SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome to Practically Fit, Real Fitness Over 40. I'm Jen Chamberlain.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

And I'm Alex Johnson.

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And today we're gonna have a little holiday fun talking about our best and worst fitness gifts. And we're gonna share some listener stories of fitness gifts gone wrong. But first I want to offer a word of warning here. Fitness gifts can be a minefield, especially if you're buying them for your spouse, for your girlfriend, for your boyfriend, significant other. You don't want to send the wrong message here.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Yeah, I think uh people should be very careful on the fitness gift front. Uh like just if you're thinking about a fitness gift, I would avoid any sort of gift that's related to weight loss. That just seems like common sense, right? And to be clear, it's not something I've ever done. I am not that aloof, but I'm just saying that could really backfire on you. Like, hey, I bought you this package of weight loss shakes.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

That yeah, not a good look. Not a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

I don't think that would go that would go over well. Uh clothing, I think, is a minefield as well. Um, you you notice with clothing, people's preferences are so personal. Like, I'll give you a great example. My mom gets me sportswear every year. She knows what I like. She knows I like Under Armour. She's pretty safe buying me the brand Under Armour, but I've heard lots of stories about clothing gone wrong or like weird outfits or weird fitness apparel that just doesn't work. So um yeah, you gotta be careful with the sportswear as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Yeah, your mom also just really has great taste, too.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

She bought me a fitness shirt one time that I that I really liked. But um, yeah, absolutely. So the other thing I want to say is we don't have sponsors, so we're not gonna endorse any particular product, but we will give you some practical tips for giving a great fitness gift. But uh let's start with some stories. Alex, have you received any fitness-oriented gifts and which ones stand out?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Yeah, absolutely. Um, so I got, you know, being that um my wife and I are very active, we tend to get each other things that might fall into the fitness gift category. So last year she got me my best fitness gift ever, which was a new bike computer. Uh I got this for Christmas last year. Yeah, it's a Wahoo Element Room. It's very cool. So the the the biggest selling point is that it had a bigger screen than my older uh computer. So uh my eyesight is not what it used to be, and it makes things a lot easier to read, especially when you're on a bike. You don't really want to be straining to read something that could be dangerous. So uh this was an amazing gift. These these computers now are amazing, they do things that you would not have imagined. It's like having GPS from your car, but just on a bicycle. So she's gotten me a lot of cycling themed gifts since we've been together, like clothing and socks. So, yeah, that that was my favorite fitness gift so far.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

I want to say the um bigger screen really goes with the whole idea of fitness over 40, too, right? Because I gets a little more challenging.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

I also want to point out that I got you, you know, I thought a pretty good fitness gift. It was a mug that was made from a bicycle chain. It was good, that is, until you tried to put it in the microwave.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah, that was a so I didn't realize it. I thought it was like just a like a motif or a manufactured look. No, it was an actual, it was actually made out of bike chains. And uh I put it into the microwave at work, and uh very quickly I stopped. I didn't damage anything, didn't damage any equipment, but it did look like um it was very there were a lot of sparks coming out.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

So yeah, I didn't realize that was at work.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

That's uh those are real that's a real bike chain on that mug.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

