Give gifts that promote fitness
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
If your gift list includes people who are working on their fitness, consider these options suggested by area fitness experts:
Tip from Genevra Petito, owner of Supergirl Fitness in Rochester:
“A weighted vest, five pounds or less to start. Carrying some extra load is such a good thing for your core strength and bone density. I have an eight-pound vest. Those extra pounds are really helping my posture feel upright and the joints from aching, too. Plus, I sleep better.”
Tip from Thai Nguyen manager and personal trainer at Chili Fitness Center, Rochester:
• “I will forever endorse a foam roller. The thing is amazing. A lot of people have lower back pain if they work at desks or are students. I’d use it every single day.
• “Supplements for muscle growth and recovery. Creatine has a lot of great research. It helps with healing by driving water to your muscles to help with recovery and mental benefits. If people lack sleep, it seems to help with that.
• “A pull-up bar you can put into a door frame. You don’t have to actually do a pull-up. You can hang to decompress the back.
• “A biometric block if you want to get more intensive. It has different dimensions on it. You can step up and down or jump on them.
• “I’m a big fan of a heavy bag for $100 that comes with gloves. It can help with dexterity and strength and things like that.”
Tip from Kimberly Whitcomb, one-one-one fitness professional in Fairport and Wolcott:
• “A small dumbbell set. A lot of times, you can buy three-pound, five-pound and eight-pound weights. An alternative to that is wrist and ankle weights, that start at one pound. You can walk and carry extra weight.
• “Exercise bands or resistance bands that are two to three inches wide and eight to 10 inches long that can be used on wrists, ankles and across your thighs. You can do a lot with those at home with the shorter bands.
• “A yoga strap is a long strap so if someone’s trying to stretch they can wrap it around their foot and slowly pull it towards their chest or pull from behind to stretch their quadriceps.
• “Exercise gliders, also known as exercise sliders. They’re little disks that slide on certain surfaces like a rug. There’s unlimited amount of exercises you can do with those, like lunges. You can keep one foot on the ground and the other on the disk and instead of stepping into the lunge, you glide. You can do mountain climbers with disks under your feet so you can run.
• “A portable foot bath. You can put hot water in there and use it to soak but you can use it as an ice bath for your hands and feet which is therapeutic and good for inflammation with arthritis and recovery for muscles.”
• “A seven- to eight-inch yoga ball. You can use it for several different things like compression/squeezing motions, on a wall for certain exercises for your arms or shoulders. You can use it for an air squat or a wall-sit with it between your thighs.
• “A muscle roller. It’s so important to have a balance of exercise and recovery. It’s cylindrical with two handles and overtop there’s a handle. You open it up, wrap it around the thigh and massage all of your leg muscles to get every single muscle. You can incorporate a lot more with it. It’s easier and effective.