On this page, you will find all the tools I love and can wholeheartedly recommend to you. This list is an ongoing project and I will update it regularly – set a bookmark if you like.
- My goal is to create an overview for you of the best tools, books, and daily life helpers available avoiding the whole marketing bullshit.
- All the links are affiliate links* – which means with your purchase I get a small amount of money – without any additional costs for you.
- With each purchase, you support my work here. I truly thank you for your support!
Nowadays everyone recommends stuff and affiliates. Some are awesome, but most recommend tools that suck – just because they get high returns for that recommendation. But let’s skip that.
Here you’ll find the best-valued equipment, supplements, and tools which improved my life a lot – and I am sure they can help you, too.
Table of Contents
Hide
My 5 All-Time Favorites
- Kindle Paperwhite – E-Readers are awesome! You can take them wherever you want, they won’t take any space, and even reading late in bed will work out without lighting up your bedroom. Just think about how often a day there’s ’empty time’ in which you could use more wisely. Waiting at the doctor’s, riding a bus, or while driving to work.
- Audible Podcasts & eBooks – Likewise the previous point, these are great to fill empty time. You can even listen to podcasts with your Kindle nowadays. Crazy. Great ideas are to listen to podcasts on the way to work or while working out. There are awesome teachers out there which share their knowledge for free.
- I can wholeheartedly recommend Dan van Zandt’s ‘Flexibility Focus‘, Jordan Peterson’s ‘Biblical Series‘ and ‘Maps of Meaning Lectures‘, the ‘GMB Fitness Show‘, Lex Fridman’s ‘AI Podcast‘, Jessie Lawler’s ‘Smart Drugs Smarts‘ and the ‘Handstandcast‘.
- Stretchable Climbing Jeans – These are the leggings for men. Just without looking so feminine and instead masculine as heck. They’re comfortable, offer you lots of range and because made for the rock very robust. Squats are no issue, even front splits work out quite well. Say goodbye to rigid, movement inhibiting jeans.
- Microsoft’s OneDrive for Families – never thought Microsoft would stand here. My brother bought their family suite and I have to admit it is awesome, especially if you take lots of photos and work a lot on your laptop. #bloggerproblems
- For 99$ a year you got 1TB of cloud storage + the whole office suite for 5 family members. Each. You can hardly beat that.
- 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson – This book transforms lives, man. At least it did mine. If you had to solely choose one item from my list – let it be this. It tries to address the problem of getting one’s act together, of finding meaning in our modern world, by being a responsible and strong individual. Read more in the psychology section.
Calisthenics Equipment you’ll love
- Wooden Gymnastic Rings : These two beauties by Pullup & Dip will transform your training! A whole new world opens up. Because of their instability, they add a layer of complexity that can truly turn yourself into a beast with healthy shoulders. Ever seen gymnasts perform on the rings? You can read here more about them in my Posts.
- Wooden Paralettes: Paralettes offer like rings many benefits and change your training. The biggest plus is that they’re pretty nice to your wrists, because of the neutral position. For people with wrist issues or folks training lots of handstands these can avoid injuries. Besides the big ones I really enjoy these smaller ones for travel.
- Climbers Hangboard: Rip your Grip with this awesome tool. Hangboards challenge your grips and will build insanely strong fingers. As a fair warning though – this is only for the experiences pullers which can manage their intensity well.
- Doorframe Pullup Bar: A pullup bar at home is a great thing. You can hang down whenever you want, blast a few pullups throughout the day à la grease the groove, or perform your whole workout there. You could even hang Gymnastic Rings down from a stable setup. This setup is very safe – I would never use the expanding ones!
- Dip Bars: With Rings, P-Bars, a Pullup Bar, and some Bands you have your homegym nearly complete! The only thing missing is higher dip bars – not only for dips but especially to train front levers.
- Weightvest: After a certain amount of reps strength gains reduce and one challenges more the cardiovascular system. In these cases adding weights is the way to get stronger. Plus, a vest is an easy way to further load up stretches or even your runs. Additional Weightplates are useful for this purpose, as well as Dumbbells or Clubbells.
- Ankleweights: Especially regarding leg lifts, l-sits and special mobility exercises ankle weights are a great tool! Adding half a kg of weight to your ankles will transform fairly simple leg lifts into hell of an exercise.
