Gym attire

Intro
An entire article on what to wear to the gym? It might seem a bit excessive, but if you’ve been to the gym recently and seen some of the…”interesting” clothing choices people make, perhaps you’ll understand why I wrote this article.

It’s gotta be the shoes
The most important piece of clothing you should worry about is the shoes you are wearing. Put away the sandals and forget the skate shoes with 10-foot laces. Leave those torn-up, old athletic shoes in the closet. Instead, invest in a quality pair of cross-trainers. Take the time to make sure they fit WELL, not just that they fit. Athletic shoes come in widths from 4A to 4E and lengths from 5-18, so there’s no excuse to go to the gym in an ill-fitting pair. I like saving money as much as anyone, but if you’re paying less than $30 retail for the pair, you probably don’t want to buy it as your gym shoe.

Sweatin’ to the oldies
During the aerobics craze of the 1980’s, it was all the rage to wear a sweatsuit to do your workout. Along the way, everyone has probably thought, “well, if some sweat is good, more must be better, right?” Not really. While it’s true you’re going to the fitness center to sweat, that’s not the real goal. You want to burn fat, build muscle and get fit. Sweat is not an indicator of how hard you worked out, especially when it’s artificially induced by the amount of clothing you’re wearing. So what is sweat? Sweat is nothing more than your body’s way to remove excess heat. Even while you’re working out, your body wants your core temperature to stay pretty close to 98.5°. When you work out, your body’s systems all heat up, and the only way for the body to bring your core temperature down is to sweat. In addition to heat, the body also sweats out both water and salt, two nutrients that are critical for your health.

So ditch the sweatsuit; sweating more doesn’t necessarily mean your workout was any harder. It means your body is devoting extra energy to removing excess heat that could have been better spent burning fat. If you’re cold when you first get to the gym but warm up quickly, try layering instead.

Fashionable thinking
One thing that many people seem to forget is the fitness center is not a fashion show. Most people are coming to work out, not people watch. Perfume and hairspray are not necessary. A shower sometime that day and a little deodorant are all you really need. Big jackets, combat boots, fashion hats and sunglasses do not make you look tough. Jeans are just ridiculous. Not only do the brads rip up the workout benches, have you ever tried to move in sweaty jeans? They stick to your legs and make it hard to move freely!

Comfortable, light clothing that breathes well is the only clothing you need in the gym.

Nice material
Everyone has a closet full of cotton shirts they never wear. This is probably the most common gym attire that you will see. If the shirt is comfortable and loose, there’s nothing wrong with it at all! Once you really start to enjoy your fitness routine, you might start thinking about investing in some different clothes. Cotton is comfortable and it makes great loungewear, but what happens when it gets wet? It sticks to your skin, and instead of passing heat, it holds it in! When you’re ready to move away from cotton, there are many different companies that make clothes with a polyester/spandex blend that not only helps evaporate moisture to keep the clothes from sticking to your skin, it also moves the heat away from your body. You can get form-fitting fabrics if you like to have clothes close to your body or looser fabrics if your want to keep cool without showing off your progress.

Accessories
Leave the jewelry at home. Yes, your wedding rings, too! There’s more than one verified case of someone losing a finger because their ring got stuck somewhere it shouldn’t have been. That big, expensive watch is just waiting to accidentally hit a pole. Your dangly earrings are likely to get caught on a cable. And if you must carry a cell phone, make sure it’s for emergencies only. The only accessories you really need are a water bottle, a towel and a small piece of paper with your workout printed on it.

Summary
It’s not rocket science, but if you take a few minutes to think about what you wear, it’s easy to avoid looking like or training like a dumbbell.


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