‘Must-Have’ Fitness Items You Really Don’t Need

Totally unrelated to anything but it’s TRUE. If they’d added “playing Word Scramble obsessively” this would be the recap of my weekend.

Everywhere you go someone is trying to sell you fancy fitness equipment and the primary tactic they use is that you simply must have it. Something about that word just makes me feel rebellious (or feel like talking in a fake British accent, one or the other). I must have something, must I? I daresay I mustn’t! While there is lots of fitness gear that is fun to have, there are some things that not only aren’t necessary but may actually be doing you more harm than good. Weight belts, for instance. Sure we’ve all seen the ripped guys strutting around the weight floor wearing them so they must help, right? Science says no. (Which may be my all time fave phrase ever. Works for everything! “Do I really need to worry about dingoes eating my baby?” Science says no! “Mom, can I jump off the roof with an umbrella for a parachute?” Science says *$&% no! “How long can I go eating raw cookie dough before being smitten with salmonella poisoning?” Science says…33 years apparently. Not that I’m bragging.) Anyhow, unless you love accessorizing your workout gear with leather and chains — we’re not here to judge — then you can skip the weight belt. While it can help you lift heavier in the moment, new research shows that the long-term effects will make you regret that one-rep max. Read on to see the other items on my “mustn’t” list!

Stuff I wrote…

Fitness

Do You Really Need That? 7 Fitness “Must-Haves” That You Won’t Miss One of the (nastiest) rights of passage at a gym is seeing someone spit into the water fountain. It’s enough to make you rethink hydrating at all until you get home. And now there are a slew of water bottles on the market with built-in filters that promise to keep your water pristine. But do the bottles really clean the water? Short answer: not really but they make it more “aesthetically pleasing.” Yay for pretty water?

Party Rockers in the Gym Tonight: 7 Workouts That Are Better Than Happy Hour One Soul Cycle spin instructor explains: “When we teach the soul party, we might just pop out a few extra effects like a strobe light, or we might spray some champagne on the first row. It’s always just sort of a new bag of tricks.”

No More Excuses: 7 “But” Busting Tips To Get Yours To The Gym What’s stretchy, comfortable, cute, and works great layered? Your pajamas, yes, but also most workout clothes. While I don’t advise sleeping in a full set of thermal running gear, hitting the hay in your sports bra, comfy tee, and yoga pants can be the difference between sleeping in and making it to that early morning class.

Parenting

Real Moms Confess: “I accidentally left my kid” (Hoo boy the comments on this one got HEATED.)

  • “I am an amazing parent, so of course I would never do anything like that. You should, however, ask my mom if she ever left her only daughter at a McDonald’s on the interstate in Indiana.” -Megan
  • “I just knew Megan would not pass up a chance to rub salt in the wound yet again! And it wasn’t just me who forgot her. It was her dad and her four brothers too. Just sayin’!” – Megan’s Mom

Do We Really Need Pink LEGOs? I’m not sure exactly why this particular girly toy out of all the ones out there bothered me so much. Certainly Bratz dolls and the like are much more offensive. I think it has something to do with the fact that Legos were never a “boy” toy in my mind to begin with. They were an equal-opportunity mess, like Play-Doh and alphabet refrigerator magnets.

Safety Helmets for Toddlers: Smart or Overprotective? Somewhere, right now, my mother is laughing herself silly as she waves a picture of me as a toddler walking barefoot through a playground with an asphalt surface and rusty metal equipment with so many exposed nails they had a tetanus shot dispenser right next to the hand sanitizer. Of course I’m kidding: There was no hand sanitizer. My mom once accused me of trying to bubble-wrap my kids. Which of course is ridiculous, because then they’d suffocate. Or choke on it. Or get poisoned by the carcinogens. Otherwise, I might have.

Should hospital freebies for moms be banned? Let’s be honest: The swag is one of the best things about having a baby-after the actual baby, of course.

Kids in PJs in Public? When I saw the pics of Katie following Suri in her jammies and holding her blankey, I really wanted to give her a mom-to-mom fist bump. Stars – sometimes they really are just like us! (And sometimes they’re not. Suri was flown into New York for the celebration on her own private helicopter.)

The Cure for Bullying. I have friends going to see the documentary Bully this weekend, and even though I’ve been invited, I don’t think I’ll attend. It’s still too painful. Without going into all the awful details – kids used to hawk loogies into my hair and empty their lunch trays in my bag – suffice it to say the shame, pain, and grief from being bullied have stuck with me well into adulthood.

Should the Government Be Allowed to Ban Kids From Doing Chores? Sometimes when my kids are being recalcitrant about cleaning their rooms, I threaten to send them to a farm so they can learn what real chores are like. But thanks to a new federal law my idle threat just got a whole lot more, well, idle.

Schoolyard Bullying Drives 8-year-old to Attempt Suicide Michelle Koch’s daughter, just eight years old, took an overdose of her sister’s medication after other children at school pushed her down, called her names, and tormented her for months. The girl was in the hospital hovering between life and death for a week as her anxious family tried to figure out what would drive such a normally happy little girl to do something so extreme.

