex SelectTech Kettlebell packs a massive punch in adding new versatility into their home training.
Kettlebells are an excellent way to build a straightforward full-body training program. The biggest downside has always been getting their hands on (and storing) sets of kettlebells ranging in the weights they need.
The Bowflex SelectTech combines every kettlebell weight from 8lbs to 50lbs into one compact design. All they need to do is spin the dial to the resistance they want, and they have the right kettlebell for every exercise.
It’s also a fantastic way to minimize the space required for home training without sacrificing the quality of their workouts.
Theragun Elite
Once an athlete has a Theragun, they start to wonder how they ever lived without it.
Percussive therapy from massage guns comes with a cascade of benefits. From relieving muscle soreness and stiffness to improving blood flow and reducing stress, massage guns find their place in athletes’ gym bags to use both before and after training.
The Theragun Elite provides the best value for the features it has packed into it. With a 40lb max stall force, 1,700-2,400PPM speed, and QuietForce technology, you have an excellent balance of features, power, and price. Also, you can check out our complete comparison guide if you want to take a look at the other models in the lineup before finding the perfect Theragun for the athlete in your life.
Honestly, you may end up using it just as much as they do.
HECOstix
For what may look like a simple device at first glance, HECOstix are a powerful tool for boosting athletes’ coordination and reflex time. They’ve even found their way into training programs for nearly every professional sport, from the NFL to the MLB.
No matter the sport an athlete participates in, hand-eye coordination, reaction speed, and accurate predictions are at the center of their athletic performance.
HECOstix have three colored legs that spin through the air when you throw them. It forces your brain to jump into high gear to process the information and catch the correct color.
Not only are they an excellent tool for enhancing coordination and reflexes, but they’re also a blast to use and hardly feel like training.
Crossover Symmetry
Solid and healthy shoulders are the foundation for many athletes’ sport of choice. But finding effective ways to train the shoulders and back in a balanced way is a constant chalange.
Shoulder pain is, unfortunately, a common experience in the world of athletics. It often stems from imbalances in the muscle groups surrounding and supporting the shoulders.
Crossover Symmetry is the complete shoulder solution. They took top sports therapists and professional athletes to create a product developed from the ground up to balance, strengthen, and maintain healthy shoulders. It also helps fix the root cause of shoulder problems and prevent injury in the future.
With various mounting options, you can use Crossover Symmetry at home or pack them into your bag and attach them to the squat rack at the gym.
Hidrate Spark Steel Smart Water Bottle
Anyone serious about their training knows the impact that proper hydration has on their performance and recovery. But the biggest challenge is developing the habit of drinking enough water throughout the day.
If you’re looking for a unique gift to take the place of a gym bag full of old plastic water bottles, look no further than the Hidrate Spark Steel water bottle.
The Hidrate Spark takes a new approach to improve hydration habits. Its LED lighting signals them when they need to drink. Then the Bluetooth technology does the rest.
Every time they take a drink, the sensor keeps track of their water intake, then it synchronizes with their phone to provide feedback on how well they’re keeping up with their hydration goals.
Hyperice Vyper 2.0
For athletes already familiar with the benefits of foam rolling, you can help them take their foam rolling practice to the next level with the Hyperic Vyper.
Vibrating foam rollers take the traditional approach to foam rolling but add in high-intensity vibration to amplify the benefits. Compared to regular foam rollers, research has shown that adding vibration provides better results for improving range of motion, oxygen delivery, flexibility, and reducing soreness.
Aside from the additional benefits, vibration foam rollers feel fantastic. And the Hyperice Vyper will quickly replace their standard foam roller in their daily use.
Ice Barrel
The use of cold water therapy dates back centuries. Athletes use it to take advantage of its physical and cognitive benefits that boost performance and jumpstart recovery.
But if the athlete in your life is commonly let down by cold showers or constantly filling up the family bathtub with ice to keep up their cold-water immersion practice, the perfect gift would provide them with a dedicated space for their ice baths.
Ice Barrel created the most straightforward way to approach ice baths at home. It checks all of the boxes for what athletes want for their cold immersion therapy: it’s convenient to use, large enough to remain in an upright position, portable, durable, and looks really slick too.