- Broomstick: Get a Wooden Broomstick at your local discounter. These are great for mobility purposes. You can easily add weightplates to them to perform Shoulder Dislocates, Jefferson curls, or load up your Pancake Stretch.
- Resistance Bands: Resistance Bands are awesome for lots of reasons. They make for a great warmup, can assist you while doing mobility, or even help you to work on more difficult progressions. These are a must-have for anyone.
- Liquid Chalk: No one likes slipping away – not only while training. Therefore, avoid it at least within the gym and get chalk. If you’ve never tried chalk, you will be surprised how much more force you can produce. Plus, not slipping away will protect your hand’s skin.
and for the upside-down Addicts
- Handstand Blocks: Although a pair of wooden blocks might sound pretty useless they offer a few benefits. Especially are blocks lighter on your wrist than the floor. If you look to relive your wrists a bit – give them a try!
- Wrist Wraps: These offer additional support, but most importantly they keep your wrist joint warm. I found there are only two factions – folks who love wrist wraps and that hate them. Which one are you? Read more on wrist health here.
- Awesome Handbalance Programs: The two big names behind HandstandFactory are Emmet Louis and Mikael Kristansen which together with their team create awesome handbalancing programs for many different levels. I really love their style and the thought they put into their products.
The best Supplements
to stay healthy
- Vitamin D3 + Vitamin K2 : This synergistic combo will save you from the winter blues, keep colds at bay, and support your overall bone density. I would advise anyone to supplement it, as most people in our world get way too little sun. Read more about all these and the following supplements here.
- Vitamin C: Do you eat your veggies? Great, I am proud of you! If not, Vitamin C in higher doses (~1g) can help you to keep colds at bay. Just make sure to drink enough.
- Melatonin: Probably the best sleeping aid you could take referring to what modern science says. There are many scary ones around, but melatonin is none of them. It saved my *** many jetlags and post-nightshift sleeping issues. Read more about Melatonin in this post.
- Fish Oil: Fish Oil aka Omega-3-Fatty-Acids are together with vitamin D3 one of the substances many of us nowadays gets too little. Regarding their anti-inflammatory potential, there are few exceptions to that recommendation.
to improve your athletic Performance
- Caffeine + L-Theanine: this duo gets you ready for action. Period. Even for my caffeine-addicted *** it works. Take 200mg of both combined and have fun. Both support each other’s effect for the better and the result is what science refers to as Calm Focus. Read more about it here.
- Creatine – The single-best researched supplement there is. Probably not even your dad’s heart medication interested that many scientists. Creatine can help you to build strength, run longer, and probably even think better. Wanna know more?
- Tasty Protein Powder: My recommendation would be to mix 20g of Casein with 30g of Wheyprotein. Both offer unique benefits and support each other splendidly, especially post-workout. Buy both in bulk and you’ll save lots of money. Read more about protein powders here.
- L-Arginine + Citrullinmalat: Up to get an insane pump? Do not look any further. Take 5g of the former with 8g of the latter and go for high reps. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Gadgets for your Daily Life
- Blender Bottle: I really like this metal shaker by MyP. Get rid of one-way water bottles and coffee-to-go. It serves me well throughout the day, fits more than 1l, and survived a long-*** time with me. If that’s not recommendation enough, I don’t know what might be.
- Reusable Water Jug: For the Gym this half-gallon water jug is awesome! Go once to the water refill and you are good. Plus, drinking one bottle each session is a great benchmark to stick to.
- Collapsible Meal Prep Boxes: These are awesome, especially for the office or when traveling. Pack them full of food and after eating you won’t notice them in your bag anymore. These are BPA-free and should be of no concern health-wise.
- Glass Food Boxes: If you have some issues with silicone, choose these glass containers. Although the former mentioned ones shouldn’t emit any harmful substances, one never knows completely. X-Ray radiation was once considered harmless, too and used to choose the right shoe size. #funfact
- Fitbit Charge 4: These little gadgets are awesome and very powerful to get a rough estimate of your overall well-being. If you are a data-fetishist like me and love moving these will be awesome for you. What I especially like is the sleep-tracking.
