Fitness

Early Black Friday fitness deals: 51% off trackers, equipment | Digital Trends

Published

1 year ago

November 13, 2024

Early Black Friday fitness deals: 51% off trackers, equipment | Digital Trends

Update 11/6/24: Though this is our first iteration of such a list for the 2024 Black Friday season, we’re already quite happy with it. Apple showed up with an affordable Apple Watch (which has fitness tracking that, though on the simpler side, we actually like better than some of its more complex siblings) and the Peloton Guide is $100 off. Plus, we were able to find smart tracking in stationary scale format for just $23, an entry-level price anybody can afford. This is a great start and we’re excited to see what is to come…

Despite lingering stereotypes, the tech space and fitness space are quite closely related. And so, for this Black Friday season, we know you may be interested in some great fitness gear. Luckily, while Black Friday officially starts on November 29, you can go ahead and get started on your fitness resolutions way early with early Black Friday deals. That means that if the early Black Friday headphones deal you picked up happens to be a good pair of running headphones, now is a fantastic time to pick up an exercise bike or treadmill. Alternatively, now is also a great time to pick up an excellent fitness tracker with early Black Friday smartwatch deals. No matter what your goals, however, the following deals are ripe and ready now, not in a few weeks, so there is no reason to delay your plans.

Renpho Smart Scale — $23 $29 21% off

Renpho

Considered to be one of the best smart scales for its its ability to track so many metrics (including weight, body fat, BMI, bone mass, muscles mass, and eight others) at an affordable price, the Renpho Smart Scale is down an extra $6 right now. This is a smart scale that will help you track your metrics, no matter what your goals are in the gym.

Peloton Guide — $95 $195 51% off

A hand sets up the Peloton Guide AI-powered personal strength training device. — Peloton

The Peloton Guide gives you the Peloton routine with AI-powered personal training. It gives you a webcam view that tracks your reps and progress alongside over 500 classes that work with its movement tracker. Get it while it is $100 off.

Apple Watch SE 2 (GPS, 40mm) — $189 $249 24% off

A 40mm Apple Watch SE 2 with the Starlight sport band. — Apple

One of the most affordable of early Black Friday Apple Watch deals, the humble SE 2 gets the job done without breaking the bank. In fact, our Apple Watch SE 2 review remarks that this is “probably all the Apple Watch you need” and praises its simplicity as a bonus, not a malus.

Echelon Smart Connect EX-5S-22 — $1,049 $1,500 30% off

Riding an Echelon Connect Bike EX-5s-22 inside a house with a view of flowering bushes. — .

This is considered to be one of the best Peloton alternatives for its premium feel, guided workouts, and excellent guide screen. Compare it at just $1,049 to the at $2,495 to see the savings.

NordicTrack Smart Rower — $1,750 $1,999 12% off

A man working out on the NordicTrack Smart Rower. — NordicTrack

The NordicTrack Smart Rower has a large screen, inertia-enhanced flywheel for smooth movements, and the option to use Bluetooth headphones or listen to the workout programming via its built-in speakers. Great for those that want to row but have no lakes.

How to choose fitness products on Black Friday

Depending on what your fitness goals are, there are several different types of fitness products you might want.

If you’re just looking to track your overall fitness, you’ll want one of the best fitness trackers (which is often just a smart watch). You can see our guide to fitness tracker accuracy for a better understanding of what you’re getting when you get one of these devices. Remember that a fitness tracker is just one part of monitoring your overall physique and health.

Then, if you’re looking to use your fitness budget on a machine, you might consider one of many popular products that come with a screen and guided workouts. Though they usually require a subscription, many people find these guides motivating and reassuring as they begin their fitness journey with the new equipment.

How we chose these fitness products for Black Friday

The most important thing for us was to deliver you a combination of fitness trackers and exercise products that could fit all of your needs. And, of course, doing so while finding great prices.

We combed through fitness trackers, exercise bikes and other such machines, and other related fitness products to find something that you could confidently use.