So uh you know nothing anyway. So I have a couple of best fitness gifts I want to talk about. Uh the first one is the one I got, and the other one's one I gave. So the one I got is really super simple, and it is uh running socks, actually. I want to talk about socks here for a minute. So for runners, socks can make such a big difference. I'm really lucky that I don't get blisters, but a really good pair of running socks, it can give you a little bit of support and cushioning. And you know you have good socks if they are actually marked like left and right. But um, that said, I'm too cheap to spend money on good socks. So I tend to buy athletic socks from uh that come in like a six or eight pack from a big box store.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Yeah, and you know what's funny to me about socks is growing up, socks was like the the big joke gift. Nobody wanted socks. Everybody, oh, you got me a bag of socks or socks have come a long way in the past 20 years, and socks are cool now. I mean, people talk about their sock game. Like somebody complimented me last week on my sock game at work, and I was like, wow, that I feel almost like a millennial, which I'm not, but it was that was very cool. So, yeah, socks can be an awesome gift, and like you said, for running, um, they make a big difference. The the ones that are shaped for your left and right foot and the padding and everything. That's an excellent gift recommendation.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Oh, totally, and they were so great. I came to love that pair of socks, they became like my lucky socks. I wore them at every race until I just eventually I think wore holes in them. So that was a really great gift and super simple and just really thoughtful. My cousin's also not a runner, so that was really nice. She does a lot of other fitness stuff, but not running. The second gift I want to talk about was one I gave, and I guess it would be up to the recipients to decide if this was a good gift, but I thought it was. And this is a little bit of a story, so bear with me. I have to go way back in time to um three jobs ago when I worked at a newspaper and I had just gotten into running big time. So I was doing half marathons and experimenting with marathons, and um I had some friends at work at the time who were also just getting into running, you know, I've always kind of I I've been called a fitness pusher, actually.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Wow. A pusher.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yeah, I like to think of myself as a fitness advocate, you know, or uh accountability buddy. But you know, I always enjoy sharing fitness with other people. So I'd gotten a couple of my friends into running at work, and some of us would run together, or if we live too far away, we'd just talk about our runs. This all culminated at the end of the year. And so in Dallas, I was working in Dallas at the time, and their marathon has always been in December. So we all at the end of the year decided to sign up for the five-person marathon relay. And I would say three of the five of us were brand new runners. And for the relay, you're running anywhere from six to eight miles. Um, so pretty good challenge for people who just started running. We were so excited about this that we decided we'd encourage each other by showing up at every uh relay point, all of us, even the ones we weren't running, just to cheer each other on, right? So that was great until you know we we hadn't really factored in traffic. So I I ran the first leg and then I ran the second leg with one of my friends. And then we get to the third relay point, and our relay partner's not there. Um this is actually our friend Travis. He got stuck in traffic. We this was before everybody carried a phone, so we didn't know. We're just standing there, it's cold. We're like, do we keep going? Do we wait? And then all of a sudden we're about to just leave and keep going on our own. And here comes Travis, like sprinting across the field and saves the day. So it was really fun. It was just a great group activity. And uh after that, since that was you know in December, right around the holidays, I bought everybody in that group a book called Born to Run by Chris McDougal, which um I to this day I still think is a really inspiring book. And I thought it was a nice way to cap that experience that we all had.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

That's awesome. I have first my learning from that is that one person's advocate is another person's pusher. But also, I'm curious to know how Travis' pace was after he sprinted across the field or parking lot to get to the relay point. I feel like the last thing you want to be doing before you start a leg of a race is sprinting. So that's it. Oh, yeah, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Who knows? We left after that. We were like, see ya.

unknown 8:05

That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

But yeah, it was really fun. I also want to say I got in a little bit of trouble um during that whole thing with um one of my friend's wives. He uh he actually lost a lot of weight running, and she thought he looked better before you started running. So she was not real happy with that outcome. But still, uh it was a nice experience, and I thought it was a good gift to cap the year. Um, but you those are good gifts, I think, at least. So let's talk about some bad fitness gifts.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Yeah, absolutely. My my my wife and I were talking about this earlier and trying to brainstorm around like worse fitness gifts. And so it turns out uh the worst fitness gift I've had, she actually gave me um right when I moved in, which was uh, I think I had brought this really sad yoga mat with me from my house when I moved in. It's one of those really cheap ones from like Target or somewhere, very thin. Um, and you know, the my old dog had like peed all over it. It's still kind of there's just like a you know, kind of an underlying scent of urine as you did the yoga.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

So that's that's real sad.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

She's like, yeah, I'm gonna get you another yoga mat. So uh she made the decision to buy one from the store Five Below. And for those who are not familiar with that store, um, it would be um exactly what the name of the store implies. Everything is below five dollars, uh especially for for those of you who are listening outside of the US. So uh that's a very low, low price, five dollars. So uh she bought me a yoga mat from Five Below, and uh I gotta say, I've had better yoga mats.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

It was really surprising.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Very fit, not a lot of support. Uh, might as well have been doing yoga on just cement. Uh uh at that point, I would like I was I started recently stacking it onto like a camping match on my yoga platform, and then then she she felt bad. She went and bought me a much a much better yoga mat, like a really nice one. So she made up for it. But yeah, I don't recommend buying yoga mats on discount because you do want a certain quality to that uh to that type of equipment. But that was definitely my worst fitness gift.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Nice. Well, uh I you know, we actually solicited some stories from listeners, and we got one, um, not not on the platform, unfortunately, but on social media. On uh Facebook, my Facebook uh friend told me this story. This is a true story, but I'm not gonna use her real name. We'll call her Casey from Texas. And she says that her worst fitness gift she actually got a cat yoga playbook. So let this kind of sink in for a minute. It's it was actually just sort of like a cat fitness book, to be more clear. So it actually showed photos of how to use your cat, yes, your cat, to do all kinds of different exercises like lift your cat over your head, do arm crawls with your cat. And the photos were of a real person with a really big cat.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

