Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide - Day 5
With freezing temperatures on the horizon it’s always temping to wrap up in a sweater and forget your active summer routine. This is especially true as the holidays approach and all the baked goods are there for the taking, but this is actually one of the best times to have a good workout regimen and stay healthy as it will make swimsuit season next year that much easier if you aren’t trying to lose all the fall and winter pounds most people gain.
One of my new favorite tools for staying fit even when it’s too blustery to leave the house is the Journey Gym, the first all-in-one portable workout system that can easily fit in a linen closet, under a bed, and is even perfect for traveling. At first glance, the Journey Gym looks like a large briefcase, with a carrying handle and a rectangular shape that could just as easily hold a laptop and paperwork.
Upon opening the Journey Gym you see a series of colored resistance bands that run through the case with quick attachment clips at the end. To use the Gym, you simply open the case all the way, attach the 8 “feet”, and remove the handles with connection clips and then turn over so the base rests firmly on the ground. Within minutes of opening the box we had journey Gym set up in our living room and were impressed by the quality of the bands, connectors, handles and commercial grade step as well as the design of the system.
Really, the more I played with it and realized how many different ways you could use it, the more genius it seemed. Even though it is based on a pretty basic idea of resistance bands and a workout step, it’s the execution of the Journey Gym that makes it rave-worthy. With the Journey Gym you don’t need to find a place to store big and bulky workout equipment when you’re not using it. Because it uses resistance bands instead of traditional free weights that are large and awkward, you don’t have to designate an entire room in your house just to weight training.
Then, since it works by merely clipping your handle or strap to the resistance band of your choice, changing your workout by varying the amount of resistance or your point of connection is also easier because it takes mere seconds. It’s this flexibility that gives you the ability to do an insane amount of different exercises and easily switch between them during the course of your workout, allowing more time for actual working out.
I was absolutely shocked when I got to try the Journey Gym and realized how completely versatile and expandable the system is for whatever your fitness level or preferred workout is. While I’ve been a fan of resistance bands before, what I really love about the Journey Gym is the integrated step that allows you to add cardio to your workout. It can really be used by both beginners as well as experienced weight trainers and can mimic just about any exercise you can imagine and work every muscle group.
Since I’m recovering from an auto accident and can’t do high-impact workouts, I love that the resistance band workout with the Journey Gym is so smooth. This means that even my physical therapist approves of me using the Journey Gym at lower resistance levels since it doesn’t have the jerkiness of typical weightlifting and instead allows you to use more fluid motions. All of this reduces impact on your joints and decreases the possibility of injury, which are paramount for me as I heal.
In addition to a great workout tool, what’s really cool about the Journey Gym system is how much they want you to succeed. The gym ships with a workout video that can be completed in either 10 or 20 minutes and each routine alternates between strength training and cardio. The 10 minute video has a female lead and the 20 minute has a male lead and they have different exercises. I personally like this as it allows me to alternate what video I watch each day and helps vary it up a bit while still getting in circuit training.
But, while the video is actually a good workout and I look forward to doing the routine each day, what makes the system so expandable is that they have a website that allows you to create your own workout video. By selecting your own specific exercise and dragging it into your timeline, you can create your own routine and even add music and remove the instructions before each exercise, something that would certainly be nice if you are doing a workout every day.
Speaking of doing the routine every day, I am happy to report that we love the Journey Gym so much that my husband and I are committed to doing it every. single. day. We developed a system where we alternate the 20 minute routine with the 10 minute routine each day, 7 days a week. What’s really cool about our plan is that we have a deal that while the other person is working out, we will clean up the main areas of the house. This means that not only are we getting a great 10 or 20 minute workout, we are also getting an additional 10 or 20 minutes of cleaning exercises also. Bonus: our house has never looked better!
If you are searching for a great present for someone fitness-minded this holiday season or are looking at getting back in or staying in shape yourself, you should definitely check out Journey Gym and see how awesome of a system it really is. Hey, if it can get my family excited {and I do mean excited} about working out, it’s got to be pretty cool, right?
Price: $245 ARV. Find out more about the Journey Gym, its many features, and where to buy at journeygym.com
Want to win an awesome Journey Gym for yourself? Of course you do!
To enter, simply visit the Journey Gym site and comment on this post telling me what you like about the system and where the most unusual place that you would use it!
And, as always, there are extra entries available! {Please leave a separate comment for each completed}
2 Extra Entries - Like Journey Gym's Facebook page and comment with where you would use the Journey Gym if you won and @ tag Rave & Review
2 Extra Entries {per method} - Follow Rave & Review! Subscribe by RSS feed, Subscribe by email, become a fan of R&R on Facebook or add R&R to your blogroll or sidebar.
1 Extra Entry {daily} - Twitter. Simply tweet the following after following us both:
Have you heard of a gym in a suitcase? Enter to #win a super cool @JourneyGym #giveaway with @RaveAndReview! http://t.co/ypugszeY ARV $245!
3 Extra Entries - Blogger Bonus. Blog about this giveaway linking back to this post and leave an address where I can find your writeup
1 Extra Entry - Comment love. Enter any of my other Giveaways and/or comment on any non-giveaway post!
On December 20th at 11:59pm PST a winner will be drawn, announced here and notified via email. Winner will have 48 hours to contact me or a new winner will be chosen. Giveaway open to US and Canadian Addresses.
This giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who entered and congratulations to:
A big thank you to Journey Gym for providing the information and giveaway for one lucky giveaway winner. All opinions are 100% ours and no monetary compensation was received in exchange for this Rave Review.
