Gear Patrol

We know you’re busy, hey we are too. Making it to the gym isn’t always an option, and unless you’ve got a couple hundred square feet to spare, home workouts can get tired fast. Take boredom out of the equation and keep your muscles guessing with the Blank Slate Training Board ($129). Just like that…

If you’re actively living your life, some kind of injury is inevitable. The trick is to find a happy medium between daily doctor appointments, and “toughing it out” until the injury gets nasty. That’s why we were happy to find The Athlete’s Guide to Home Remedies ($16) – a book by Jordan D. Metzl, M.D., a physician…

Interval training is a widely used fitness technique that has generated measurable benefits for many dedicated enthusiasts. While the concept is simple (intermittent bursts of high-intensity work followed by low-intensity work), the resulting workout session is anything but. Apart from a large towel and a CPR kit (you never know!), the most effective tool for…

Sometimes, the smallest tweaks provide the biggest results. This is the promise made by Fat Gripz ($39), a deceptively simple yet tremendously effective piece of training gear that allows anyone to easily widen the circumference of any barbell, dumbbell, chin-up bar and cable handles, thus strengthening one’s grip. The premise this operates on is, again,…

One of the best things about technology is how it can mediate mundane or annoying activities, such as hopping on the scale to see the damage caused by the last few months of winter. Enter the Medisana TargetScale ($207), which transforms the entire notion of the bathroom scale into a device that any UFO fan…

Dietary supplements are an easy and small step anyone can take to improve his nutrition. There are countless brands packaging all manner of herbs, nutrients, amino acids, and witchcraft into capsules these days, so finding the right brand is key. Anthony has always understood men’s needs when it comes to grooming, and their supplement line…

Sandbag training provides plenty of benefits for athletes of all stripes compared to routines centered only around formal weight lifting. Their awkward shape, along with the slight movements of the sand inside, provides an added endurance challenge, forcing users to constantly adjust to the weight. The no-handled variety are excellent for increasing grip strength too….

Nike has finally decided to compete directly with startups like Fitbit to help consumers keep track of how much energy they’re burning throughout the day. To do it, the sports leviathan first had to develop a consistent measuring stick for comparing various activities (and people) head to head. So-called NikeFuel is the metric they came…

If you’re a runner, cyclist, hiker or skier, you (hopefully) know how important it is to carry emergency contact and medical information. It’s also a good idea to carry some money in case you bank far from home or just if you want to get a mid-ride ice cream. The problem is, where do you…

For the uninitiated, or those of you who haven’t heard, Tough Mudder is one of the forerunners of the now fully entrenched obstacle course challenges and race phenomenon. The brain child of former British Army Officer Will Dean, Tough Mudder combines military style obstacle course components with an 8-12 mile trail run. In the last…

If you experiencing a level of soreness in your joints or muscles after a workout that seems to increase exponentially (not so conicidentally, with age), then consider Badger Organic Muscle Rub ($10). Comprised of simple ingredients such as ginger and cayenne pepper to help galvanize your sore areas, the balm works as a great organic…

PowerBlocks aren’t new. In fact, they’ve been around since 1993 — if their website design didn’t clue you in. If you’re looking for a way to workout beyond the gym, PowerBlock Dumbbells are still the most affordable and flexible option when it comes to adjustable weight training. They’re designed like a simple weight stack with…

Unadulterated, wholesome, whole-food goodness—Larabar was birthed from a Rocky Mountain hike back in spring of 2000. We often keep one on hand for a quick energy boost, and feel good knowing that we don’t have to have a PhD to pronounce its ingredients. The key to Larabar’s success is in its simplistic, raw composition, using…

A vitamin specifically formulated for drinkers? Say What? Yup, this is real. DrinkWel ($40) is designed to help support what’s left of your liver after weekends of debauchery, as well as help you feel better during those awful mornings the next day. It’s “doctor-formulated”, and features 30 different ingredients including things like Milk Thistle (WTF?),…

When we described the Moji Knee as an icing smart bomb last summer, we weren’t joking around. It did and does everything as advertised and has been a real life saver. So, when Moji let us know they were releasing a Moji Back, we decided to give it the Gear Patrol hands-on treatment. The Moji…