Since this is Digital Trends, we also looked for products — when possible — that fit the somewhat digital lifestyle you are likely to have. Little things like being able to connect to your exercise bike via your workout earbuds or headphones was a big boon, for example. In short, this is a curated list for you, our readers.

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Fitness

Vernon seniors personal trainer is moving to Anytime Fitness

Published

4 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Press Room

Vernon seniors personal trainer is moving to Anytime Fitness

New gym, same exercises

Photo: File photo

Vernon’s favourite senior’s personal trainer is on the move. For more than 25 years, Don MacLeod has been leading weight-resistance exercise classes for seniors.

Vernon’s favourite senior’s personal trainer is on the move.

For more than 25 years, Don MacLeod has been leading weight-resistance exercise classes for seniors.

And for the past eight years, MacLeod had taught classes five days a week at Snap Fitness in the Landing Plaza, but on March 31 that gym closed its doors, so MacLeod needed a new venue for his popular classes.

Enter Anytime Fitness in the Anderson Subdivision.

MacLeod said he is grateful to have reached a deal with the fitness club to carry on his morning exercise classes, and many seniors have already signed up.

While there are other gyms in Vernon that have seniors exercise classes, the certified personal trainer uses weight-resistance training to target all major muscle groups.

He will lead seven classes from Monday to Friday.

“It’s basic strength training,” MacLeod said of the exercises that geared towards the older crowd.

“We do everything that the bodybuilders and powerlifters do, but in a reasonable manner where we are just going to get our bones, our muscles, our tendons and ligaments stronger.”

MacLeod, 71, has also taken special courses geared specifically towards working with seniors.

Some seniors may feel too intimidated to go to a gym on their own, but MacLeod said seniors can find a common bond when they exercise in a group.

MacLeod said he has heard a few people say “what a waste of space” to hold senior’s classes.

“They really make life difficult for us. They think old people shouldn’t be in the gym, why are they lifting weights: to stay strong and to stay healthy,” MacLeod said. “One day, these guys are going to be old too.”

MacLeod said he started lifting weights in 1972 and continues to reap the benefits of regular exercise as he enters his 70s.

For more information, contact MacLeod at 250-260-1001.

Fitness

Hawaii fitness center combats Parkinson’s with exercise

Published

16 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Press Room

Hawaii fitness center combats Parkinson’s with exercise

HONOLULU (KHON2) — A local fitness center specializes in preventative training programs targeting a disease that impacts our kupuna.

Fitness Therapy Hawaii specializes in step-by-step preventative training programs targeting Parkinson’s symptoms.

In the program, patients get a clearance with doctors, work with physical therapists and prescribed medication.

“Science shows that once you get diagnosed as soon as possible, right? What exercise will do is help you keep those neurons firing, because Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disease. The longer you wait for these patterns of movement, you will die,” George Ma, Fitness Therapy Hawaii owner, said.

According to Yale Medicine, exercise is an essential component of Parkinson’s disease management, saying “high-intensity exercise induces brain-protective effects that have the potential to not just slow down but possibly reverse the neurodegeneration associated with Parkinson’s Disease.”

“When you get diagnosed with Parkinson’s, in the beginning, you have no hope. And then you come here, you do your tour, there’s hope. And then as they start moving through our exercise programs, they find purpose. And we have clients who have been with us for seven years at stage one,” Ma said.

Fighting the disease thats way might be intimidating to some… that’s why Fitness Therapy Hawaii lets caretakers work out with their loved ones.

Group classes are also available, which encourage socialization for what can be an isolating disease.

“In Hawaii, there is a stigma for Parkinson’s, and I think having a place and having that purpose and understanding that your fellow member has been fighting it with you,” Ma said.

Visit the Fitness Therapy Hawaii website for more information.

Fitness

The Gwyneth-approved exercise trend about to take over Australia

Published

1 day ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

The Gwyneth-approved exercise trend about to take over Australia

March 31, 2026 — 7:00pm

Anyone who has ever done a HIIT class walks in with a certain set of expectations: loud music, burpees and muscles that will hurt a little afterwards.

