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Our annual AskMen Fitness Awards are back, and we’re proud to announce that this year’s competition was larger and fiercer than ever before, with a record number of brands participating.
In our most competitive categories, more than a dozen products vied for the top spot, while our panel of judges, encompassing current and former college athletes, weekend warriors and personal trainers, worked overtime to generate feedback and vote on winners.
In the category of Best Fitness Tech, we took a hard look at the proliferating world of wearables, from heart rate monitors and step trackers to full-fledged smartwatches, as well as apps, smart scales, and digital nutrition coaches.
As the size of the fitness tech market continues to grow, new products and innovative designs keep pushing the envelope, further integrating technology into how we think about health and fitness, as well as offering us a data-based approach to reaching our goals.
What follows are some of the year’s very best products in the aforementioned categories, plus some very cool headphone options, some active recovery tools, and much more.
The original Apple Watch Ultra took a great foundation and strengthened it (literally!) to make it faster, more durable and longer lasting. Unsurprisingly, the Ultra 2 continues that trend, offering a rugged titanium case, an extra-bright Retina display, and the most powerful battery yet featured in an Apple Watch, with up to 36 hours of use on a single charge. Hikers, cyclists, distance runners and adventurers will especially appreciate the dual-frequency GPS, offering the most precise location tracking we’ve seen on a smartwatch, as well as the ability to download maps to the phone and navigate them offline, like when you’re far away from the nearest cellular tower.
If you’re skeptical that a smartwatch can be of benefit for a kid, we recommend checking out the Fitbit Ace LTE. Not only will it help give you peace of mind by allowing you to track your young children, but it can also allow them to call or send you messages, if you sign up for the annual Ace Pass data plan. Its best features, though, are all centered around keeping your child healthy and active, using the gamified Fitbit Arcade suite of challenges to help them track steps, jumps and bounces, with celebratory animations rewarding every new goal reached or record set. There’s even a dedicated School Time mode, to limit distractions when your child should be focusing on learning.
Every new iteration of Fitbit’s best-selling Charge tracker has been a commercial and critical success, and the Charge 6 is no exception. We love the lightweight, unobtrusive design, easy-to-read screen and extra-long battery life, which boasts up to an entire week off a single charge. But while the physical features of the device are impressive, it’s the incredible suite of Fitbit software that keeps us coming back. There are more than 40 built-in exercise modes, to help you get the most accurate data possible, while the combination of blood oxygen and heart rate monitoring, as well as sleep tracking, into a single, intuitive Stress Management score helps you tell, at a glance, how your mental health is trending. If you want a dedicated fitness tracker, something precise and efficient, the Charge 6 delivers all of the necessary features in an elegant package.
There’s no shortage of sleep trackers on the market now, including most smartwatches, but if you want phenomenal accuracy without the obtrusiveness of a wearable, Withings has the solution. Their Sleep Tracking Mat slides under your mattress, enabling it to track your sleep onset, duration and wakeup time, as well as your sleep cycles, continuous and average heart rate, and snoring duration. In the Withings app, you’ll be able to see a diary of your sleep history, which you can share with a doctor if you ever want professional help, and be assigned a sleep score, which you can use as a kind of benchmark against which to measure your progress. You’ll even get automatic coaching advice to help you improve your sleep quality. With unlimited data storage and easy syncing between the mat and the app, this is a painless method of tracking and improve your sleep.
If your focus is on heart health, and especially if you like the aesthetics of a traditional watch rather than the sporty-looking rubber of most smartwatches, you owe it to yourself to check out the Withings ScanWatch Healthmaster. At a glance, it looks like a classic sports watch, but it’s packed with enough features to make James Bond envious, like 24/7 temperature tracking, sleep monitoring, and respiratory tracking that can not only identify your regular breathing rate but also note variations in your blood oxygen levels, even while you’re sleeping. But it was the heart health features that caught our attention. You’ll get both daily and overnight heart rate monitoring, with notifications when you dip into an extreme low or rise into an extreme high, and the Withings watch is sensitive enough to detect even early signs of atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm), so it’s a great early warning system. Finally, but perhaps most critically, it has a phenomenal battery life, so you won’t constantly be removing it from your body to charge it, which is a huge benefit in a daily heart rate monitor.
Striking the perfect balance between rich features, a solid and lightweight design, and a gorgeous, easy-to-read screen, the COROS Pace Pro is everything we want in a running watch. Its always-on display is bright and vibrant, making it easy to check up on your vitals even in bright sunlight, while the built-in GPS boasts both pinpoint precision and turn-by-turn navigation, which makes exploring new running routes totally stress-free. Battery life is also among the best in class, with up to 20 days of non-stop use in a battery-saving mode or up to six days with the always-on display feature turned on. We also have to shout out the COROS app, which not only tracks all the expected metrics runners but also uses those numbers to propose custom workouts to help you make progress.