Trend That Needs to Die: Kiddie Couture “Children are the new must-have accessory” explains the Times, so it only makes sense then that you should accessorize these accessories in style. With everything from Lanvin tulle smocks to Burberry diaper bags, I have to wonder if any of these people have met an actual child before. (And no I don’t count the children used in their ad campaigns – any kid that can work that long in front of a camera with a bunch of strangers and still manage to smile like a daisy has got to be a robot.)

How Far Would You Go To Help Your Child Get Elected Prom Queen? One Texas mom’s answer: A pink rotating billboard encouraging people to vote for her daughter to be prom queen. The teen, Brandy Day, reported feeling shocked and a little amused that her mom actually went and did it but her mom remains unapologetic saying, “Families feel like it’s a little too much or over the top for one night, but then again, it only happens one time in your child’s life.”

What fitness “must-have” item do you think is a “mustn’t”? Anyone else have a good “I left my child” or “I got left as a child” story?

 

 

12 Comments

  1. Oh my gosh. That story about the 8 year old is so sad. I was bullied at school and I remembered the dread of going each morning. Poor thing.

  2. Bully is amazing. and amazingly haunting and heartbreaking.

  3. If you read the original proposed regulation, instead of the news “summaries” you’ll see that it was NEVER intended to apply to parents making their children do chores, – this is a direct quote from the original US Labor Department press release in 2011

    “The department is proposing updates based on the enforcement experiences of its Wage and Hour Division, recommendations made by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and a commitment to bring parity between the rules for young workers employed in agricultural jobs and the more stringent rules that apply to those employed in nonagricultural workplaces. The proposed regulations would not apply to children working on farms owned by their parents.”

    http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/whd/WHD20111250.htm

    • Thanks for the clarification on this. I worked on a farm owned by a member of my church when I was about 12 years old and when I look back at the kind of work I and a lot of other neighborhood kids were doing (and for such a pittance, too!) I am kind of astonished that the owner was allowed to get away with it for as long as he did.

      I will say that the experience gave me loads of respect for migrant workers, as I know first-hand what an insanely tough job that is.

  4. I remember getting pink Legos for one of my birthdays as a kid, and let me tell you, that was the best birthday ever. I had had some primary colored ones before (that I adored), but I absolutely loved the pink set (beloved toy + favorite color = pure joy). Of course, I’m the same person who works in construction and bought a hot pink power drill last year…

    While I do think it’s a little weird that there are apparently Lego dolls with backstories or whatever, I don’t think it is because Legos were never for girls before, but rather an attempt to cater to girls who want some dolls to go with their building blocks.

  5. Alyssa (Azusmom)

    OK, if ink Legos get girls interested in building, then I guess they’re not so bad.
    Personally, I think kids in their PJs are adorable. As are kids in full Halloween costume min May, like the li’l Batman at Trader Joe’s the other day.
    Fortunately I have not left my kids anywhere (yet), but have had some REALLY scary moments when they’ve wandered off. (Love those two comments, BTW!!!)
    Bullying terrifies me. It has to stop. Period.
    Keep the newborn swag coming! We will decide for ourselves whether we want to nurse, bottle feed, or both. But maybe leave the Jenny Craig coupons out. Seriously, not cool!
    Finally, I have never used a weight belt. Silly me, I thought they were for back support, lol!

  6. Those weight belts and things like that were intended for people competing in weight lifting competitions, and they look like nutjobs wearing them. But, that is the stuff that people pay for. I can spend $20 for an easy fix?!?! Bring on the Shake Weight. (FYI – My gym just purchased a shake weight and when I saw it sitting on the table with the other legit weights – kettlebells and such – I wanted to cancel my membership. STUPID.

  7. I am so with your fitness ones! LOVE! No weight belt here…. even when I lifted heavy – rarely used it. I got it cause the guy I was training with said I should have it – nope – really did not need it…

  8. Thank you for listing sports recovery drinks in your article! I drink them, but only after I’ve been running for 2+ hours and have effectively drenched every item of clothing I’m wearing in sweat (or if I’m in the middle of an endurance event). I see people wandering around the gym with Gatorade or something similar in their water bottles and I am like WHYYYYYY?

  9. To me my filter Camelbak is a complete must-have. I hate all tap water so it keeps me hydrated when I’m away from my Brita filter. But that could be so many years of living in CA. I’m ready for all tap water to taste awful.

    As for leaving your kids I remember one time when my brother was about 2 or so. My grandparents were visiting and we went out to dinner. My mom and grandma and I walked out ahead of my dad and grandfather and both groups thought the other had him. When my parents were both at the car and realized no one had him they ran back to the restaurant. He was walking on the benches in the waiting area as happy as could be! The hostess thought it was hilarious. I still tell that story to harrass all involved parties 🙂

    In my case, what bullying I experienced (which thankfully wasn’t much), was actually worse when I was younger. As a 4th grader some kid kicked me in the head on the playground. My parents made a huge deal of it but I don’t think he ever got in trouble. My brother though was bullied so badly in elementary school that my parents moved him to another school. The school told them that unless staff directly witnessed it no one would do anything.

  10. I can relate to your painful feelings about the movie, Bully!

    My life’s dream is to be faced by that “bully” who doesn’t know when to back off!

    “Aren’t you the guy who took my cookies in first grade? I’ve been hoping to see you again” 🙂