- Bluetooth In-Ears: Bluetooth Earbuds are life-changing. I would’ve never guessed that beforehand. I own these two from Anker now for half a year, and they sustain everything – running, handstands, blogging for hours. Check.
Improve your Recovery
- Blackroll + Blackball + Gua Sha: These three try to loosen your soft tissues. Gua Sha is simply the hardcore variant. While they aren’t a fix for everything, the use before training or stretching can actually help to perform better.
- Neckmassagetool: I randomly encountered this gadget and it is a boon for the from handstands suffering neck. It feels awesome and your traps will feel loosened up. Consider this beauty if your spouse is not willing or non-existent.
- Voodoo Floss: These elastic bands’ purpose is to restrict your bloodflow. Why would one want to do this? In experienced hands, it can be a valuable tool to improve recovery, warm-up an extremity, or even train while occluded. Read more about its safe use here.
- Gyroball: This gadget is hard to explain – best have a look at the product video. Its use is to get a quick forearm pump – remember more blood equals better recovery. And this accomplishes the gyroball quickly!
- Light Alarm Clock: No one likes alarm clocks. Light Alarm Clocks are a softer and more natural way of waking up, by resembling the sunrise in your bedroom. Plus, the natural light offers many other benefits, although they’re definitely no proper replacement to chasing the beauty of natures sunrises.
- Neck Pillow: Get an awesome pillow – and a hard mattress. You spent about 30% of your life in bed, therefore improving sleep quality improves your life per definition. Why a hard one? Although it might be counterintuitive these help back pain and promote movement throughout the entire night – the last thing you want is to lie down 8h in the same position as a dead body.
Clothing made to Last
Simple, but useful Sportswear
- Boulder Denim: Man these are great – these are like leggings for men. You wanna squat in Jeans? No issue. I even tried a middle split. Worked out. Plus, they’re very durable, as rocks are not the nicest to one’s equipment most of the time.
- Shorts by Nike: No fancy stuff, just the good old basic shorts one needs for his sessions.
- Shirts by Puma: The classic Puma Tee. I found these best, besides Tank Tops, especially for handstands. Most of the time the gold standard, going raw, isn’t tolerated in gyms.
- Joggers by Adidas: The iconic 3-Stripes. In my opinion, the best bottom for handstands and calisthenics. Plus, blogging when there’s no social institution around to penalize you for sitting in joggers in front of your screen for hours.
- #Tucklife Tank: Probably the best companion for being upside down and spreading the word.
Barefoot Shoes
- Stealth III – The best workout shoot for barefoot enthusiasts. I owned 2 of them for ~4 years in total and am totally satisfied with their quality. Try them out!
- Tracker II – For any outdoor lover these are the best barefoot companions. Actually they’re pretty light compared to other rigid hiking boots – the minimalist style.
- Primus Lite II – great everyday and workout barefoot shoe. They look great, are thin, and expose your foot to the stress it desperately craves.
The best Books I came across
Learn about Training
Bodyweighttraining:
- Steven Low’s ‘Overcoming Gravity’ – it is a great book outlining bodyweight specific programming and the path to many skills. From beginner to superhuman, Pullup to Manna.
- Have a look at my free ebook From Zero, as it resembles a free workout program especially for beginners and try-outs.
Programming:
- Eric Helms ‘Muscle and Strength Pyramid’ – Probably one of the fundamental works every athlete should read. It explains the main parameters (e.g. Volume, Cadence, etc.) to manipulate your training.
- Thomas Kurz ‘Peak Performance’ – This book shows you how to style your program intra-week. When is the best time to train strength, when skills? Mobility before or after my strength work? How does cardio fit into that frame?
- Half & Triplett’s ‘Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning‘ – It will teach you the Ins and Outs of strength-oriented training and how you can scientifically approach this goal. Skip doing 30 sets a muscle once a week and train by proven standards.
Mobility
- Thomas Kurz ‘Stretching Scientifically’ – Probably one of the best works on Flexibility showing you many exercises and how to use them. Plus, it is well to read.
- Dan van Zandt’s Podcast ‘Flexibility Focus’ – yeah I know it’s not a book. Not even close. But it rocks anyways. And it’s free knowledge from a great teacher. Check it out!
