When most people talk about fitness, usually only the physical training and nutrition are brought up. A big part of training is also the type of equipment we like to use too. Over the years, I found that I have developed some favorites when it comes to my attire, gym bag components, and even some things I keep at home. Many times when someone is starting their fitness journey for the first time, or even getting back into it after a period of not exercising, purchasing some new gym accessories can be a good motivator. So I thought it would be a fun idea to run through some of my favorite my training gear.
Attire:
Cotton Hoodies
I don’t know why, but i'm not a huge fan of that synthetic workout material for my hoodies. A lot of my tanks are made with it, but I don’t like it with long sleeves. Since I live in the the midwest, it is often chilly many months out of the year. Therefore I like to wear a hoodie for a few sets to let my body get warm and not train with cold muscles/joints.
Basketball Shorts
I may wear sweatpants to the gym, but I almost never train in them. I usually feel restricted when wearing sweatpants whenever I move around. Like when I bend at my knee and it feels like they are gunna let my ass crack show. Therefore I’ve always felt most comfortable wearing shorts.
Sweatpants
If I do wear sweatpants, it would usually be if I am deadlifting. It doesn't bother me too much to have the bar ride my shins, but sometimes they get a little too beat up. Sweatpants allow for my legs to not get scraped up from the bar. I will also wear them to the gym over my shorts heading to the gym when it’s cold, but once I warm up a bit I take them off.
Nikes/Converse
So I have two training shoes. One for squats and deadlifts, then a pair for all other training. I used to only wear Nikes, and would take my shoes off just for squats and deadlifts to have a flatter foot, but after one Christmas I used some of my giftcards to get some converse that I love. I like the Converse a lot for squatting and deadlifting, and will sometimes forget to switch them out in my bag for my other training days. Every pair of Nikes I’ve gotten have been super comfortable, and I like to have some sort of athletic shoe when I choose to do cardio as well.
Wireless Earbuds
After ripping out wired earbuds while curling, or having my phone fall out of my pocket when laying on a bench to only have my earbuds go flying with them, I have to say I love wireless headphones. The only downside to mine.... I forget to charge the darn things. So a lot of times I am subjected to whatever music is playing in the gym while training. I do love having wireless ones though, and don’t know if I could ever go back to wired ones for training.
Gym Bag:
Knee sleeves
These have a dual use. First I use them on movements such as squats, leg press, and lunges to help keep compression on my knees. But I also utilize them during deadlifts. Since I am not a huge fan of wearing sweatpants while training, during deadlifts I will position these around my shins to act as guards. They add way more protection than sweatpants ever did, and allow for maximum movement. These aren’t needed by everyone, and I actually trained without them for years. I only recently picked them up because I had gift cards and had wanted to try them out for a long time.
Wrist wraps
I personally started wearing these when I injured one of my wrists. I’m not even fully sure how I did it, I just woke up one morning and I could barely move it. I think I either slept on it all night in a weird way and it was a freak accident. Or I injured it while training chest the day before and it didn’t hurt until I woke up the next morning, or it even could have been a combination of both. Either way, I was becoming very frustrated with not being able to train normally. So after doing some research I stumbled upon the idea of using wraps. I wore them for training (mainly Push movements) consistently for a really long time. Sometimes I would try to not use them, and my wrists would start to bother me after a few weeks. Finally while recovering from another injury, I made it a point to kind of rehab my wrists as well, and have been able to not wear them recently. Not that there's anything wrong with wearing them I just wanted to see if I could get away from them a majority of the time. I keep them in my bag still in case there is ever a day my wrists seem to give me a problem. If they start to bother me, I’ll just throw my wraps on for the rest of my workout.
Straps
Once I started to get a little stronger, I noticed it was a little hard to grip the weight on certain movements, even though the rest of my body was strong enough to perform it. So I decided to try out straps. They are mainly utilized for back movements, and I usually don’t use them for the whole workout. I typically use them on deadlifts, weighted pull-up, and heavy rows. Sometimes I will utilize them when I am doing higher rep training and my forearms hurt before my back, or other times I don’t want to have to think about squeezing the weight and rather focus on the contraction of my back during the movement. I bought the fancier ones on accident, they happened to be the first ones I picked up when I was at the store. The normal looped ones work just great too.
Belt
So when I bought my first belt, I didn’t fully understand what its purpose was. I believed it was to add support just by itself while wearing it. Then I learned from research after the fact, it is used for helping you brace your core better while performing lifts. The first one I bought was not bad for learning how brace properly with a belt. After using it for some time, the velcro has become a little worn, and I have actually made it come undone during a lift from bracing. I have upgraded to a thick leather belt. I personally like ones without the padding. The padding made wearing the belt feel awkward. I do sometimes get bruises from it when I change where the notch is due to weight fluctuation. It may be because this one may be a little on the wide side, but all in all I am definitely happy with it.
Bands
I don’t have many of them, but they are great for stretching. I would recommend if you were going to buy any, buy the green one and then the red one to start out. Between these two sizes you will be able to stretch out your whole body. A lot of people use them during their actual training too. I personally haven’t utilized any out while actually lifting.
Dip/pull-up belt
I really enjoy doing pull-ups and dips. They are great compound movements that work a lot of muscles in a lot of ways. Once you get strong enough, these movements eventually become a little easy with just doing your bodyweight. A common way to add resistance is by holding a dumbbell between your feet, which can be a little awkward. A dip/pull-up belt is a super easy way to add weight to these exercises in a comfortable way. I’ve loaded as little as 5lbs on it for when I started doing weighted pull-ups, and have gone as heavy as 55lbs on dips. I’ve seen people at my gym load theirs with a lot more. These are a great tool for anyone at any skill level to use.
Drink Container
The three main brands I like for drink containers are BlenderBottle, Tervis, and SmartShake. Typically I use Blenderbottles when I am going to the gym because I really like the little loop they have on the cap that makes it easy to carry with my bag and phone. Then if I am only bringing plain water I will use one of my tervis water bottles because they keep it cold for so long, and also have the fancy loop at the top. Then if I know I won’t get to stop at home before the gym, I’ll use one of my SmartShaker cups to carry all my supplements in and have ready for when I do train.
At Home:
Foam rollers, Massage Balls, Peanut roller
I really like to use these when I am stretching at home. It feels great to really deep massage all of my muscles, especially the ones that I trained that day. I have also noticed that I am typically less sore when I roll out on my massagers. The foam rollers work great for bigger muscle groups like my legs, lats, chest, and middle back. The massage balls work great for small muscle groups, or really targeting a specific one. I will even lean into a wall with them to hit some muscles that would be hard to hit laying down such as my shoulders, bi’s and tri’s. A peanut roller is great for your lower back. It really allows you to target the two smaller main lower back muscles without pressing on your spine. I’d like to use them everyday, but often times I forget. Therefore I make my best effort to use these at least a few times per week.