The Best Fitness Gifts of 2010

The great news is, if you are looking to give the gift of fitness this year, you’ve got more options than ever. Here are a few of my top picks for 2010.

The Best Gift of Fitness for the Whole Family: Nintendo Wii. While Microsoft and Sony have come out with movement-based videogame interfaces for their gaming systems, the original is still the best in regards to sheer volume of games available. Games for the Wii can range from family-fun, to kids fitness, to seriously hard-core workouts and fitness tracking. This is a great gift for the family, and really is a gift that will keep on giving as you spend time together challenging each other throughout the year. (About $199.)

The Best Full-Body Workout for the Small Space Dweller: TRX Suspension Trainer. This thing is genius! Invented by a Navy Seal and made of high-quality, military-grade materials (beware imitations), you can use this deceptively-simple strap to get a full-body, functional workout. The best part of a “functional fitness” workout is that you load through more than one muscle at a time, working more of your body and building important aspects like core strength and balance. Whether you are buying a gift for a serious athlete (Drew Brees uses TRX) or someone who just wants to look like one, TRX is the way to go. Bonus, the TRX folks are always coming out with new workouts and challenges, so this is a gift that won’t get stale. (Packages start at about $180.)

Get everyone in the festive spirit with these healthy holiday family activities.

The Best Fitness Gift for the Gym-o-phobe: P90x or TurboFire. These fully-loaded packages include nutrition plans, workout guides, and more than 10 different workouts in each program. It’s like having a line-up of gym-quality classes and a nutrition consultant at your fingertips without having to face the crowds at the gym. P90X is great for the weightroom junkie, and TurboFire is great for the cardio-and-lift-class queen. These might look spendy at $110ish for the program, but for the number of workouts you get (plus the eating programs, etc.) I guarantee the recipient of this gift will get a year’s worth of fitness vs a $20 video that only provides one workout.

The Best Fitness Gift for a Busy Mom: Time! That’s right, folks, if you are looking for the perfect gift for a busy mom, the best one is often free. Whether it’s agreeing to take over dinner duties so mom can fit in a run, or setting up a kid-share with your best pal so that you can both get your workouts in, get creative with your computer and printer and make a busy mom’s holiday with a package of gift certificates that give her some time for herself.  Alternately, many gyms also sell packages of vouchers for visits to the in-gym childcare center.

Check out these healthy gift ideas that everyone will love.

The Best Gift for a Multi-Sport Outdoor Enthusiast: Garmin Forerunner. With models starting at $130, the Garmin Forerunner line is the best “wrist-top” computer for monitoring outdoor activities like hiking, running and biking (they even make one that can go with you on a swim, as well.)  It’ll track and record your heartrate, distance, pace, time—it will even save nifty satellite maps of all the places you’ve gone on your fitness adventures.

Heather Hawkins is a certified personal trainer and fitness nutrition coach based in San Francisco, CA, who works with clients over the internet through FitLifeSF Coaching and blogs at FitLifeSF.com. Please send your fitness and nutrition questions to Smurf@FitLifeSF.com for use in future blogs.