Your Essential Guide to Fitness Gifting: Meeting New Year's Goals With The Right Tools

Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness , nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body . Hello , hello , welcome back to another episode of your strongest body , betsy . Here Today we are talking about gift giving Now .

I thought it'd be a fun departure to do a little best gifts you can give a fitness enthusiast or someone who wants a little support in their New Year's fitness and nutrition goals . That means for somebody else or for you . Gifting yourself is a wonderful way to help encourage that motivation , give you that little spark to keep pushing .

These things that I'm going to suggest , I think almost entirely , are pretty practical . They might be something that just provides a little additional support and or excitement to the whole thing . I am a big shopper . I have passed it on to my eldest daughter . We are shoppers . I love buying stuff .

I thought this would be a fun activity and I think sometimes it can be just so useful to look at what you have ahead of you in terms of your fitness goals and say is there anything I need to help me support this ? I oftentimes have clients or folks who are interested in their fitness asking me about what I would recommend them getting .

That's what I thought I'd cover today . I want to say from the very beginning that I am not sponsored by any of these products , except for I am an official athlete with Bodybuildingcom . If I do reference that , I just want you to know that I do have that affiliation .

If I talk about those products , I'll share my code so you can get a 15% discount With any of these other things . I do not have an affiliation . I'm honestly just telling you a same thing with the things from Bodybuildingcom . I'm going to tell you what I like and you can make choices around that .

Typically , I'm not going to talk all that much about brands . I thought I'd just talk about kinds of categories of things that you might want to purchase for yourself or for someone . If you know of someone who has big fitness goals or is interested in fitness or nutrition , these are some things that you could get them . Let's get going .

Is the Oprah's favorite things still a thing ? I don't know ? I was going to do Betsy's favorite things , but I don't know if that reference is too outdated . Does she still do it ? I know that Ellen DeGeneres did something like that at some point .

Again , I'm not really getting into brands here , so I'm just simply going to share some things I think you could use , starting with number one . The number one thing that I think is most useful for people in making a purchase for their fitness goals are their shoes .

Everything that has to do with lifting starts from the ground up and how our feet are in communication with the ground and help support our whole body is really , in general , helpful , for our can sort of make or break maybe not break , but has a real impact on what the rest of our body is doing and how we can successfully lift and move weight in ideal form .

So investing in some shoes that you use specifically for training can be helpful . Let me tell you about what those shoes . Now , there are lots of brands of shoes that have lifting style shoes . We'll talk about two different kinds of shoes . There are shoes that are designed specifically for training that offer a pretty flat sole .

A flat sole can be very beneficial for your ability to have three specific points of contact with the ground and be able to really feel the ground and have a steady footing . These shoes are and those three points of contact I'm talking about the big toe and sort of ball of the foot , the outside of that ball of the foot and then the heel .

If you can picture it in your mind , it's a bit of a triangle . That is gonna be really helpful for support for your whole body . These flat shoes are also helpful because oftentimes , if they're made for lifting , they have a wider toe box . What we want to be able to do is feel all our toes on the ground .

Many athletic shoes that are made for fashion and or other things , they have a narrow toe box . So what you wanna look for is a little wider toe box . Depending on the shoe , they may have some ankle support .

Some shoes are reinforced on the sides for rope climbing , but if we're talking about basic lifting , we just really want , ideally , a more flat surface and space for your toes Space for your toes . Shoes that can move around for you , that can flex and bend pretty easily , are gonna be helpful . You wanna look for a training shoe .

Now there are some shoes that are designed for cardio and lifting . Things that are designed for cardio and or running specifically are oftentimes going to have a lifted heel . For a variety of different kinds of workouts more metabolic conditioning or just kind of conditioning in general that elevated heel can be really helpful .

If you're going to do a lot of lifting , you might want that lower position .

I will note that Olympic lifting shoes are designed with an elevated heel for squatting getting to the bottom of a squat more easily but they have a hard heel and they have a lot of structure , so they don't have a lot of necessarily the same sort of bend and flexibility that these running shoes have .

If you want more of an elevated heel shoe that transitions for running sometimes you can find a shoe that is going to be for all kinds of training you have to figure out what is best for your feet because some people need arch support . Some people have specific inserts that they need .

What I would suggest rather than just picking any kind of shoe , I would see which shoe is best for you . If you know that you can have that flat shoe , go for that . If you want to speak to your trainer or a podiatrist or someone who is like looking at your foot .

If you're a runner and you want to do a gait analysis at a specific shoe store , you could do that . What I'm suggesting is investing in a shoe that's going to be right for you and then only using it for training . So try not to use it in your day-to-day life . Use it as your training shoe . That's a great thing to get Shoes for your training .

