If you’re interested in building muscle, Amazon Prime Day is a great opportunity to pick up some health and fitness kit on the cheap. With the deals bonanza close at hand, we’re already seeing excellent discounts on health and fitness kit.
Building muscle can be quite expensive, and will mean either investing in some exercise equipment or joining a gym. Then there’s the nutritional side: to build muscle effectively, you need to eat more. Finally, you’ll need an effective way to track your workouts and diet plan, along with reminders to move regularly and ensure you’re getting quality sleep. One of the best fitness trackers can do all of these.
Fortunately, Amazon is currently offering some good deals on fitness trackers, exercise gear and supplements. Here's our picks of the bunch.
Fitness tracker deal
Building muscle requires consistency, which is the most difficult part of any exercise regime. One of the best ways to stay motivated is to use a fitness tracker to monitor your progress and remind you to exercise regularly. The British Journal of Sports Medicine found that activity trackers and apps were effective in getting people to stick to a routine.
If you're on a budget, the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is a great cheap entry-level tracker to monitor your sleep and wellbeing. You can get the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 for just $34 as part of the Prime Day deals.
However, we recommend going a little higher and getting the discounted Fitbit Inspire 2, a more stylish tracker that's one of the best Fitbit models you can get. The one-year free trial of Fitbit Premium gives you access to a comprehensive health and fitness ecosystem that allows you to record all your workout, sleep, and diet data.
Workout equipment deal
With a little initial investment, you can give up the gym entirely, and you don’t need a lot of space to stack and store heavy weights: if you’re just getting started, we recommend a set of resistance bands.
These tubes will allow you to do almost any gym exercise you can think of, from bent-over-rows to bicep curls to squats under resistance. This discounted Whatafit resistance bands set allows you to clip the bands to handles, ankle straps or a door hook, to replicate resistance-based cable or weights exercises.
As you get stronger, you can increase the resistance by doubling up or even tripling up with multiple bands. They're a better buy than weights if you’re just starting to build muscle – and it won’t matter if you drop them on your toe.
Protein powder deal
Eating more protein is the hardest – and often most expensive part – of building muscle. It’s tough to increase your intake of high-quality protein at mealtimes because traditional sources of protein (meat, nuts, etc.) can be pricey. If you’re eating family meals, it’s also difficult to cook separately, which is why many people turn to nutritional supplements such as protein powder.
Provided you’re not a vegetarian (and there are alternative vegetarian and vegan-friendly protein powders available), whey powder is the all-around muscle builder you’re looking for.
There are plenty of cheap protein powders out there, but you need to make sure you’re buying from a trusted brand. Optimum Gold Standard Nutrition is the, well, gold standard when it comes to protein powders.
This Amazon deal allows you to get five pounds of the stuff (74 servings, over two months’ supply) in Double Rich Chocolate flavor for just $62.48, or $59.70 if you sign up for a subscription. For content, 24 servings usually come out around $35, so you’re saving yourself a packet here.
Why get these deals?
Better sleep, activity tracking and workout reminders come from your new tracker. Resistance bands allow you to train your body in a more versatile way, and you can recover and fuel your workouts with a protein shake after you’re finished. This one-two-three combo will kick-start your muscle-building journey: by the time that protein powder tub is empty, you’ll be in the shape of your life.
