The Best Tech Gifts for Fitness Enthusiasts

For some people, working out isn’t just about staying fit and healthy. It’s practically a way of life. Working up a sweat releases endorphins and boosts levels of dopamine, resulting in a happier, healthier you. If you know anyone who loves to be active, they’ll be ecstatic to receive any of these gadgets as a gift.

Update, 12/12/22: This article has been updated and expanded with products for the 2022 holiday season.

With a fitness tracker or a running smartwatch, keeping on top of daily health metrics is a breeze. Or, invest in an at-home system that makes it easy to get a full-body workout even if it’s raining or ridiculously cold outside. You can even get a fitness enthusiast something like sweatproof earbuds or a post-workout massager to enhance the overall experience. Whatever you choose, you’ll put a smile on someone’s face and let them know you care about their interests.

For Simple Fitness Tracking: Fitbit Inspire 2

Anyone who’s active on a regular basis needs some kind of fitness tracker. The Fitbit Inspire 2 can touch on all the important tracking metrics, like your resting heart rate, active heart rate, steps taken, distance traveled, and calories burned. You can easily view these stats on the Fitbit app (Android/iOS).

With a feature Fitbit calls Active Zone Minutes, the Inspire 2 measures how many minutes your heart spends in its active heart rate range, helping you reach your fitness goals faster. In addition to Active Zone Minutes, there’s extra motivation to be found in competing in challenges, earning badges, celebrating goal milestones, and connecting with other Fitbit friends.

You can even get helpful sleep tips from the Inspire 2 after it regularly tracks your time in light, deep, and REM sleep. You’ll see a composite Sleep Score and ideas on how you can improve that score. With the fitness tracker’s 10-day battery life, you don’t have to worry about charging it every day, even if you wear it all day.

For Runners: Garmin Forerunner 245 Music

For anyone who loves to run as their go-to exercise, a Garmin smartwatch is the best possible option for tracking key metrics. The Forerunner 245 Music from Garmin is a smart choice if you like running with music, which is pretty much everyone, right? You can store up to 500 songs directly in the smartwatch, or you can sync music from premium streaming services like Spotify.

Then, you can create your own custom workouts through Garmin Connect (Android/iOS) or get adaptive tracking plans from Garmin Coach. Once you’ve got a plan in place, the Forerunner 245 watch provides basic tracking features—heart rate, sleep, steps, distance, calories burned—and advanced running dynamics, like ground contact time balance, stride length, vertical ratio, and more.

Your training status will be regularly evaluated to let you know if you’re undertraining or overdoing it, helping you personalize your workouts. Then, if you have the built-in GPS working while you’re running, the battery can last up to six hours. Or, if you just have the Forerunner 245 in smartwatch mode, the battery can last up to seven days.

Other Smart Fitness Watches

There’s plenty to keep track of if you’re trying to get (or stay) in shape, and a fitness tracker helps a lot in that regard. Whether you want to monitor your heart rate, how well you slept last night, fluid intake, or all of that and more, these trackers and fitness watches do the trick.

• Fitbit Versa 4: With a six-day long battery life, fully water-resistant build, and plenty of smart and health features, the Versa 4 puts an impressive foot forward. You can track general activity levels, sleep, calories burnt, and heart rate all while using the built-in GPS to see your workout map in the Fitbit app (Android/iOS/Windows) and managing your music directly on the watch.
• Garmin Venu: Garmin is the other big player in fitness watches alongside Fitbit, and the Venu is definitely worth consideration. Like the Versa 4, it’s fully waterproof and features plenty of health-tracking options. But Garmin always focuses on in-depth statistics for its tracking and that’s no different here. It offers plenty of data on your sleep, blood-oxygen levels, heart rate, hydration, stress, and general activity throughout the day. The Venu synces with the Garmin Connect app (Android/iOS), which keeps it all stored so users can look at historical data and trends. Besides health stuff, the Venu also features notifications for calls and texts, music management, an internal GPS, and a five-day-long battery life.
• Apple Watch Series 8: Now this is a full-on smartwatch, but Apple has made it clear that health is a priority when it comes to the Apple Watch. There’s in-depth sleep tracking, blood oxygen tracking, fitness tracking, and heart-rate monitoring and all the data is directly funneled to your Apple Health app. This means the Apple Watch is exclusively for those on iOS. And of course, being a smartwatch, you can also use the Apple Watch to manage music, receive notifications, use the internal GPS, and even respond to texts and calls right from the watch. If the Series 6 is a little above your budget, the Apple Watch SE is a good choice that offers most of the same features at a fraction of the cost.

