5 Budget-Friendly Health & Fitness Gadgets Actually Worth Buying In 2024
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Just because you're trying to stay in shape doesn't mean your wallet has to get fit too. Regardless if you're a gym buff, enjoy long jogs in the park, or prefer working out at home, investing time into your physical fitness should not be hindered by your finances. But more often than not, this isn't the case.
It sometimes seems that every other piece of fitness equipment or accessory is priced exorbitantly, especially nowadays where inflation seems to be seeping into every crevice of our lives. As a result, it's easy to feel discouraged when trying to level up your workout experience. For those with an eye for frugality, there's a whole world of fitness tools out there that won't break the bank. From fitness trackers to massage devices, you'd be surprised by the kinds of high-quality yet affordable health gizmos and gadgets that are readily available.
We've collected five of the best budget-friendly fitness and health items that you can get your hands on, with factors such as cost, versatility, and user reception influencing our choices. More about our selection methodology is explained at the end of this read.
Fitbit Inspire 3 Health & Fitness-Tracker
Fitbit is synonymous with physical fitness. These wearable activity trackers have evolved over the years to provide an exceptional range of advanced tips, tricks, and features that even go beyond fitness tracking. If you've ever wanted to take advantage of Fitbit's offerings but need to save some money, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is an excellent choice.
The Fitbit Inspire 3 offers a lot in a compact package. With features that effectively track everything from your steps to your heart and breathing rate, you'll be able to keep on top of your fitness progress with ease. You can also tap into an array of stress-reducing capabilities throughout your day, including mindfulness sessions, breathing exercises, stress management scores, and more. And once it's time for bed, the Inspire 3 will record important sleep data such as your REM/deep sleep, time asleep, and restoration information, as well as your blood oxygen saturation levels. Additionally, you can access calls, text messages, and various other smartphone notifications once connected.
Best of all, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is currently sold for $99.95. Keep in mind, however, that some of its more advanced features are only available with an additional premium subscription. However, first-time buyers have access to a free 6-month trial to see if this is a route they want to go down.
Wyze Scale
It may not be the most fun part of working out, but keeping an eye on your weight gain and loss is crucial to keeping track of your fitness goals. At the same time, most traditional scales only provide a limited window into our full progress, as they fail to indicate where the majority of our weight is coming from. Thankfully, the Wyze Scale offers a low-priced solution that will change how you see your scale forever.
While seemingly simple in its design, the Wyze Scale is anything but in its functionality. More than another weight scale, Wyze is a smart body composition analyzer that accurately takes note of a wide range of body metrics. Once connected to the accompanying Wyze app through Bluetooth, the scale breaks down your recorded weight by measuring your body fat, lean muscle, body mass, bone mass, body water, and more. You can customize your experience with Wyze with the option to share your insights with other users, set goals, and even sync up with other health apps such as Fitbit, Apple Health, and Google Fit.
While you can find Wyze scales across various retailers such as Walmart and Amazon, both of which sport high ratings from customers, for close to $40, you can currently purchase it directly off Wyze's website for the insanely low price of $23.99. Regardless of where you get it, you'll be hard-pressed to find a smart scale as effective and economical as this one.
Polar H9 Heart Rate Sensor
If cardio is a way of life for you, then you're aware of how important it is to keep track of your heart rate. Fitbits and similar smartwatches provide insight into these metrics, but it may not be worth the buy if you don't have use for the other bells and whistles that come with these devices. Additionally, depending on how well it is strapped to your wrist while moving around, the readings may not always be accurate. If you're looking for a well-rounded way to measure your cardio workouts, then it's worth looking into a chest strap heart rate monitor.
In this case, we're recommending the Polar H9 Heart Rate Sensor. This handy device picks up the electric impulses emitted by your heart to provide the most accurate readings of your heart rate, calorie burn, and more. The information can then be sent to fitness trackers on your phone or smartwatch. It's made to last with up to 400 hours of battery and a water-resistant build while also being comfortable for users with a machine-washable soft strap that fits snuggly around your chest.
While Polar also offers a more expensive H10 option with some added features, most buyers report that the H9 is more than successful at its job. Customers are largely happy with it, owing to its 4.3 out of 5-star rating average on Amazon. You can currently find it on the site for $59.95.
Shokz OpenSwim Swimming MP3 Player
Some fitness gurus aren't satisfied keeping their workouts on dry land. Swimming comes with plenty of excellent health benefits, but it comes with its fair share of limitations, particularly with the types of tech you can bring along on your workout. But now with the Shokz OpenSwim Swimming MP3 Player, not even the gnarliest waves can stop you from enjoying your music.
With an IP68 waterproof rating, this device will continue working under up to two meters of water for two hours. It contains eight hours of battery life overall with various control features such as skipping, play, pause, and more. Unlike traditional headphones, these sit on your lobes and send sound through your ear canal, allowing for increased comfort and awareness of your surroundings.
The downside is that this does not connect to your phone through Bluetooth — or connects to your phone at all. Rather, it's an actual MP3 player that requires you to connect it to your computer and download songs directly into the device. While this might be somewhat of an inconvenience for users more accustomed to using music streamers, it nevertheless has the room to store up to 1,200 songs and supports a wide range of file formats including MP3, WAV, FLAC, and AAC. On Amazon, where it holds a 4.3 rating from nearly 2,700 reviewers, it is currently sold for $149.95.
MoCuishle Shiatsu Back Shoulder and Neck Massager with Heat
After a long day of running, lifting weights, or swimming, it's important to soothe and take care of your body. What better way to do that than with a relaxing massage? Keep your stress levels even lower by getting yourself an affordable option with the MoCuishle Shiatsu Back Shoulder and Neck Massager.
This versatile massager works on various areas of your body to rejuvenate your aching muscles. Equipped with eight kneading massage nodes and adjustable speed settings, you can customize your cool-down session to suit your needs. You can even set it to change direction on its own every minute, with the device itself turning off after 15 minutes to avoid overpowering in case you fall asleep. Aiding its powerful massage capabilities is its advanced infrared heating to further aid in blood circulation and muscle tension.
With its included home power adapter and car charger, your massager can accompany you anywhere, whether in the office, at home, or on the road — although it's perhaps best to not use it while driving. While some users have complained about the design and that its highest settings can feel somewhat painful, it has largely been praised, with a 4.4 out of 5-star rating based on over 24,000 reviews on Amazon where it goes for 49.99.
Why we chose these fitness gadgets
Every item on this list was included after considering several factors. Of course, being a list about the especially budget-conscious, price was a leading factor. Finding quality health and fitness gadgets was certainly a tough task, but we nevertheless managed to keep everything on our list under $300, with the most expensive item being the Shokz OpenSwim Swimming MP3 Player at nearly $150. Within that scope, we aimed to include as wide a range of prices as possible to appease to as many varying budgets as possible.
Likewise, we wanted to make sure that each product on this list gave you the best bang for your buck. While these items all have a sole function, they nevertheless can be applied to a diverse array of scenarios or perform different tasks within their respective category. This was mostly true for smart products like the Fitbit Inspire 3 and Wyze Scale, which can connect to various devices and deliver extensive data. Not all fitness goals or lifestyles are the same and we wanted to make sure that there'd be at least one item on this list that will work best for your needs.
Finally, we ensured that each product was well-regarded by users. Typically with less expensive products, there's bound to be some trade-off in terms of quality or features, but that doesn't mean the item itself should be bad at its job. To ensure quality, all of our picks had high ratings from average buyers and were generally liked by trusted platforms such as TechRadar and PCMag.