If you had $200 to spend on fitness, what would you spend it on?

I have $200 to spend on fitness. I don’t spend them.

Relatable, but I want to spend it once.
- If there’s a secondhand store near you, I highly recommend that. A lot of people will buy, say, an exercise bike, and then sell it because they don’t use it. End result: you get something that’s practically new, but much cheaper!
- Maybe a fitness club / gym membership? Or depending on where you're at maybe a consult with a personal trainer or something.

A sturdy, used, road-oriented bicycle. $200 won't get anything too fancy, but cycling is a low-impact activity that -- given the right places to bike -- is meditative, improves cardio, facilitates independent exploration, and also happens to double as transportation.

I specifically say "road oriented" because I don't want to necessarily endorse all road bikes, like the ones with carbon fibre or "Tour de France" pedigree. Likewise, mountain bikes with full-suspension sap energy away from the steady cadence ideal for a good workout, in addition to generally costing more or delivering less-than-stellar performance at low price points.

Fresh pair of climbing shoes

Eyyy have you seen my woody on my profile? It was $305 so it doesn't qualify for OP's question, but I feel it's in the same spirit. Plus, I always love seeing more of my people in this corner of the internet - hello!

(I need to learn how to make instance-agnostic links)
- Talk about risky click of the day lol. That thing is sick! For 300 that is awesome, you got a build process or anything?
- Yo your $305 woody really rocks
Are shoes important for climbing? I did consider paying for a climbing gym session
- Yeah you wear specific shoes and they make different styles of shoes for different types of climbing. I pay for a monthly membership so the 200 could go to that as well ¯_(ツ)_/¯

A pair of running shoes, a heart rate monitor, and bodyglide. Intro to running kit more or less

Had to google bodyglide, but these are all good suggestions
- 100% suggest body glide for a summer run over 4 miles
- That's one specific brand, there's others out there like squirrel's nut butter, but bodyglide is the one I prefer!
Polar HR band is BTLE and ANT+ so compatible with many devices including phone and garmins.
- Honestly I'd stay away from polar, both mine and my fathers polar hrt monitors basically stopped working. Don't remember what my current one is though.

In the US? A National Parks Pass and snacks for the long hikes.

I'd say get an older or refurbished Apple Watch or other fitness tracker. I got one 1.5 years ago, haven't missed a single day of reaching my daily exercise goals. My SO got one years before me but I never saw the incentive, and now we both have one, we keep each other on track. From doing nothing ever I now have at least a 5km hike or run every single day.

I have one and I agree that it's great for motivation and accountability

Really depends what you’ve already got and what you want, fitness is such a vague term tbh.

I’d personally start with putting it towards gym membership for however many months.

Assuming I already had that tho, I’d buy Versa Gripps for lifting. I say I would, I actually bought a pair today…

Besides lifting I only do cycling, so prob spend on a service and new parts.

I'm not looking for recommendations so much as curious what other people would do. I'd love to hear an update on how you're liking the versa gripps after you use them for a while - been contemplating wrist straps for deadlifts myself

Garmin GPS watch. Mine was about tree fiddy but $200 off would be nice.

I've used credits like this on a gym membership.

FITNISS DI--

Okay, my answer:

Try a class for a new type of sport/activity
Get a massage
New gear for your current favorite activity
Something useful like sports bra, socks, water bottle etc.

A used exercise bike for days I can't ride outside.

Almost enough to buy a water bottle

Wow, why is it so expensive? I might consider paying that much for a water bottle if it contained a magical spring.
- It's titanium. That's why it's so expensive.

I'd buy 100% whey protein (to hit my daily protein intake target) and monohydrate creatine. Everything else is bullshit IMHO. But that's just me.

What creatine brand do you use? I want to start taking it and I'm wary of buying it on amazon.
- I use crea supps creapure. I believe that all creapure is functionally identical, just 100% pure Creatine marketed and backed by some German company. Amazon feels so sketchy nowadays that I wanted something simple and not well known enough to counterfeit. Plus creapure has quality seal verification to minimize chance of fakes.
  
  While checking for the brand I use, I now see that it is out of stock. That sucks, I will have to find another creapure soon
- Been using this one for years. Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Unflavored, Keto Friendly, 120 Servings (Packaging May Vary) https://a.co/d/2dVfIem
- Take a look Kre-Alkalyn Efx. It's a little different than the monohydrate, don't need as much and don't need to load/cycle. It works better for me.