You could also get two different kinds of shoes . You can have a shoe that's more for your running , more for your conditioning workouts , and you can have a shoe that's more for your lifting workouts . You can kind of determine what is best for you . Next on the list are workout clothes that you love wearing .

I am not going to tell you what kind of clothes to love wearing . I'm simply going to say fine clothes that fit well , that are made of nice fabrics , that lay in a way on your body that you like .

I want you to think about moments in your life when you go and you have extra confidence and you feel for lack of a better term put together and you feel confident and can approach things with a level of tenacity and drive because of how you're presenting yourself Then sort of see if you can translate that into your exercise .

Now , you don't have to make it a fashion show . I love to make exercise a fashion show , but that's like an interest area of mine , it's a hobby and I like getting dressed and it helps improve my workouts .

It doesn't have to be that for you , but feel , notice moments when you feel good in your clothes and how that can help you , your overall self-efficacy and your overall belief in yourself .

Simply being able to wear clothes that you don't have to fidget with and that you don't have to worry about Clothes , that you're not stressed about sliding down Clothes , that you don't care if the shirt moves in a certain direction , clothes that feel like they're gonna stay put for you , clothes that are going to wash well and don't hold athletic odors Things like

that . Investing in some nicer things , even if you have less of it , things that you like wearing can help improve your mood , your willingness to get up and get going and remember , if you're in a gym , you're going to be surrounded by mirrors .

If there's something that you can do to Support , however that's going to make you feel your best , you may want to do that Plus , I think just athletic wear is often times , if you find an athletic wear brand that works for you and that is designed for what you're doing , you are going to like how it feels and how it moves with the kind of movement that

you're doing , and this can change over time . But something that you like to wear can really help support how you do in your workouts Doesn't have to be a fashion show , but something that you like With oh and I should mention , with any of these things you know , since I'm not dropping like specific brands or anything .

If you have any questions about something for yourself or for somebody else and just want to shoot me an Instagram DM at foster underscore strength or an email , I can make recommendations or I can send you stuff that I have used and you can determine whether it's good for you . I just wasn't going to go through a list of brands here .

Another great gift is protein powder . Now , as I said , you can certainly work to get your daily recommended dose of allowance of protein in your diet with from whole foods , meaning foods that aren't powders or supplements . You certainly can do that .

It tends to be difficult for people , especially for folks who have fitness goals and need a little bit more protein . There are different kinds of protein . You can get whey protein , casein , vegan or plant based protein whatever works best for you .

This is where I will say if you use the code Betsy at checkout at bodybuildingcom , you can get 15% off of your protein powder . But you can get protein powder from a lot of places . I get my protein powder from bodybuildingcom . I use a vegan protein , so it's a plant based protein . As I've said before , maybe I've been shared too much on this podcast .

I don't digest way well , hurts my tummy , not a good fit . I found that plant based protein has worked for me and I have a great tolerance for it and you don't have to use a protein powder as a supplement . But if you are looking to get more protein , this is an easy way and you can mix it in with . I mix mine with tart cherry juice for recovery .

I also mix creatine monohydrate in mine . That's what I have together , but sometimes I've made shakes . If you're on my 12 days of fitness list , you got protein shake recipes . So that's just something that is a low cost purchase that can help support you , and I've had clients say to me I feel better when I have a protein shake after my workout .

I don't quite know why , but I feel like the recovery is better , and I have to say that I do know why , but I also . It does work . It does work . Now , everybody's body is different .

These nutritional needs are different , so if you have any questions , you may want to consult a physician or a registered dietitian , but that is a great way to get that protein in . My next one is Tupperware . Now , if you are familiar with the lifting or gym community , you may cringe at this .

You might be thinking about those , like in my long time in the gym , people who are bodybuilding or prepping for a show bring in a Tupperware that's like a couple ounces of tilapia and plain rice and then just pour hot sauce on it and then put it in the microwave because it's like a great prep meal for their show .

And they've got like six Tupperwares and every two hours they're having their tilapia . I'm not suggesting that you change your whole lifestyle and eat food out of Tupperware . I do think , by investing in some nice containers that you can help with your meal prep things that you could take with you to lunch I'm , in particular , thinking about .

I actually just like to pack up my protein powder .

So I am not a huge leftover person , nor prepared food ahead of time person , which is kind of wildly inconvenient and a little I would say bougie , or just it would be so much better if I ate more leftovers , or it'd be so much better if I could prep ahead of time , but by the second day the textures of food that have like been sitting in the refrigerator

do not work for me . If it works for you , you are probably a couple head steps ahead in the game , because you can really plan your meals out , package them , prepackage them in Tupperware in the portion sizes you'd like and use them .

