Great Gifts for Bodybuilders and Weight Lifters
Bodybuilding is an addictive sport. Even casual weight lifting can be habit-forming. If you are looking for a gift for a bodybuilder or weight lifter in your life, check out this list. It’s got some great gift ideas that will please any gym goer. These bodybuilding presents are great for any budget.
Pull Up Bar
This is the first item that I ever bought when I first got into any sort of fitness, long before I picked up a dumbbell. The pull up bar is great because you put it above a door in your house, and every time you walk by you can do a pull up or two. Pull ups are a compound exercise which will work most of your core and upper back. You can get some great results from a pull up only workout. I would say that for the upper body, a pull up or chin up is the single best exerciser you can do.
A pull up bar is especially good as a gift for someone who is not a complete gym rat, but hopes to be. Or someone who is just starting to workout on a regular basis. The pull up bar is the first piece of workout equipment I owned, and it was what got me into weight lifting. I still have and use my own pull up bar on a regular basis. It hangs from a door frame in my house and I use it when I pass by it.
It’s also fun having a pull up bar in the house because guests always want to see how many pull ups they can do, or if they can do a single one. I’ve been surprised how many people want to use my pull up bar when they come over to hang out (pun intended).
The Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar is cool because you can do other exercises beyond just the pull up on it. You can use it to do push ups and dips. It’s got a whole list of workouts that you can use it for. Personally, I mainly use it for pull ups. I’ve had this bar for about six years now and it’s lasted great this whole time.
Read reviews and buy it on Amazon.
Foam Roller
So it took me a while to actually try a foam roller out. For the longest time I thought they were silly and wouldn’t actually do anything for me. Eventually I saw enough giant-ass dudes at the gym using these and I gave one a try. **It was life changing! A foam roller is a tool used for self-myofascial release. This is a fancy way of saying that a foam roller is a tool used to give your muscles a massage and release muscle tightness in the process. Basically, a foam roller is used to give your muscles a massage.
Foam rollers loosen up muscle tightness and release pressure points. They help with flexibility issues, soreness and recovery. They can be kind of painful to use, but it’s a good kind of pain, like a intense massage.
A foam roller is a great gift for a bodybuilder or weight lifter. It will help them with their flexibility for workouts such as the squat and will help them recover from strenuous lifting sessions. If a bodybuilder you know does not own one of these, this is probably the best gift you can get them. Like I said, using a foam roller is a life changing experience.
If the person you are looking to gift already has a foam roller, you may consider getting them a new one anyway. Because they are used post-workout, foam rollers tend to collect sweat and over time can start to smell and get disgusting. A new foam roller can be a great gift. I tend to be one of those people who does not spend money on something if I feel like I don’t need to. So I will totally continue using a nasty, smelly foam roller for longer than I should. I would be very appreciative if someone gifted me a new foam roller at that point.
A foam roller is like gifting someone a personal massage, anytime they want one. I found that the TriggerPoint GRID Foam Roller has the perfect balance of strength, hardness and durability in a foam roller.
Read reviews and buy it on Amazon.
Ab Roller Wheel
A serious bodybuilder or weight lifter is going to be using their core muscles a ton. Exercises such as the squat, the deadlift, the pull up and even the bench press all benefit from a strong core. Nothing works the core out as well as an ab roller. This is a safe exercise that is great at giving someone great looking abs.
Using an ab roller is probably the single best way to get powerful abs and a strong core.
Traditionally, sit-ups and crunches were common core and ab workouts, but these exercises are bad for ones spine and should be avoided. The ab roller is safe and more effective than sit-ups or crunches.
An ab roller take up little room and can be great for someone who does not have enough space for a whole home-gym. Having a personal ab roller is also great because you look a little silly when you workout with it, and it always seems a bit embarrassing when you collapse in a ball of pain from holding the rolling position for too long. It’s worth it when you can show off a rock-hard six-pack.
An ab roller is going to be seen as a thoughtful gift. Weight lifters do not focus on their core as much as they should. They will appreciate that you are looking out for part of their body that they neglect a little more than they mean to.
