Well, here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: the most interesting gadget crossing my desk this week costs less than a fancy coffee. Lidl is releasing a Hand Grip Exerciser for £3.99, and if you buy two, they'll knock the pair down to £6. You can read the full details over at AOL's coverage.

Now, the claim being made in the coverage, that grip training "helps lower high blood pressure," deserves a gentle unpacking. That's the pitch on the product, and I can't verify the science behind it from here. So let me be your aunt about this for a second. A £4 grip trainer is a lovely little gadget, but it is not medicine. If you have high blood pressure, you keep taking whatever your doctor prescribed, you keep moving, and you ask them about grip training at your next appointment rather than treating a supermarket gadget like a treatment. I've watched too many gadgets over the decades arrive with health claims stamped on the box and quietly outlive them...

What I genuinely like here is the price and the simplicity. I remember when home fitness gear meant a bulky contraption from a catalogue that became a clothes rack within a month. A hand grip is the opposite. It fits in a drawer, it survives being dropped, and you can use it while watching television. My granddaughter Jess keeps one in her bag for fidgeting, which, come to think of it, is maybe the best use case of all.

The two-for-£6 deal makes sense if there's a second person in the house, since these things have a way of wandering off to wherever the good pens disappear to.

Technology should work for you, and sometimes the tech that works hardest is the least flashy thing on the shelf. If you spot one at your local Lidl, four quid for a hand grip is a perfectly sensible impulse buy. Just promise me you'll talk to your doctor about the blood pressure part and not the supermarket aisle.