The best early Amazon Prime Day fitness deals

• Current price: $49.98
• Original price: $40.49

Look, there are as many opinions about which weights to use as there are vendors selling weights. But the fact is, if you lift heavy things enough, using the proper form, you'll get fit. It's very important to be conscious of your form (how you place your limbs and move your muscles), but the individual brand of weight isn't that critical.

Yes, some weights are padded, some have different grippy material, some stack better, and so forth. Those are all nice when it comes to convenience, but whether or not you have grippy weights will not determine whether you get strong biceps.

I do like this set, though, because it's small and compact, yet allows you to adjust the amount of weight you're lifting. You can mix and match weights, lifting two weights weighing 5 pounds up to 20 pounds. I tend to prefer heavier weights, but progressively increasing or decreasing weight during a workout is also a good practice. Bottom line: For about forty bucks, you can have a nice weight set that will build muscle.

• Current price: $59.99
• Original price: $24.99

I'm gonna confess something to you right here and now. My exercise routine is riding the elliptical for cardio and lifting weights for strength. Doing some kind of torture hula hoop is not my idea of fun. And let's just say that I'm worried about exactly where that swinging ball will land.

But I did watch the video and the idea appears to be that you use this as a weighted fitness loop. You rotate your pelvis and the weight flies around you. Be careful: don't stand too close to anything you might slam that weight into, or pounds won't be the only thing you lose.

Like I said, this isn't something I would ever use. But it does have a whole lot of positive reviews and it is an Amazon best seller. So, if this is your thing, then this thing is now discounted. Enjoy.

• Current price: $20.00
• Original price: $29.99

This, my friends, is a yoga mat. It is a mat... for yoga. In terms of special features, it can be rolled. It can be folded. You can stand on it. You can sit on it. You can roll on it. And you can do downward dog on it. You can stretch and become more limber.

So why did we choose this particular yoga mat to spotlight? Well, beyond all the features described above, it's pretty. And it's on sale. Yoga, assuming you don't tie yourself into a pretzel and can't get out, is good for you. A yoga mat makes doing yoga better. And this mat makes doing yoga just a bit less expensive.

Namaste, y'all.

• Current price: $249.99
• Original price: $399.99

So far, in our Prime Day fitness roundup, we've spotlighted stretching. We spotlighted strength training. We even spotlighted spinning projectile hula hooping. But we haven't yet spotlighted one of the most important exercise categories of them all: cardio.

This bike makes up for all that. You know how, when we were kids, we went outside and rode our bikes? Over time, we grew more and more enamored with our screens and the Blue Room became less and less appealing. Some of us even think we'll burst into flame if exposed to direct sunlight. It's true. We think that.

This bike works just like those bikes we had as kids, except you never have to see the sun and never have to go outside. You can peddle and peddle and peddle and never go anywhere, which sometimes seems like a too-perfect reflection of our #adulting lives overall. But this bike is on sale. It's easy to assemble (or so the reviews and the vendor assure us). It's got resistance breaking. And it won't break the bank.

So ride, my friends, ride. Peddle as fast as you can, secure in the knowledge that you won't go anywhere, encounter anyone, or accomplish anything. Except, perhaps, strengthening your heart. And that's a good thing. 

• Current price: $30.00
• Original price: $25.50

Resistance bands can be very useful as adjuncts to strength training. They're also great if you need to travel and it's inconvenient to bring your weights with you. 

What we have here is a set of four resistance bands, with resistance equivalents ranging from 15 pounds to 50 pounds. You can double bands up, to gain more fine-tuned resistance levels, if you need more intensity.

We like the four colors of these bands, making it easy to quickly determine your weight resistance. Plus, if you do a bit of studying, you can replicate many of the exercises you'd do on big gym machines with just a set of bands and something to pull against, which could be a door, or even a tree. They're cost and space effective, and they're on sale.