Protein powder and dietary supplements.

✅💪

A speed bag. There's something about them that I just find so relaxing.

A really nice pair of boots that will last a long time. i already have some ok trainers but the boots I use for hiking are falling apart.

A decent pull up bar and punching bag and some knuckle strapper or whatever its called (idk I punch bare hands tho I probably shouldn't ) .

I bought a recumbent bike for like $180 a couple years now and replaced my lazyboy with it. It's amazing how many kms you can rack up lazily pedaling while watching a movie.

Nice idea

Get the rest of the just dance songs I don’t have I suppose

A good soundtrack is important 🎶

Assuming:

I don't own any fitness equipment
I'm at the very start of my fitness journey
I am completely untrained

I would buy:

A yoga mat
A good pair of shoes

For exercise I would do calisthenics and walk/hike/run.

To upgrade the kit I would get:

Workout clothes
A bicycle
A fitness tracker

Reasoning:

For building good overall fitness, you want a combination of strength and endurance exercise. Calisthenics and walking/hiking/running accomplish both for someone just starting out. Exercise clothes are good but arguably optional, as you can work out in regular clothes. Adding a bicycle for combined transportation and exercise later is good, and having a device to track everything is good for understanding progress and keeping motivation high.

Throw in some hand weights with detachable plates and a couple bars. You can do a lot of strength training with a $100 set of hand weights.

Liposuction.

A new crank for my road bike

Practical and useful

Kind of a boring answer, but I think the most logical answer for most people would be to use it on their gym membership. I know I would.

A comfortable chair.

Probably bike parts like a Garmin Varia + maaaybe a computer.

By computer do you mean one for your bike?
- Yep, tells speed, tracks trips, tells you the incline, some of them even have GPS and radar integration.

A nice pair of running shoes, to get me motivated to stay jogging again. I need to do cardio.

Cardio sucks lol
- Lol. Yes it does.

My 70ish lb kettlebell cost over 200 considering shipping D: but it’ll be worth for the gainz. If I had to spend another 200 I’d wonder if there’s a cheap bike or maybe an elliptical, which I doubt. Next stop is probably some kind of half rack that has a decent pull-up bar, because my tower ain’t the greatest

Well, I just spent about that or more on 2 inch dumbbell handles, plates, a bench and rubber mat. So that, I guess.

I'd get an indoor spinning bike (if I didn't already have one). It's a really fun exercise option for any weather!

How do you make peddling fun?

I recently got a plyo box from REC thats about that price. I'm really enjoying it so far

Personally, a rowing machine, some dumbbells and maybe a kettle ball will do me for a long time.

I sadly doubt $200 will go anywhere near that far. Maybe adjustable dumbbells could be had for $200 and would be very useful

Right now I’d probably snag some mack clamps and blow the rest on chicken.

Bruh I spend more to work with a personal trainer twice a week.

Your trainer makes bank.

Exercise bike or rower perhaps? But I'm a fan of cardiovascular exercise.

You could perhaps get some nice running shoes and weights.

Cardio is great. I didn't know rowers were so cheap, that's a good suggestion

Socks from Feetures to avoid blistering when running (they're really good, so much so I've been slowly replacing all my socks with Feetures) and compression underwear and tops. Then do your working out at home or outside, depending what's practical for your situation.

Day 1: Sets

20 pushups
20 lunges
25 calf raises
60 seconds plank
20 squats
25 calf raises
10 chinups
20 lunges
25 calf raises
10 side planks (5 each side, the ones where you curl your shoulder down to the ground and then back up, buggered if I can remember the proper name)

Consider these one unit, and when you're not dying after doing one, add another one, and then another. My record was 6 in one day.

Day 2: Cardio

15 minutes of intervals, on a treadmill or outside at your preference. The speed depends on you but jogging should use your calves more and running should use your thighs more - do not heel strike, land on the balls of your feet to avoid shocks to the knee joints. Nobody needs arthritis at 40.

Alternate and watch the gains roll in.

My arms are now too big for my favorite shirt so I'd say my current routine is working well for the gains ;) Still, I appreciate the effort you put into writing this.
- Ah shit, I thought this was an "I'm starting to work out" post. I'll leave it for anyone else who might find it helpful; it's slower than weights but it builds strength and stamina in lockstep and gets all the major muscle groups.
  
  I'll still highly recommend compression gear generally if you don't have any (though it sounds like you probably do!) and Feetures socks for running 😊