Get All the Helpful Stats: Withings Body+ Scale

A smart scale might sound like a gimmicky purchase, but there’s no smart scale built quite like the Withings Body+ Scale. It’s incredibly accurate and measures way more than just weight, including body fat and water percentage, muscle mass, and bone mass. The data is then sent to the Withings Health Mate mobile app (Android/iOS) via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and you can sync this data with up to 100 other health and fitness apps.

Up to eight different people can weigh themselves and keep track of their personal weight history. The scale intelligently realizes who’s who, so there’s no need to worry about getting weight histories mixed up. With four AAA batteries, the scale can last up to 18 months, depending on how much daily use it’s getting.

Sweatproof Earbuds: Jabra Elite 7 Active

Listening to music is borderline essential while working out. The right song can propel you, motivating you to work out harder. Unfortunately, headphones are bulky and many earbuds fall out when you get too sweaty. With Jabra’s Elite 7 Active earbuds, this isn’t an issue at all.

These earbuds are waterproof, sweatproof, IP57-rated, and equipped with Jabra’s proprietary ShakeGrip technology to make sure they stay in place no matter what while you’re working out. Then, adjustable Active Noise Cancellation and selective HearThrough technology lets you block out the world when you want or let in specific sounds, like voices.

Then, you can fine-tune your hearing profile to your liking with the Jabra Sound+ app (Android/iOS). You can get up to eight hours of battery life with ANC turned on and up to 30 hours with the included charging case.

A Heartrate Strap: Wahoo Tickr

This one is straightforward, but useful all the same. A heart rate strap goes around the chest to track, well, your heart rate. The Wahoo Tickr accurately tracks your heart rate and calories burned throughout an exercise session and sends that data to the Wahoo app (Android/iOS), but it can easily pair with all sorts of third-party apps and devices. The included and replaceable coin cell battery lasts for 500 hours and the strap can be switched between three Bluetooth devices on the fly.

For Deep Tissue Muscle Therapy: TheraGun Prime

If you’re working out regularly, chances are your muscles could benefit from a deep tissue massage. Not everyone can afford to go get a massage every week, or spare the time for it, so investing in a powerful massager like the TheraGun Prime is incredibly useful.

There are four unique attachments you can swap out based on which muscle you’re targeting or how deep you’re looking to go. TheraGun’s Prime massager provides percussive therapy that extends 16mm into the muscle, as well as surface-level massage that extends 10mm. You can control the Prime’s pressure and switch between five speeds via the Therabody app (Android/iOS).

While there’s nothing quite like deep tissue massage with the TheraGun Prime, you can achieve similar results with The Original Body Roller. It’s much more affordable, but it requires more work from you to get the roller in just the right place for optimal massage.

A Calorie and Macro Tracker: MyFitnessPal Premium Subscription

Keeping track of what you eat is important, and MyFitnessPal can help monitor both caloric and macronutrients (proteins, carbs, and fats) intake. The goal is to be as simple and easy as possible, and since you can just scan the barcodes of foods or look up food in the database, it’s extremely easy to add what you’ve eaten to your food diary. You can also save your own custom meals for regularly added items.

The program itself is free to join and you get the basic features, but gifting a premium subscription grants access to personalized goals and coaching, advanced macro tracking, meal plans, recipes, and removes ads from the app (Android/iOS) and website. The premium plan is $19.99 a month, but you’ll probably want to go with the annual option for $79.99 a year as a gift.

For Yoga Lovers: YogiFi Smart Yoga Mat

Many people use yoga to disconnect from the world and technology. But what if you could use certain technology to improve your posture in real-time? YogiFi’s Smart Yoga Mat is capable of just that, providing guidance and suggesting ways to improve your ability, pace, and goals with a personalized workout plan. The mat can measure your overall flexibility, calories burned, and your vitals throughout a workout.

Beneath the mat’s cushy exterior, there’s an AI system that tracks your moves and patented sensor technology that makes all of this possible. The mat is Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled, so you can pair the mat with your smartphone and the YogiFi mobile app (Android/iOS). Through the app, you can follow beginner or expert classes and set your fitness goals.

With your purchase of YogiFi’s smart mat, you automatically get Lifetime Unlimited Access to 20 unique YogiFi classes. If you find that’s not enough, you can upgrade to Premium and get Teacher-guided sessions, one on one consultations with YogiFi teachers, live classes, and more.

An Awesome Traveling Workout: WeGym Rally X3 Pro

WeGym’s Rally X3 Pro resistance band system is perfect if you’re constantly traveling. Sure, you can use a hotel’s gym, but sometime’s they’re not that great, and you just want to be alone while you work out. The Rally X3 Pro system is lightweight, easy to pack up, and provides an intense targeted or full-body workout, no matter what your starting skill level.