For the athlete who enjoys a quality ice bath, the Ice Barrel is the ultimate gift that’s guaranteed to be one of the most unique things they’ve ever received.
Garmin Fenix 6 Pro
The athlete that does it all needs a watch that can keep up.
The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro is one of the most advanced multisport watches on the market. With GPS tracking, preloaded topographic maps for hiking, over 2,000 ski resort maps, storage for music, and heart rate with pulse oximetry capability, there’s not much the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro doesn’t do.
Its sport-specific modes simplify training. And its advanced training features supply incredible guidance like grade-adjusted pace and environmentally adjusted VO2 max training and estimation.
For mountaineers, triathletes, or athletes who just love to train outdoors, the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro is a tool they can depend on when they need it most.
PSO-RITE Psoas Release Tool
The psoas is a little-known muscle that can have a massive impact on athletic performance. It’s the muscle that connects your torso to your legs, and because of our modern lives having us sitting down most of the day, a tight psoas is a common issue most athletes don’t even know they have.
A tight psoas is a hard muscle to target and release. But the PSO-RITE is a purpose-built tool that helps athletes release and massage the psoas.
The athletic benefits from releasing a tight psoas are profound. Runners’ strides open up, cutting time off of each time. Mobility and range of motion in the weight room begin to improve dramatically. And most importantly, it helps improve overall athleticism.
You might get a confused look when the gift is opened. But point them in the direction of this article explaining everything they need to know about releasing the psoas – and in a few weeks, they will absolutely love the gift because of the results.
Revbalance 101 Balance Board
Balance is the foundation for nearly all athletic movements. Every time an athlete moves their body, their brain makes lightning-fast calculations and creates precise adjustments in the body to keep them in the correct position.
The Revbalance 101 Balance board helps train all the mind-body systems that improve balance, stability, and coordination.
And as we move into the long winter months, a balance board is a fantastic gift that allows them to master a new skill while they’re stuck indoors. At the same time, those skills will translate to improved balance, stability, and injury prevention in every sport or training that they do down the road.
Airofit Pro Breathing Trainer
Breathing is one of the most important aspects of fitness, but direct training methods hardly get enough attention.
The Airofit Pro breathing trainer helps athletes improve the strength and endurance of their respiratory muscles. Ultimately, this helps create proper breathing mechanics that enhance athletic performance right along with general health and well-being.
Unlike most breathing devices on the market, the Airofit Pro synchronizes with their phone to provide them with valuable feedback, tracking their progress and improvements along the way.
Keenstone Smart Jump Rope
Jumping rope is a massively underrated exercise. It’s taxing as both a cardiovascular exercise as well as for training muscular endurance.
But jump ropes have come a long way since the traditional flimsy ropes of your childhood. Constructed with durable steel wire and PVC with high-speed ball bearings in the handles, The Keenstone Smart Jump Rope counts your reps and even connects to your phone to provide you with training metrics from your workout.
The modern advancements in the humble jump rope make them excellent gifts that bring back the benefits of a simple yet effective exercise for the fitness enthusiast in your life.
NormaTec Pulse
Pneumatic compression technology used to only be available to elite and professional athletes. But thanks to NormaTec, its recovery benefits are now accessible to everyone.
For the athlete serious about accelerating their post-workout recovery, improving circulation to their legs, and maximizing oxygen delivery to their muscles, the NormaTec Pulse compression boots are a top-of-the-line gift to help them reach their training goals.
The NormaTec Pulse 2.0 uses sequential pulse technology that mimics how your body naturally pumps blood to your limbs. This intermittent compression is what helps improve circulation and enables a broad range of benefits.
Aside from the workout recovery and athletic performance effects from NormaTec compression boots, using them is a relaxing, massage-like experience that will quickly become one of your athlete’s favorite post-workout rituals.
Iron Neck
If you have athletes that play sports, especially contact sports, one of your most significant concerns is the risk of injury from concussions.
Iron Neck’s founder, Mike Jolly’s, sole mission for creating the Iron Neck was to minimize the damage from concussive impact in sport from proper neck strengthening.
