It doesn’t matter what your sport is, or whether you’re training or racing: You’re more likely to maximize your performance if you’re comfortable with the gear that you're using. Take CrossFit. This multi-skill training program combines strength and conditioning exercises that force you to adapt to your explosive-cardio and endurance thresholds, quickly. To be comfortable, you need gear that functions at all intensity levels for a broad range of exercises. We’re talking shoes that provide support for lifting and rope climbing, shorts that move with you and compress in all the right places and boxers that don’t give you a wedgie during kettlebell sets.
Several sports gear companies (Reebok, most notably) have been responding to the country's recent obsession with CrossFit by launching dozens of new high-intensity interval training products.
We took the opportunity to check out some of the coolest and most promising-looking new options, putting them to our own real-world sweat test. The 15 finalists we're revealing here do more than just keep up with you as you move—their designs may actually help you improve your workout of the day.
In this special-edition of The Fit 5, two mixed martial artists, Johny Hendricks and Jamie Varner give us an inside look into living life as a pro fighter.
![]()
Copyright © 2013 Weider Publications, LLC, a subsidiary of American Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