The two included resistance bands can attach via a carabiner to your ankles or wrists with straps, or you can simply pull by attaching handles instead. You can adjust the resistance between 10 and 110 pounds to suit your fitness level and get workout inspiration from the completely free mobile app (Android/iOS). There’s over 10,000 minutes of workouts that don’t require any sort of paid subscription.

A Smart Trainer (for Cyclists): Wahoo Kickr Core

Cycling is an enjoyable and effective means of exercise, but if the weather outside isn’t exactly cooperative then the Kickr Core can bring cycling indoors. The Core is a direct drive smart trainer, which means it can automatically adjust for various resistance levels via an app (Android/iOS) and is compatible with virtual riding software like Zwift, TrainerRoad, and Wahoo’s own Sufferfest—in fact, it even comes with 10 weeks of Sufferfest included. It also tracks speed, distance, power, and a lot more.

Non-Traditional Fitness Tracker: Whoop 4.0 Band

Wearing a fitness tracker is helpful for all the health metrics it provides, but it’s not always comfortable to wear, especially at night when you’re trying to sleep. Whoop’s 4.0 band doesn’t look like a traditional fitness tracker and is certainly more comfortable than many other options, but it provides all the essential health data, like skin temperature, blood oxygen, sleep cycles, heart rate, and more.

Just like its non-traditional look, the payment system for Whoop is a bit different as well. For a $30 introductory fee, you get a basic Whoop 4.0 band and access to the app (Android/iOS), where all of your tracked data is stored. Then, you’ll have to pay $30 every month to keep access to the app, where you’ll also get personalized insights, built-in coaching features, and performance reports weekly and monthly.

What’s really cool about Whoop is that you don’t have to wear a band on your wrist if you don’t want to. Instead, you could opt for a different Whoop body garment, like a swimsuit, boxers, a bralette, a compression top, leggings, an arm sleeve, and so much more. You can build up a collection of Whoop garments and easily swap between them every day.

The Totally Over-the-Top

These options are both extremes in functionality and price, however, if you’re looking for some over-the-top options then these both do nicely.

• Tonal: This home gym setup covers plenty of strength-based exercises for both the upper and lower body with its modular arms. But on top of that, the touchscreen allows you to access various expert-led programs that ensure you’re getting the most out of it. Tonal will track various metrics to learn about you and your body, and adapts goals and guidance to it in real-time. It’s an advanced product to be sure, but considering the price that’s definitely what you should expect to receive.
• Mirror: This is a smart mirror designed with fitness in mind. You can view workout instructions from experts, have your workouts tailored to your needs (and Mirror will do this in real-time as you use it), and watch yourself move through various exercises to ensure correct workout posture. You can also use it to play music while you exercise. The Mirror can connect with Bluetooth-enabled heart monitors to provide further detail about your workouts. The Mirror does provide less functionality than the Tonal since it primarily relies on bodyweight exercises, but it’s also about half the price.

Pricey At-Home Systems For Someone Special

If you’re looking for a small, relatively affordable gift for someone who loves all things health- and fitness-related, any of the options listed above will work. But if there’s someone special in your life that you want to absolutely spoil with a brand new, expensive workout system, here are four excellent ideas.

• FightCamp: If you buy the full system, it comes with the boxing bag, a set of gloves, and two smart trackers that provide useful metrics, like how many punches you’ve thrown and your average max speed. Being able to see your total punch count in real-time makes you push harder and get in a better workout. If you already have boxing gloves and a bag, you can purchase the smart punch trackers by themselves.
• Liteboxer: This beat-based boxing system is a fantastic way to incorporate working out into your daily routine in a fun way. While there are more intense coach-led workouts available, Liteboxer offers something called Punch Tracks, which are put to the beat of popular songs. You can convince yourself to hop on for a three-minute Punch Track, and then because it often feels more like a game than a workout, you’ll want to load up another song.
• lululemon Studio Mirror: This system looks incredibly cool, and you don’t even need to attach it to your wall. The mirror comes with a stand, so you can quickly set it up in your room and start working out within minutes of unboxing it. Pair it with a lululemon Studio membership to get access to over 10,000 workouts for you and up to five other household members. There’s cardio, yoga, boxing, and so much more.
• Peloton Bike: Ah, what a classic. There are many interactive at-home workout systems now, but Peloton was one of the first. The Peloton Bike has a 22-inch HD touchscreen, so you can easily follow a trainer-led workout and in-workout metrics like heart rate, output, cadence, and resistance. Plus, with measurements of four feet by two feet, it doesn’t take up much space in the home.