My Top 5 Gym Accessories

Over the past three years I've acquired a lot of gym stuff. I have a small arsenal of home gym equipment for when I just can't make it to the actual gym. Some, like my Pilate's reformer, take up a bunch of wasted space while my dip machine and dumbbells are items I use often. 
Today I'm bringing you my top 5 favorite things I take to the gym to help me get in effective workouts.


 Please note that there are affiliate links in this post and if you a make purchase of the product(s) through these links I get a small percentage of the sale from Amazon. I appreciate your support with a heartfelt thanks!

 My 5 favorite gym accessories

1.Gymboss
  
My gymboss interval timer is great for circuit training. I can set timed rounds or use its stop watch function. It comes in pink, black, gray, and camo. I own the pink model and I will use if for workouts where I am doing a certain exercise(s) for a certain period of time. It is a lot easier than using a clock or a cell phone. It can easily clip onto your waste-band or tank strap. I use it weekly and I have had it for over a year and not yet needed to replace the battery.

2.Garmin Forerunner 405 Wireless GPS-Enabled Sport Watch

I own "last year's model" for the Garmin 405 you can find the newer model here. I love this for my outdoor runs and also use it for my HIIT treadmill workouts to measure my heart rate zones and calorie burn. I own the green model; it is my favorite color!

3.Oxygen's No Pain No Gain Training Journal

I am currently on my second book of this training manual. It has several lined pages with space to record individuals exercises with the rep range and weight used during workouts. I had purchased another training log between my my first and second copy of this manual and ultimately went back to Oxygen's manual. I like the amount of space to record workouts, the size, and girly appeal. I have for the first time in a long time started writing out ALL my workouts for the week on Sunday. It take me under 15 minutes total to do this at once whereas it would take me 15 minutes a day to plan/write out my workout for the day each morning. I found that doing this I stick to my plan and do all or most of my workouts. Here is an inside shot of the manual with one of my pylometric workouts and Gymboss timer.

4.Femme Fitale Fitness Gloves

I own the leopard print gloves, racy I know! I had a guy come up to me in the gym this week and hand me his business card for massage therapy. My first thought, " It must be my gloves." (JUST KIDDING!) These gloves are so comfy and durable. I love the variety of feminine prints and colors. For years I wore a pair of men's small gloves for all my training and hated how bulky they felt. These gloves are thin, but padded well on the palms and help provide a good grip.

5.New Balance Women's Minimus WX20v1 Training Shoe

These shoes were first recommended by Nia Shanks. I started using her training manual for barbell training. They are flexible shoes great for heavy lifting and are engineered to give the benefit of training barefoot. These are NOT for high impact activity like running; they even come with a tag warning against wearing them for high impact and long duration activities. I wear them on the days that I do only lifting and/or pylometric workouts. I found when I wore my Asics running shoes and performed barbell lunges I would become unstable. Likewise when I did mountain climbers my shoes with stick to the floor. Training and doing these types of exercises while wearing the Minimus shoe resolved these issues.