16 of the best sports and fitness gadgets to boost your performance

Looking to give your gym game a lift? Working on your golf swing? Whatever your sweaty pursuit, there’s a gadget that can help you. Be it wrist-wrapping trackers or handle add-ons, we’ve rounded up 16 of the best bits of sporting tech that are guaranteed to improve your form. OK, not guaranteed – but at least you’ll look darn fine as you wheeze your way back to the sofa.

MIGHTY ($86)

Class yourself as a proper runner? One who needs motivational music without strapping a phablet to their arm? Get this spiritual successor to the iPod Shuffle. It lets Spotify Premium subscribers store hundreds of offline songs on its internal storage, while built-in Bluetooth means they can substitute wireless headphones for ear-tugging cables.

WAHOO ELEMNT BOLT (£200/$250)

What’s the point of going on a bike ride if you can’t bore people senseless about cadence and power outputs afterwards? That’s the joy of the ELEMNT Bolt, a tiny bike computer that brings all sorts of live data to its owner’s handlebars. This includes heart-rate data from Bluetooth Smart straps, as well as directions home thanks to the built-in GPS.

GARMIN FORERUNNER 30 (£130/$170)

Problem: you want a GPS running watch, but your research has concluded that they’re ridiculously expensive. Solution: this bargain Forerunner. It has both GPS and a heart-rate monitor, usually only found on pricier sports watches, which means it can estimate both VO2 max and resting heart rate (so you can pretend you’re actually an athlete).

BRAGI DASH PRO (€349)

Headphones used to just be for piping emergency power songs into joggers’ ears, but not any more. The Dash Pros are basically an in-ear fitness coach, packing activity tracking, real-time feedback and 4GB storage for phone-free music. With up to five hours of music playback from a charge and full waterproofing, they’re also a cracking musical option for swimmers too.

PLAYERTEK (£149/$199)

Bring Jamie Carragher’s savage Monday Night Football analysis to your giftee’s Sunday League team with this stat-gathering wearable pod. The Playertek slots into a vest and quietly gathers pro-level insights like heat and sprint maps, top speeds and distance covered. Who knows, with a few tweaks to their training, they might just top Playertek’s global league or sneak into its team of the week.

BELLABEAT LEAF URBAN (£139/$139)

The Leaf Urban stealthily monitors its wearer’s step counts, calories burned and sleep thanks to motion sensors and a companion smartphone app. There’ll be no lost sleep over forgetting to charge it either, as everything is powered by a replaceable coin cell battery that should last around six months. Add water-resistance, a vibrating alarm mode and wireless syncing to the app, and that diamond necklace starts to look pretty dull.

MYZONE MZ-3 (£130/$150)

Think heart rate straps are a bit old hat in the age of fitness watches with optical HR sensors? Not so. A chest strap is still by far the most accurate way to do heart rate-based training, and this one goes a step beyond by turning your HR zones into a competitive game. The MZ-3 measurers your performance across five zones based on your fitness, and awards points based on the intensity of your efforts.

SOL REPUBLIC RELAYS (£30/$40)

It’s hard enough finding the right pair of running headphones for your own ears, let alone someone else’s. Thankfully, the sweat-proof Relays are a safe bet for most shell-likes, thanks to an adaptable outer ring that moulds to the shape of your ear. Oh, and they sound great too.

SONY SMART B-TRAINER (£170/$140)

Combining your favourite tunes with top-end training and stat-measurement, this swanky Sony headpiece is one immersively fitness-focussed friend. Voice coaching developed with running gurus Asics and an advanced goal-setting system will egg you on to burn off that festive fat, whilst its deceptively dinky waterproof shell packs an olympian array of sensors, including a barometer, compass and heart rate monitor, to give you the full force of your feedback.

POLAR M600 (£220/$330)

Can’t decide whether to get a fitness band or a GPS watch? Grab something that combines the two instead. The M600 takes the 24/7 activity tracking of a Fitbit and combines it with GPS logging in a sleek, wrist-mounted shell. Better still, it’s been fitted with heart rate monitoring – strap free. Throw in the power of Android Wear, for nifty notifications as you sweat, and you’ve got a real pace-setter.

CHECKMYLEVEL STARTER PACK (€449)

Checkmylevel bucks the trend of wearable fitness gadgets that record your progress. Instead, it uses low voltage currents (TENS) to stimulate your peripheral nervous system. Don’t be scared, though: it’s just assessing the level of fatigue in your muscles to help optimise training. Body still recovering from your last brutal workout? Checkmylevel will let you know and tell you to take it easy, reducing the risk of injury.

MISFIT SHINE 2 (£50/$95)

One of the thinnest activity trackers around, Misfit’s second Shine is made from aircraft-grade aluminium. Aside from being quite a looker, its waterproof body also means you can take it for a dip – in addition to tracking your running, cycling and sleep. Vibration alerts are on hand to shift the inactive, too. Its replaceable 6-month button cell battery puts paid to recharging worries, whilst the sleek iOS companion app magically syncs up to it when you place it against the screen.

CYCLEOPS MAGNETO TRAINER ($250)

The Magneto Trainer is ideal for those downpours where riding outside will get you drenched through before you’ve even clipped your shoes in. It’s the world’s first magnetic trainer with progressive resistance, which increases as you pedal faster. Just change gears as normal and let it sort out the resistance automatically. Simple, yet exhausting.

TOMTOM RUNNER 3 (£120/$150)

If you don’t fancy lugging your 6in phablet around with you on your sprints, this wrist-wrapper from TomTom is the answer. Real time running info is just a tap or two away and, if you fancy trying something new, there are modes for cycling, swimming and more. Better still, in-built GPS means you can log where your jogging, or explore new routes without worrying about how to get home.

ZEPP TENNIS 2 SWING ANALYSER (£100/$100)

It won’t stop the dreaded tennis elbow, but the nifty smart racket mount in this motion-monitoring kit might just make you more Murray than misery. iOS and Android compatible, it syncs via bluetooth to capture every swing and volley, then feeds back on your courtside performance. It might sound a little too Wii-mote for serious servers, but once the Zepp starts telling you just how powerful (or not) that forearm is you’ll be lunging for your next statistics fix.

QARDIOARM (£99/$99)

The thought of beating the crowds to the gym in the morning might get your heart racing, but QardioArm’s clinically validated smart monitor is all about giving you blood pressure smarts in your sitting room. Forget dinky pulse rate monitors on silicone smartbands: this portable and mobile-syncing measurer tracks systolic and diastolic BP, as well as detecting irregular heart beats and monitoring how it changes during the day – ideal for the scientifically-minded sportsman in your pub clan.