Think of the Garmin Fenix 7 like the smartwatch version of a Swiss Army knife. It’s got built-in GPS tracking, a flashlight with four intensity levels and a strobe feature, plus the ability to charge itself using solar energy, so those of you who like to go camping or adventuring over multiple days will appreciate the enhanced battery life. Plus, if you regularly adventure far from cellular coverage, you can download maps to the watch in advance, so the GPS can still offer precision tracking even far off the beaten path.
There are many imitators, but the Theragun Prime stands alone in its combination of power, battery life, and ease of use. The ergonomic design makes it easy and comfortable to massage even those hard-to-reach places on your body, while the four included attachments each deliver a unique sense of relief and improved circulation to tired, sore and knotted muscles. If you need quick relief in the middle of a sport or want a better way to recover from a grueling workout, reach for a Theragun Prime. Plus, it boasts a handful of extra heads you can purchase as well to really max out its value.
Percussion massage has revolutionized recovery, first for world-class athletes with deep pockets and now for the average person, and RENPHO’s massage gun, regularly on sale for under $100, perfectly illustrates what’s possible at this price point. It includes a sturdy carry case, five unique attachments to vary the pressure, intensity and focus of the device, and a brushless motor that’s quiet while still being powerful. Add to that a long-lasting battery and USB-C fast charging and you’ve got a great deal for the money and our favorite budget massage gun of 2025.
Apple has nailed every iteration of their best-selling AirPods, so it should come as no surprise that the AirPods 4 are a top pick, especially for runners. The active noise cancellation paired with their adaptive audio technology allows runners to hear their music clearly without endangering themselves by cutting off their sense of hearing entirely, while quality-of-life improvements like wireless charging, a new USB-C charging port, and seamless integration with your Apple ecosystem — whether phone, tablet or computer — all make these a joy to live with. The buds themselves are also very comfortable, with IP54 sweat resistance and a form that keeps them locked in the ear, even during more dynamic movements.
Durable, sweat-resistant, with phenomenal sound at both the high and low frequencies, the JLab Epic Sport ANC 3 earbuds were our hands-down favorite workout headphones of the year. Whether we were lifting weights, sprinting or doing fast-paced agility movements, they managed to stay on our ears without the slightest hint of wiggle or even needing regular readjustments. Soundwise, they’re great, with spatial audio offering an immersive sound experience and smart active noise cancellation allowing us to tune out distractions while still keeping aware of our surroundings. Finally, these boast an astonishing 12-plus hours of battery life (bumped over 56 hours if you include the charging case), so you can go days without having to recharge them.
If you prefer over-the-ear headphones to earbuds, first, you’re not alone, and second, you’ll love the JBL Tune 770NC. They’re built to be both sturdy and portable, with their foldable design making them easy to tuck into a gym bag, while the adaptive noise cancelling with “smart ambient” technology allows you to hear what you want, when you want, or drown out the background noise when it’s time to lock in. Advanced Bluetooth 5.3 technology allows these cans to stream high-quality audio wirelessly, while the JBL Headphones App allows you to customize the sound profile to your desired tastes, adjusting the EQ curve or adding or lowering bass to fit your gym playlist. Add in USB-C fast charging (just two hours from empty to a full charge) and up to 44 hours of battery life, and you’ve got the ideal pair of gym headphones.
Bone-conduction technology is relatively new, and the headphones this tech has spawned (“bonephones” to the faithful) are newer still, but they’re still a game changer. They work by converting audio signals into vibrations, which then travel through the small and highly sensitive bones of the inner ear directly to the cochlea, resulting in incredible sound that doesn’t actively impede your ability to hear ambient noises, like traffic or people talking. The SHOKZ OpenFit Headphones are lightweight and extremely comfortable, ergonomically designed to minimize strain on your ears even after long use, while the ultra-soft silicone tips offer excellent cushion. There’s even an integrated AI that handles noise cancellation, filtering out 99.7% of ambient noise, which is especially helpful on phone calls.
There is no shortage of workout trackers out there, but we keep coming back to Strong. It’s not just the massive exercise library, or the comprehensive data that this app can serve up about your progress or past performance, or even the easy-to-use interface; it’s the fact that Strong started off great and never stopped improving, with new updates and improvements added regularly. If you mostly stick to the same workout routine, you can safely opt for the free version, but if you like to vary your exercise routine or experiment with new training protocols, you’ll want to upgrade to the paid membership to unlock the massive variety of workout templates and enhanced tracking features.