That's I've heard of goat yoga. True, true, true. And we're and as we record this podcast, you can see my cat behind me, Jim, right there. The cat and the dog are lounging behind us here. Uh but you know, actually, I would say, you know, clearly that book was not from for KC, but I could see people who would be really into that because people are really into cats and they want to do everything with their cats, right? So you could theoretically do I you could feel very connected, like the life force. You could feel the life force as you do yoga with your cat. Um, I'm not sure though.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Oh, you Alex, I I can see your point. I can see people who would be very into that. I find it really hard to think of cats that would be very into that.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Right, right. I mean, because as if you have a cat, you know, they don't always some cats really don't like being picked up. And they have tiny little knives in their hands. So I think that's where you're going with this. That maybe maybe doing yoga with an animal with extremely sharp claws is not conducive to your safety.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Not the best, not the best life choice, I don't think. I'm just guessing I don't have cats, though, you know. And so, but anyway, and the funny little add-on to that story, she said she actually re-gifted it and at some point was gifted it back again.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

So So the person that she gifted it to gave it back to her?

SPEAKER_00 12:29

It somehow made its way back again. So I guess you could say that book had nine lives.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

So maybe she she gifted it, she gifted it to somebody, they gifted to somebody else, and then that person re-gifted it to her.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Wow, that is the sign-filled episode from hell. That's it. That's a really amazing story. So, Casey, thank you for sharing. We we appreciate the story.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Okay, so we've heard some of the good, the bad, and the ugly, but in all seriousness, for people who are into fitness, a fitness-oriented gift can be really thoughtful. So let's talk about some practical tips for giving fitness gifts.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Let's do it. Let's jump in.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

All right, so I think first of all, do your homework. So, especially if it's a sport that you're not into. So, for example, like I said, the socks were just a really great wedding gift. Um we have a friend who got some sort of very uh fancy wedding clothes that maybe weren't the greatest gift. Not as practical, let's say. So if you know people who are into the same sport, not not necessarily the recipient, maybe ask them, you know, what's a good uh gift for a winner, what's a good gift for a cyclist? Um they could give you some really great suggestions. I would say also keep it simple and exchangeable. Um fitness clothes. I mean, Alex, talk a little bit more about clothing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Yeah. Uh there's just there's little margin for error there. I mean, especially it's tight fitting. It's yeah, and then I also feel too like people are very sensitive about sizing in general. So you could you could inadvertently, I mean, I'm not I'm really not trying to be funny. Like I'm trying to, you know, when you think about people in different body types and so forth, um, you could you could offend some people. Um I yeah, I last week we were talking about this, uh, me and a few a few colleagues actually. And it it's it's like some some females, for example, prefer like a men's hoodie and some want the female fit. Yeah. Uh so there's a lot going on there uh in terms of in terms of sizing, yeah. I think and and definitely if you are going to go that route, um, you know, include a gift receipt.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Yeah, even me personally, like if you're I I have always worn small t-shirts, which has been like a running joke, Jen, right, between us and a few other people we know. And just recently, I think like I need a medium now. Uh so yeah, it's it's you really clothing, uh just I I would say no. I would just say no. Don't do that unless you're 100% sure.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Exactly. Yeah, no, I have to agree with you because um, you know, I like to wear clothes that are, I guess, my actual size, but in fitness clothes, sometimes I might so like something a little bit bigger. Like I don't want something so uh skin tight, you know, that sort of thing. So uh yeah, so keep it simple. And gift gift receipts are your friend. I think that books make great make great fitness gifts.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Um Right, right. And you're not gonna upset anybody with a book, right? Who's anti-reading?