A good ab roller does not need to be anything too fancy or expensive. The Valeo Ab Roller Wheel is a great choice and isn’t expensive.
Read reviews and buy it on Amazon
An Inspirational Poster
If it seems like the bodybuilder or weight lifter in your life already has everything they need, consider getting them motivated to continue on the path they are on. A great gift for a bodybuilder is going to be a poster of one of the world’s most well known bodybuilders. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the obvious choice and there are a ton of posters with Arnold on them. But also consider more modern bodybuilders such as Ronnie Coleman poster.
A motivational poster can do wonders to get someone into the gym every day, and they will thank you for helping to inspire them. I read Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography, and he had tons of bodybuilder posters all over his walls when he was a young man in Austria.
If a poster is not your style, consider a good audiobook as a gift. Audiobooks are great because they can be listened to while working out. I always spend my workouts trying to develop my mind by listening to audiobooks.
Bluetooth Headphones
A good set of wireless bluetooth ear buds will make a great fit for anyone who is active. I’ve ruined numerous wired ear buds by accidentally snagging and pulling on their core while working out. It sucks and it ruins the rest of your workout. If you destroy your existing wired ear bud set during a workout you are stuck listening to the music the gym is playing! The horror!
Seriously though, wireless ear buds are super useful for anyone who uses an audio player while working out. Hhusali makes a set of ear buds that are specifically designed for those who go to the gym. These ear buds have a very secure fit, they have noise reductions and are resistant to sweat and water.
Read reviews and buy it on Amazon
Weight Lifting Shoes
You might not know this, but there are specific shoes made just for weightlifting and power lifting. They help with form and prevent injury. The key in weightlifting shoes in a hard, thin sole. A lot of weightlifting shoes are specifically made to help those who are not fully flexible to squat with better form. A lot of weightlifters have trouble reaching a full range of motion due to a lack of flexibility, and these shoes really help with that.
I really like the Adidas brand of weightlifting shoes. They tend to be the best designed and also the most durable, so they last a long time.
Weightlifting shoes tend to be a bit pricey, so not everyone is willing to buy a pair. This makes them a great gift. Weightlifting shoes are the kind of accessory that help with weightlifting, but are not 100% necessary, so a lot of people avoid buying them for themselves. When you start using them you realize just what you were missing.
Even if the bodybuilder in your life already has a pair, a second pair won’t hurt. After all, they are likely sweating a bunch when they are at the gym and their shoes are going to get gross. It’s nice to be able to switch between pairs of shoes, letting one pair dry while the other is in use. It helps with smell and bacteria growth.
An alternative to weightlifting shoes is a pair of Converse shoes. The classic Converse shoe is nice to wear out on the street, but is also a favorite shoe of weightlifters and bodybuilders because it is similar to a weightlifting shoe. Converse shoes have thin, hard soles, which are key for good weight lifting. You can read more details about why weightlifters love Converse shoes.
Read reviews about my favorite weightlifting shoes here.
A Food Scale
All bodybuilders are constantly on a diet. One of the most famous saying in bodybuilding is that ab muscles are not made in the gym but in the kitchen. What this means is that to have a good looking stomach it is not about how many sit-ups you do, but how little belly fat you have. Belly fat hides your abs and you will never have a six pack, no matter how many sit-ups you do, if you are unable to get rid of your belly.
Any serious bodybuilder or weightlifter is going to be counting their calories. This is true of those who are trying to gain weight just as much as for those who are trying to lose weight. To accurately know how many calories they are eating, a bodybuilder will need to weigh their food. A kitchen scale is essential to knowing exactly how much of a certain ingredient or food someone is eating.
A digital kitchen scale costs about ten dollars, and is a super useful gift for anyone who wants to watch what they eat.
Getting a gift for a bodybuilder or weight lifter can be difficult, especially if you do not lift weights yourself. A good gym will have just about everything that they might need. And if they have a home gym, they probably already have all the weights and bars that they need. I am sure that the above gifts would be very appreciated by the gym-rat in your life.