Pilates can be one of the more intimidating forms of exercise, especially for total beginners, but BetterMe does a great job of holding your hand through the entire process of building healthy habits and establishing an exercise routine, beginning with a specialized quiz about your current health goals, mobility level, daily schedule and sleep habits, and progressing to offering you a helpful array of bodyweight movements and mindfulness exercises. If you really think you’d benefit from more personalized coaching, the app can even connect you with Pilates instructors from across the world. As an added benefit, the app also allows you to track your steps and nutrition, too.
Find out more at BetterMe-WallPilates.com
Winner of the coveted iPhone App of the Year award in 2023, AllTrails+ hasn’t rested on its laurels but continued to expand and improve upon its already impeccable design and rich feature set. Downloading the app will connect you with over 75 million fellow explorers and more than 450,000 curated trails, including options for running, hiking, mountain biking, road biking and dog walking. If you travel often, you can search the most popular trails near you, via reviews and photo reviews, or even curate your own adventure and share your route with the world. More recently, AllTrails+ has even added more than 200 national park guides, making it easy to plan your next adventure in the great outdoors.
Find out more at AllTrails.com
Golf is one of the sports that has been most revolutionized by technology, from high-tech clubs to laser range finders to advanced launch monitors that not only help you understand your swing and identify weaknesses but also play virtual golf at any time of the year, solving one of the sport’s biggest issues (its vulnerability to bad weather) in the process. The just-released Garmin Approach R50 may not be cheap, but if you take your golf game seriously, it can revolutionize things for you. It uses three high-speed cameras to capture key swing variables like carry distance, spin rate, club head speed and angle of attack. The included 10” LCD screen can not only display these useful metrics but also do double-duty as a simulator, allowing you to play some of the world’s most iconic golf courses from the comfort of your basement or garage. It even comes with a handy carrying case so you can take it to your next range session, giving you real-time feedback on each shot you hit.
If you want all the benefits of a personal trainer in the palm of your hands, you need Future. The app connects you with real human beings across the world, people who specialize in an incredibly wide variety of sports, training styles, and fitness sciences, all of whom are eager to help you meet your goals. Just consider that Future boasts brand ambassadors like Usain Bolt, Simone Biles and Tony Hawk — truly world-class athletes. In conjunction with an advanced AI, your coach will help identify your goals, personalize a training plan, and conduct regular check-ins to help monitor your progress and make any necessary adjustments. If you have the motivation but want the unique combination of expertise and accountability that only a personal trainer can bring, you’ll love Future.
Everybody wants six-pack abs, but most people aren’t willing to do the work to get them, especially when it comes to nutrition. Well, Cronometer takes all of the guesswork out of the process, making it incredibly simple to track your diet, analyze your weight trends, and identify potential areas of improvement. Cronometer boasts a comprehensive food database, an incredibly easy-to-use interface, and an aesthetic that’s simultaneously pleasing and intuitive. Add to that the ability to create custom recipes and meals, automating the tracking for foods you eat often, as well as integration with all the popular fitness devices and apps, and you’ve got a killer nutrition tracker that will set you up for dietary success in 2025.
Find out more at Cronometer.com
Eager for better sleep but wary of supplements, pills and prescription medications? Check out the Sleep Reset app. Not only will it offer you an in-depth assessment of your sleep habits, as well as point out important areas of improvement, it will also create a structured sleep plan for you to follow using the latest behavioral science and cognitive restructuring techniques, helping to attack your sleep problems at the root. There’s even a helpful library of meditations and mindfulness exercises designed to help you relax and prepare your body for a deeper sleep.
Find out more at TheSleepReset.com
One of the most innovative products we’ve ever encountered, Lumen’s Metabolism Tracker puts a personalized metabolism measuring device in the palm of your hands, giving you up-to-the-minute information on whether your body is primarily burning fats or carbohydrates for fuel. It works by measuring the CO₂ concentration in your breath and then presenting you with an extremely intuitive chart that tells you, at a glance, how your body is working and how you can eat and train to best attain your health goals.
It’s 2025, and we’re officially done with allowing weight to be the only relevant metric in tracking our health. The latest smart scales take important variables like muscle mass, bone density and visceral fat into the equation, giving you a much more detailed picture of your body composition and physical health, and the best of the bunch is easily the Withings Body Segment. You don’t just step on this scale; you also hold on to a handle to get detailed information about your body composition, an evaluation of your arterial age, and a medical-grade electrocardiogram fully capable of detecting cardiac anomalies. Impressed? We certainly were!