SPEAKER_00 15:27

And you can learn so much. So, for example, you know, Alex, you sent me Run Less, Run Faster, and um I actually paid that forward by sending it to a running friend. The great thing is you can order if you know the person's address, order on Amazon, it goes straight to them, and it's just like a nice little gift. And if you know, books are so exchangeable, reusable. I actually went to a white elephant party this weekend that was all books. It was so fun. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Yeah, and now what do they so at your party were there people who was it all print or were there people who were digital only? And then how do you because you could also gift on you know a Kindle or whatever devices, iPad. So it's a very versatile gift, right? Like you give it in print, you can give it digitally.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Yeah, books are great fitness gifts. Um, and then also be inspirational. So it doesn't even have to be a gift. I I I'll say one of the nicest gifts that I ever received was an encouraging card from my friend Linda. And uh so this is I think the first time I ran the New York City Marathon, and she timed it so it got there right before the race, and she was just, you know, encouraging me, and her confidence was really more than I had in myself. So it just it meant the world to me.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Oh, that's great. Yeah. So if you know somebody who's trying to get into fitness, you could be inspirational with the gift, for example, or even again, kind of combining your last two, you could give them a book that's related to something that would inspire them in their fitness journey. That's that's awesome. Um, so I have one additional rule to add, Jen, to your four rules, and that's just simply don't buy gimmicky fitness gifts. Oh, yes. So, you know, stuff that you see on TV, like don't buy somebody a shake weight. I mean, that that has to be one of the dumbest products I've ever seen. And there's so many of these things that are advert I see them on YouTube, on on television, if people still watch television. Uh you know, all these like as seen on TV items. Uh, I can you think of any of those that are just terrible that like kind of illustrate my point?

SPEAKER_00 17:28

No, I mean there's uh it made me laugh because there's like the always the as seen on TV section, like in the drugstore. Stay away, just stay away.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

You don't don't buy your fitness gifts at a drugstore in the United States, like or if you're in the UK at boots or whatever. Like, don't don't that's not where you're gonna get high quality fitness products. Uh and if they're endorsed by a personality, that's always usually a bad sign as well. Also, like these very simple exercise systems. Uh I mean, there's some really cool stuff you could buy people, like you could buy people um like a uh resistance band set, right? It doesn't need to be like endorsed by a personality, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

That's usually a bad sign. Yeah, some of the like more simple, multi-purpose ones, like a jump rope is a great gift. Yeah, I use mine all the time. Take it in.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

So that's you know that's a great segue to the final part of this podcast. Let's talk about our ultimate fitness gifts. So you go first. Tell let's share with the listeners what your ultimate fitness gift would be for 2022 here.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

My ultimate fitness gift would be a uh like stand-up punching bag. I won't use a brand name, but I think that would be amazing. I would use it every day, but unfortunately, I don't have room for it in my tiny apartment in San Francisco. But if I had room, that would be just awesome.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

That's a really good gift, yeah. I I think that's great. Uh and I'll give you mine, which I think could fit into your tiny apartment. Uh and it gets back to kind of the concept that you just mentioned, which, like as a jump rope, um, you know, keeping it simple and keeping it basic and giving something to somebody that would be really utilitarian and helpful in their fitness journey. I would say one reasonably sized kettlebell. Uh you can do so much with a kettlebell, right? You could do some of these more specific kettlebell exercises like the swing. It kind of combines strength and a bit of, you know, almost cardio training. You you get into that anaerobic state. So I love the kettlebell. If you're traveling, if you're driving somewhere, you can throw it in the car and take it with you. Um, you just have to kind of judge based on the person's fitness level. Do you want to get them one that's on the lighter side or one that's a bit more a bit heavier? Uh, if that's again, you kind of have to know the person where they are on their fitness journey. But I think like for my ultimate gift for 2022, just one kettlebell is like an awesome portable fitness gift uh that could reap rewards for for anyone, especially if they're doing the home gym thing.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

That's a great one. I will say, I have your old kettlebell, Alex, and I have I've lived uh I've moved six times in five years, and I took it with me every time.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Exactly. See, it's a it's a great so that there you have it, our ultimate fitness gifts for for this holiday season in 2022. A stand-up punching bag and one reasonably sized kettlebell.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

So there we go.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

There you have it, our treatise on fitness gifts as we head into the holidays here. Uh so looking forward to the next episode, Jen, uh, we're going to be talking about this magic number of 10,000 steps. You hear it everywhere. It's connected to you know fitness gear marketing. Speaking of gifts, you know, a lot of people are gonna be doing smart watches and things like that for uh the holidays. So yeah, 10,000 steps. If you got your your fitness tracker, your smartwatch, you want to be counting your steps. So is 10,000 steps really the magic number? Is it a marketing ploy? We're gonna dig into the research and find out. Really excited to talk this one through next week. Um, as always, if you have comments on the podcast, head out to practically.fit. Uh, would love to share your stories on future episodes of the podcast. Uh, but that's it for this week. We appreciate you. Please head out to practically.fit if you have time. Subscribe to the newsletter.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

And until next week, remember that fitness is for everybody.