What people might not anticipate is being encouraged to make as much noise as they can while doing sets of squats or told it’s OK to cry. But these are just a couple of things someone may be invited to try during a somatic exercise class, in which each workout is designed to help you look inward and release any pent-up emotions. (And yes, your thighs will still burn afterwards.)

Haven’t heard of somatic movement? According to some of Australia’s most popular fitness influencers and entrepreneurs, you’re about to start seeing it everywhere.

Laura Henshaw, co-founder of KIC, an Australian wellness brand opening its first fitness studio in Cremorne.Eddie Jim

What is somatic movement?

“Somative movement, in its broadest term, is movement that brings your attention and awareness towards the internal landscape,” says Imogen Sist, physiotherapist and head trainer at KICStudio, the first bricks and mortar space from Australian wellness brand KIC.

To explain the difference between internal and external outcomes in exercise, Sist uses running as an example. “Running can be very external, if you’re only looking at your pace or distance,” she says. “Or if we run as a somatic experience, we ask how it feels while we’re running, what sensations come up in our body, physical and emotional.”

By this definition, Sist says all exercise can incorporate somatic movement.

Actions such as rubbing your temples during moments of rest, paying attention to tension in your face and asking yourself how you feel while doing typical exercise moves, like star jumps and leg pulses, are what Sist believes make her classes unique.

“In a general Pilates class, you might disassociate and think, ‘Oh just get through this’, but this [somatic exercise] is very focused on how you feel while you’re doing each movement,” she says.

How it differs to somatic therapy

The term “somatic” comes from the ancient Greek word soma, which roughly translates to “the living body and its wholeness”, says Jennifer Lalor, Byron Bay-based psychotherapist, EMDR practitioner and somatic therapist.

According to Lalor, somatic therapy differs from traditional talk therapies because it takes a body and mind approach to healing.

“Whether it’s somatic exercise or somatic therapy, we’re trying to help people bring their attention to the life of their body in a way that can be self-healing and self-educating,” says Lalor, citing a theoretical example of someone who has been in a car accident and is now holding trauma in their mind but also in their body.

While somatic therapy is often associated with trauma recovery, in which a mind-body approach can be uniquely healing, Lalor says it can also be very effective for high-performance people, such as executives and athletes, who need to show up mentally and physically in high-stress environments.

And though somatic movement is not to be confused with somatic therapy, Sist says elements of the mental health practice are sprinkled into the classes she and other trainers lead. “We take learnings from those kinds of practices.”

The next big fitness trend

Few workout classes have a celebrity following quite like The Class, a “music-driven somatic exercise method” combining body weight movements with cardiovascular training founded in New York by Taryn Toomey in 2011.

In a 2020 interview with Toomey for Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow referred to the workout as “pretty incredible and pretty unique”, admitting she felt embarrassed the first time she did it, making so much noise. Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and Alicia Keys are also fans.

KIC head trainer Imogen Sist outside KICStudio, which will open its doors on April 18.Eddie Jim

While not the first studio to offer somatic movement classes in Australia, the April 18 opening of KICStudio in Melbourne’s Cremorne signals the trend’s move into the mainstream.

KIC co-founders Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw are known for their holistic and inclusive approach to fitness, and this ethos will be reflected in the studio’s offering of four class types – all grounded in somatic movement – including HIIT, strength, yoga and breathwork.

According to Henshaw, the opening is the start of a national rollout program for KICStudio.

Trying it yourself

For visitors to KICStudio, classes may include using vocals during exercises (being loud is encouraged in the studio, which is mirror-free to help remove any feelings of self-consciousness), self-touch, breathwork and shaking – a movement Sist compares to birds resetting their feathers.

Once someone is familiar with the practice, Sist says, it’s easy for people to introduce these additions into their regular exercise routine, whether it’s while doing weights at home or on a walk.

“We’re always told as women we’re too loud and take up too much space, so we wanted to create a space where people can come and take up as much space as they want, be as loud as they want,” says Henshaw. “To find a practice that enables you to unlock that within yourself is electric.”

The writer travelled to Melbourne as a guest of KIC.

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