If you’re on the hunt for fitness gifts that truly stand out, you’re in the right spot. These options go beyond building strength – they prioritize convenience, versatility, and efficiency.
Whether you’re buying for a seasoned fitness lover or someone new to working out, these innovative products will round out and complete the exercise experience, at home or at the gym.
Ideal for your favorite over-50 trainee, these tools are practical, effective, and budget-friendly, all priced under $100.
Let’s explore the top 10 fitness gifts under $100!
#1. Lifting Straps
Lifting straps help you secure your grip on the bar, especially during heavy lifts like pulldowns, rows, and chin-ups. They reduce the reliance on grip strength, allowing you to lift heavier weights without worrying about your hands slipping.
By taking some pressure off your grip, straps enable you to better focus on the muscles you’re training rather than your grip strength. This delays fatigue to the primary working muscles so you can complete more reps or heavier sets.
They are particularly helpful for individuals with weaker grips, small hands, or conditions like arthritis that make gripping challenging.
(Note: While lifting straps offer many benefits, it’s important to balance their use with exercises that build grip strength to avoid over-reliance. Integrating grip-focused training into your routine ensures overall strength development.)
#2. Loop Resistance Bands
Loop resistance bands can be used for a variety of strength training and rehabilitation exercises for every muscle group.
Lightweight, compact, and super affordable, you can use them anywhere. They are a great option for keeping up with strength training workouts while traveling.
These bands are available in various resistance levels (light to heavy), allowing for progressive overload as strength improves. Each resistance level has its own color to prevent confusion.
Incorporating loop resistance bands into your routine can complement your strength training and enhance overall fitness.
#3. Wrist/Ankle weights
Wrist/Ankle weights are flat cloth or vinyl covered weights that attach to your wrists or ankles with a Velcro strap. They can be used to progress your weights when using dumbbells in smaller increments than the pre-set dumbbell weights allow.
For example, going from 25-pound dumbbells to 30-pound dumbbells represents a 20% weight increase, and that big a jump might not allow you to get enough reps with good form when you first try the 30’s.
Using the 25’s plus 2-pound wrist weights puts you at 27 pounds, a nice intermediate jump of only 8%.
As you get stronger, you could add another 1-pound wrist weight to make a total of 3 additional pounds, which will bring you to 28 pounds that you’re lifting. As your strength increases it’s then an easy transition up to 30 pounds.
If your budget only allows you to get one set of wrist weights, I recommend 2.5 pounds (and make sure you get two). If you have a little more to spend, I’d say get two 1-pounders and two 2-pounders; that way you can go up in 1, 2 or 3 pound increments.
#4. Weight Lifting Hooks
Weight lifting hooks offer several benefits that can enhance your performance and safety during strength training.
They enable you to lift heavier loads by removing grip limitations, especially during pulling exercises like pulldowns, shrugs, pull-ups, or rows. In this way, they can help break through strength plateaus by letting you train with heavier resistance.
An added benefit is they can help reduce calluses, blisters, and skin tears caused by friction with bars or handles.
The wrist straps are adjustable to any wrist size, so they’ll work for men and women.
Knowing your grip won’t fail can give you the confidence to push your limits safely and reduce the mental distraction of worrying about holding onto the weight.
#5. Doorway Pull Up bar
A sturdy doorway pull up bar lets you strength train your back, shoulders and biceps by doing pull ups with various grips. I recommend either an underhand (palms facing you) grip, or a parallel (palms facing each other) grip.
This type of pull up bar does not require you to screw brackets into the doorframe, like the one I had in high school. You simply place the cross piece over the top of the door frame, and the padded ends of the bar rest against the sides of the door frame. When not in use you just take it down and store it away.
This type can also be removed from the doorway easily and used as push up bars – much more comfortable on the wrists when doing pushups.
#6. Magnetic Add-on Weights
Magnetic add-on weights are rubber-coated magnetic weights that will stick to metal or cast iron. They come in various shapes and sizes, including 1.25, 2.5 and 5 lbs.
Magnetic add-on weights offer several benefits for weight training, especially for those looking to fine-tune their progress or gradually increase resistance.
They easily attach to metal weight plates, dumbbells, barbells, or machines, enabling their use across various exercises.
All users from beginners to advanced athletes can benefit from them.
Beginners can exercises properly & avoid injury by safely increasing weight in small increments. Advanced users benefit from micro-loading by breaking through plateaus they may have been stuck at for years.
Lightweight and easy to carry, they’re a great addition to home gyms or for taking to fitness centers.
These benefits make magnetic add-on weights a practical tool for anyone focused on gradual improvement, personalized workouts, or overcoming strength plateaus.
If you’re using machines you can just adhere it right to the weight stack of the machine you’re using and go up in weight 1 1/4 pounds at a time.
#7. Grippers
Hand grippers are excellent tools for increasing grip strength, which is essential for everyday tasks like opening jars, carrying groceries, or holding objects securely.
Strong grip strength also benefits athletes in sports such as weightlifting, climbing, pickleball, tennis, and golf, where a firm grip is crucial for better performance and injury prevention.
Hand grippers are small, lightweight, and portable, making them an easy and convenient tool to incorporate into daily routines, whether at home, the gym, work, or while traveling.
#8. Fractional Weight Plates
Fractional weight plates are barbell plates that weigh one and a quarter pounds and have a hole big enough to fit on an olympic barbell, olympic-end dumbbells, or plate-loaded machines such as hammer strength machines.
They are a fantastic tool for weight training, offering numerous benefits for trainees at all levels. They’re particularly useful for older adults recovering from injury, or advanced trainees who are stuck at plateaus, where gradual progression is key to safety and effectiveness.
These plates are an excellent investment for anyone serious about optimizing their training and achieving long-term results.
#9. Fitness Step with Risers
Fitness steps were first popularized in the 1980’s when group “step classes” were all the rage. They are also a valuable strength training aid, especially for home training.
You want one that has removable risers so you can alter the height of the step, and you also want to make sure you get the “health club size”, which is 42.5 inches long, rather than the regular size which is only 29 inches long. This extra length will give you much more versatility.
The step is useful for leg strengthening exercises such as the wall squat with swiss ball – the step is placed under the dumbbells to lift the weights from comfortably, and you can simply place them on the step when you’re done, which keeps you safe.
The step can also be used for calf raises, either with both feet for beginners, or one leg at a time while holding a dumbbell for more advanced trainees; and for raising the feet to make push ups more intense, as pictured above.
#10. Online Strength Training Programs
Online strength training programs offer a wide range of benefits for individuals seeking convenience, flexibility, and variety in their fitness journey. Here are the key advantages:
- Available anytime, anywhere, on your computer, tablet or smart phone.
- Way more affordable than in-person personal training.
- Choose the time, location, and pace of your workouts to fit your lifestyle.
- Pause, rewind, or replay videos to learn and perfect techniques.
Online video workout programs are an excellent solution for individuals seeking flexible, engaging, and accessible workout programs tailored to their age group and personal goals.