- Check out my free mobility eBook to integrate it into your daily life, as this is what will have the biggest impact.
Get into wholistic Nutrition
- Christopher Clark’s ‘Nutritional Grail’ – This book adheres to scientific knowledge and addresses the problem of modern nutrition – especially sugar consumption.
- Earl Mindell’s ‘Vitamin Bible’ – It gives you a broad overview of the vast world of vitamins and minerals. I really like this book as a book to come back to and look up certain content.
- Diana Rogers and Robb Wolf’s ‘The Sacred Cow’ – I truly believe meat is a part of our nutrition. It isn’t necessary and everyone going against it, is free to do so – but meat offers unique benefits. Nonetheless, quality is important and this statement is what the book enforces – a Case for Better Meat.
- Sarah Ballantyne’s ‘The Paleo Approach’ – As many of you know I was strictly paleo for around 4 years, with Canada this changed a bit. Nonetheless, I truly believe this approach to nutrition could be beneficial to you, too. It is a very wholistic approach and mainly enforces what will help you succeed in nutrition – natural foods.
Develop a strong Mindset
Stoicism:
This ancient philosophy settled deep in my heart and it can be in yours. It is about radical responsibility for your soul. It’s about hardening yourself against the difficulties of life, of being the safe harbor for those around you in life’s troublesome seasons.
- Two great books to start are the Daily Stoic, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, and Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic & The Obstacle is the Way. I would start with the latter!
Psychology:
Psychology transformed into a science of understanding, of oneself, and of helping one to cope with the troubles of life. We are immensely complex and even seldom understand ourselves well. Thrown into a harsh world, we are trying to fill that hole in us and desperately want to create meaning. I found these three authors to address this topic exactly – plus a myriad of others.
- Carl Jung’s ‘Collected Works’ – up for a quest into the depth of psychology, intellectually guided by a mind-boggling genius? Start with Joseph Campbell’s Portable Jung to get a broad overview of Jung’s main ideas.
- Jordan Peterson’s ’12 Rules for Life’ – This book transforms lives. At least it did mine. If you had to solely choose one item from my list – don’t skip this one.
- Ernest Becker’s ‘Denial of Death’ – Within his masterpiece Becker tries to capture the impossible – death. And recognizes it as one of the main motivators behind nearly every motivation. He quotes many great thinkers like Kierkegaard or Otto Rank to hit his message home.
The Podcasts I listen to regularly
- Lex Fridman’s Podcast: Lex is an AI and machine-learning researcher that embarked to do a podcast interviewing other academics and intellectual leaders for high quality conversations in their field of expertise. THe Podcast mostly covers engineering, physics tech and philosophy.
- Handstandcast: The Handstandcast is HandstandFactory’s podcast on all things handbalance. High-quality knowledge on handstands, strength training, flexibility, different shapes and whatever you can imagine flavored with the occasional rant totally going off-topic into origami or Kaizo Mario. Sounds fun? Yes, you nerd.
- Jordan Peterson’s Podcast: Jordan Peterson uploaded all his works he got famous with on YouToube into his podacst. I can highly recommend his personality course and the course on the first book of the bible. Pretty recently he started interviewing folks. Highly recommended!
- Yaron Brook Show: Yaron Brook is an economist and objectivist following the philosophic framework articulated by Ayn Rand. Within his podcast he discusses this philosphy, interviews interesting thinkers and discusses everyday’s topics through his very unique lens of the world.
- High Intensity Health: Mike Mutzel is the person behind this podcast where he discusses everything ketogenic diet, fasting, cold therapy and ancestral health. He does this in a very scientific yet understandable matter and pushes the newest scientific finds. Highly recommended!
- Nordic Mythology Podcast: Within this great podcast Mathias Nordvig and Daniel Farrand ramble about everything Nordic mythology. They clear up with a lot of common misconceptions in that realm and really dig into the source material – often in old Norse. Definitely a recommendation for every Vikings fan and interested in norse mythology.
- Smart Drugs Smarts: Although dead at the day this podcast by Jessie Lawler covers a lot about supplements and nootropics. He interviews real specialists within the field and discusses with them their views on a particular substance or topic. So if you want to nerd out on creatine, choline and the like give this podcast a try!