Snowboard season may still be a ways off, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get practice in now. The Flowlab Skateboard ($80) is the brainchild of an effort to design a board for San Francisco riders that tackles the city’s steep slopes, and it works. The fact that it can replicate the feel of snowboarding…

Situation: It’s been a hard workout. Your body is craving protein. To satiate, you make a protein shake, but globs of chocolate protein powder hover around the surface of the glass. You shake, stir, curse, but no amount of force will break it up. Sound familiar? A recent procurement from the local health store has…

As fitness routines have evolved, gym equipment have adapted. Octane Fitness has taken the great workout from an elliptical trainer and blended in the added benefits of cross training. The Q47 Elliptical ($4,095) features Octane’s signature Workout Boosters and the ingenious CROSS CiRCUIT+ strength-training program. To do this, Octane Fitness utilizes Powerbands and stationary side…

One of the most critical areas of strength, no matter what your sport, instrument, or adventure is hand strength. Problem is, it’s one of the most overlooked elements in a man’s workout regimen. Remedy that. The Gripmaster Pro Hand Strengthener ($15) provides several weight-resistances (7-11lbs) and exercises like fingertip pinch, flat fist, and powergrip –…

Details. Exemplary attention to detail. That was the recurring theme that came to mind over and over on a recent test of Lululemon workout apparel. With our collegiate athletic issue gear singing its requiem we sought to test out Lululemon after hearing numerous people swear by it. Coming into the review skeptical but optimistic, we’re…

Sure, reading men’s magazines about different workouts and stretches is great, but like a Google search, I manage to forget everything I read in a matter of seconds. No takeaways and prefer leaving the “bring my magazine with me while I’m working out” doucheyness for the guy. The result? Same workout, every time. G2 has…

Instability is the new “black” in the fitness world. We’ve seen it permeate every type of workout equipment, and now we’re adding dumbbells to the list. Why? Because we’ve had a chance to use SandBells. The SandBell ($8-$85) is a cross between a sandbag, a dumbbell, a barbell, a grip bag, a medicine ball, a…

Regardless of the time of year or climatic adversity, many of our readers are committed to getting out of doors and doing their thing. We applaud this effort and feel much the same, even if half of our motivation is the chance to test the latest in performance gear and products. The impending summer heat…

Working out should be an integral part of your life. Maintaining consistency with your workouts is probably the hardest part for many of you (it certainly is for us). Trips, late nights at the office, meeting up with friends, and being tired all make it incredibly easy to start skipping your workouts. With that in…

Medicine (Med) Balls are an excellent compliment and change up to your workouts. There are few exercises as cathartic as med ball slams. The Garage Gym Store’s Med Balls are made to take any abuse you can dish out. Wall ball, wall slams, floor slams, or partner toss the Garage Gym Store Med Balls will…

Hailing from the heart of Greenwich Village in New York City, Peanut Butter & Co in many ways epitomizes the ridiculousness of the metropolis’s restaurant scene. After all this restaurant has made a name for itself for the most part serving all kinds of peanut butter sandwiches, from your classic PB & J to the…

Staying properly hydrated while engaging in any athletic activity is critical for performing at your peak. As sport drink brands such as Gatorade and Powerade are happy to point out though, drinking plain water alone fails to restore essential salts and electrolytes your body hemorrhages while sweating. What they don’t like to highlight is that…

There are plenty of good reasons to incorporate a foam roller into your workout or post-workout regimen, particularly when the roller you choose is as durable and full-featured as The Grid from Trigger Point Therapy. Offered in both orange and black (without hesitation, we chose orange), The Grid is designed to stand up to daily…

Named after pirate Captain “Bone Crusher” Roberts, Bone Crusher Grips are made to give you grip strength that will make your adversaries shiver their timbers. Ranging from 100lbs to 500lbs in grip resistance, you can slowly build up your grip strength and forearms. A better grip will improve your performance in the gym immensely, because…

Being in college and eating a fulfilling, healthy meal is about as hard as narrowing down the long list of analogies the long list of analogies that I mercifully chose not to insert here. Luckily, I’ve had Clif Bars. The small chunks of goodness are easy to pack, offer a disproportionately huge amount of protein,…