Concussions aside, the statistics for neck pain are shocking. Over 50% of adults experience some form of neck discomfort, most of them never finding a resolution for their symptoms.
Neck injury and concussion are so common partly due to how challenging it is to train the neck. The Iron Neck solves this problem by using rotational resistance to strengthen the neck and its supporting muscles.
The Iron Neck makes for an excellent and sometimes life-changing gift for athletes in contact sports and even those close to you with neck pain from muscle imbalances.
New Team Speed Agility & Quickness Training Kit
Every athlete wants to get faster and more agile. But the sheer variety of equipment for speed training can make sorting through and finding the proper training tools overwhelming.
The New Team Speed & Agility training kit comes with everything your athlete needs to get faster and improve their athleticism in a straightforward package.
Or if you’d prefer to buy multiple, purpose-built products to spread out through a few gifts this year, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you there, too; check out our complete list of speed and agility training tools for even more gift ideas.
Bowflex SelectTech 552 Dumbells
When used properly, a quality set of dumbells at home could replace an entire gym. The Bowflex SelectTech Dumbells take space conservation even further for your home gym with an innovative design that combines all of your dumbells into one compact package.
The Bowflex SelectTech 552 combines 15 sets of weights into one using a unique dial system. For home gyms, it’s the perfect training tool to keep clutter at bay and rapidly change from one workout to the next.
If the athlete you’re shopping for wants to train at home but doesn’t want to dedicate the space to large, bulky gym equipment. The Bowflex adjustable dumbells are the perfect option for a broad range of full-body training.
Vertiball
Every tool in an athlete’s gym bag has its specific purposes. Unfortunately, when it comes to massaging hard-to-reach places, they often remain hard-to-reach with their typical massage tools.
The Vertiball takes a unique approach to trigger point release by allowing them to mount the massage ball vertically on a smooth surface. This opens up a whole new element of versatility for getting deep relief in those hard-to-reach areas.
The Vertiball makes an excellent gift by giving athletes the power to self-massage even the most challenging trouble areas (without having to recruit you for help.)
BedJet 3 Climate Comfort System
Sleep is the backbone for athletic performance and workout recovery. Luckily, there are ways you can improve the quality of your sleep through temperature and timing.
For athletes, BedJet’s Climate Comfort System supports their natural circadian rhythms by adjusting the temperature of their bed to match their natural core temperature changes during each phase of sleep throughout the night.
Improved sleep quality means that the body can release natural growth hormones that stimulate muscle growth, repair damaged tissues from the last workout, and even break down fat for energy.
Even better, if you get a BedJet for your spouse, you can get an option that splits the temperature control for your bed right down the middle. So you can set your own custom temperature profiles exactly how you like them.
WaterRower Classic Club Rowing Machine
For the athlete that loves a classic aesthetic, the WaterRower Club Rowing Machine gives them the natural rowing feel and sound of being out on the open water, with a beautiful and elegant hardwood design that stands out.
The strength of the WaterRower Club Rowing Machine is in its simplicity. A natural and straightforward design beats out high-tech gadgetry or digital training programs any day for many rowers.
Each component of the WaterRower is carefully selected. The hand-picked wood is chosen based on its engineering properties for sound absorption and durability. And their keen attention to detail and superb track record for support after your purchase makes them a fantastic choice for an indoor rower.
Or, if you think they may prefer a magnetic rower or even a unit equipped with a built in display for an immersive training experience, check out our article comparing the best indoor rowing machines.
NordicTrack Studio Cycle
If you’re looking for the perfect gift for someone serious about getting in shape this year, then the NordicTrack Commercial Studio Cycle is a sure-fire way to bring high-intensity and an immersive training experience right into their living room.
The NordicTrack S22i combined with the iFIT family membership gives them access to a vast library of on-demand studio classes (with access for up to 5 people). It puts control of the difficulty into the hands of world-class trainers to ensure the right intensity workout every time.
Its SMR Silent Magnetic Resistance technology provides a smooth and quiet workout with a full range of resistance and training styles that the whole family can use.
