My favorite exercise gear

There’s a bit less than a month left of the weight-loss competition I’m participating in.  I’m going to be bummed with it’s over–I love working out with my team and having such a great support system has been a big help.

Above are a few of my favorite pieces of gear.  This post isn’t sponsored; these are just things that I bought myself and like a lot.

Polar FT4 Heart Watch – This comes with a transmitter that you wear on a chest strap.  When you set up your watch you enter your height, age, weight, etc… and it calculates your heart rate and calories burned.  I like being able to track how hard (or not hard) I’m working. And it also syncs with the fitness machines at the gym which is nice if you want to keep your heart rate at a certain pace.  The only con I’ve found is that my model doesn’t have a stop watch function which would be useful for running. 

Enell Sports Bra – I always thought I hated running but it turned out I mostly hated being busty and running with a crappy sports bra. I remember doing laps in junior high with my forearms pressed against my chest to minimize the bouncing–ugh!  This last time when I wanted to get into running I researched options for full-busted women and the Enell brand kept coming up so I bit the bullet (they’re about $60) and ordered one.  It’s not the prettiest bra but once it’s on I’m locked and loaded and can run and do jumping jacks without any uncomfortable bouncing. Love, love, love.

Compression Sleeves – Since I’ve started running my shins have been bothering me and these help a lot. A friend at the gym who runs marathons recommended them.  I’ve only had them for a week but I wore them when I ran 5k with my team last Saturday and afterwards my shins didn’t bother me like they normally do. I actually enjoy how they feel and would happily wear them all the time but even though mine are a sensible black I don’t think I’m quite ready to go down that road yet 🙂

Ice cup – If my shins are bothering me after a run I’ll take one of these and use the edge to massage out any knots.  It hurts like a mother but really helps. To make one, fill a styrafoam cup with water and freeze it.  Next, take a knife and score the cup all the way around the middle and peel off the styrafoam up to the line–voila! A giant ice cube complete with a insulated handle so your hand doesn’t get cold.

So there you go.  These are a few things that have been useful to me in my get-in-shape efforts.

How about you?  Do you have any fitness tips or gear that you love?