I don't really do that often , so that isn't a great example , but I do use little Tupperware or little glass containers for my protein powder , and that is so I don't spend an arm and a leg on a protein shake at the gym , but also because I want to use my powder and then I bring it with me and I can have it pretty immediately .

If I am not planning ahead of time and if I am leaving my food plan up to chance , that is where things go awry , because I get hangry , I don't quite know what to get , I'm out in the world and I'm like just starving . That's where I eat things that , like , aren't all that satisfying to me .

I eat things that don't help me hit my the goals that I have , and then I'm just frustrated . So I use those little containers to take my protein with me so that , no matter what I know after my workout , I'm gonna get my post workout protein in in the quantity that I want .

And then , if I don't have time to go home and get food , if I've got to rush around to school pick up or dance drop off or whatever , even if I have to grab food on the go , at least I know I got the amount of protein I wanted from my protein shake and I just have it with me . Saves money , saves stress , all of that .

Next , lifting straps , if you're not familiar . So lifting straps are something that go around your wrists and then you can wrap them around weights . What they do is help support your grip so that you are not working as hard with your grip . Oftentimes , for people , grip strength is a limiting factor .

Now there are many goals where we would actually want to challenge your grip and you would want to work your grip if you're doing pull-ups or rows or things . I want you to strengthen your grip , so . So a lot of times you're gonna be working without your grip .

This is the same concept behind a lifting belt and I'm not listing a lifting belt here because I would rather people get really strong without a belt and then maybe work up to it , so it wouldn't be one of my first things .

But if you have , if you're doing lower body exercises and you're holding weights and it's very easy because the weights that you can't hold aren't heavy enough to challenge your lower body you can use the lifting straps to help with the grip and then you will actually be able to hold weights that challenge your lower body .

So so lifting straps , I think , are probably a little bit I'd put them a little bit ahead of like a lifting belt or anything , because a lifting belt is also about core support and spinal support and for most people who are average fitness clients , I , as a trainer , want you to build a lot of that strength without that extra help .

Grip , grip strength is really important , but we can work on it and we can get support for it . So that's another thing . I would suggest getting a foam roller lacrosse balls Now , if you've heard me talk about this too .

I do not believe that foam rolling or lacrosse balls or like any sort of it's called self-mo myofascial release are the Are the answer to feeling better . But we do know that with some of that applied pressure we can get a neurological response that allows us to Relax a little bit .

If we're not pressing too hard , we can kind of target in some ways rather than going to get a whole massage some of these sticky spots and it can be a great opportunity for some recovery work . Let's say , you're watching TV at home at night , you can use a foam roller , you can use a lacrosse ball .

Again , these aren't going to be the answers necessarily to like I'm feeling pain , I'm just gonna use this lacrosse ball , but for some sticky spots , for some things that are Erksome for a day or two , that just need a little bit of attention , a Little bit of that massage from the ball or from the foam roller to help you release , to help you relax , those

can be really great tools and it just sort of um helps to reinforce that need for recovery as well . And Lastly , I'm gonna say sleep Support . So sleep support , I mean a great pillow for you , a great body pillow for you or support for your knees , good comfy pajamas , a nicer mattress .

Remember , as I've said before , that sleep is so Important to our recovery . We need to prioritize it if if we are going to want to train at a level that Creates the adaptation we want . Sleep helps with our stress management , with our nutrition , with all of that .

So if we can prioritize that and let's say , you aren't crazy about buying anything that has to do with fitness or nutrition , what if you treated yourself to Improving your sleep quality so that you had more energy to do these kinds of things ? So I would look into Um ways you can do that . That's actually gonna be a priority for me .

I need some sort of between the legs knee support . Outside am a side sleeper . Have been able to Figure out another sleeping strategy , but something like that , while it doesn't seem like it's directly connected , can play a huge role .

So , as I said , I didn't really go through brands here , but if you have any questions about kinds of brands or things You've seen on my stories or Any sort of Specific recommendations , I'd be happy to make them . Just send me an Instagram DM at foster underscore strength or send me an email , betsy at be foster strong Com .

Again , I'm so grateful that you are here as we're wrapping up the year . We got lots on the horizon for 2024 and I want to thank you so much . If you feel like leaving a rating or a review , that would be great . If you want to share the podcast , that would also be great .

If you want to build your strongest body , keep listening , keep doing the work , and I'm here to support you in every way . Go , build your strongest body and I'll talk to you next time . Bye .