Choosing The Right Clothes For The Gym: Rock The Right Gear When You’re Doing A Workout

What Should I Wear To The Gym? Get­ting gor­geous for your pro­fes­sion­al life is a no-brain­er – you’ve been doing that for ages, and your style nev­er falters. But the gym is anoth­er sto­ry. You’re com­mit­ted to work­ing out four or five times a week, but putting effort into what you’re wear­ing just seems to take time, time that your busy life real­ly can’t spare. Why look great when you’re just going to sweat it out and toss the clothes into the laun­dry ham­per when you’ve fin­ished work­ing out? Because look­ing great at the gym can make your work­out more effec­tive, that’s why. Do we have your atten­tion now? Thought so! Stud­ies show that when women put time and atten­tion into their gym gear, they work out hard­er for extend­ed peri­ods. And that means that look­ing good makes your fit­ness reg­i­men more effec­tive by increas­ing your heart rate and burn­ing more calo­ries and stored fat. And it makes you feel good about your­self, too, so why not treat your gym clothes like any oth­er out­fit in your clos­et?  Why not wear what makes you look and feel great even when you’re doing a workout? Here are some tips for mak­ing the most of how you look at the gym, what you should choose for dif­fer­ent work­outs, and what fab­rics are best for par­tic­u­lar activ­i­ties. (All the brands we men­tion here are avail­able for pur­chase on Amazon.)

1- Foundation First – Buy a Good Sports Bra!

                                                                                               Before pil­ing on lycra in shiny colours, pay atten­tion to your under­neath stuff first. It does­n’t mat­ter how small or how big bust­ed you are – when you work out, you need sup­port. That is espe­cial­ly true if you’re bounc­ing on a tread­mill or par­tic­i­pat­ing in a high-inten­si­ty aer­o­bics class. Many com­pa­nies like Lul­ule­mon offer work­out clothes with bras built-in, which offer enough sup­port if you do yoga or Pilates. But for high-impact work­outs, buy a sep­a­rate bra with sol­id sup­ports under­neath and along the sides. The “girls” will thank you for it! Have a look at long­line sports bras online; this fit­ness gear com­pa­ny sells bras that offer all dif­fer­ent styles and lev­els of sup­port: racer­back, under­wire, padded and non-padded, and many more.

2- Choose Colours That Compliment You

Coor­di­nate cloth­ing that works with your skin tone. Choose sep­a­rates (like work­out pants or leg­gings) and a vari­ety of tops in dif­fer­ent colours. Per­son­al­ly, I’m a big fan of basic black for most of my leg­gings, and I switch up my tops depend­ing on the activ­i­ty I’m under­tak­ing that day. This is an eco­nom­i­cal approach, too, as work­out clothes can be pricey, as good ones are made of spe­cial lycra and cot­ton blends that breathe and stretch.

3- Speaking Of Leggings

                                                                                           High waist leg­gings are big these days and for a good rea­son. They are more mod­est than the ones that rise to just below your bel­ly but­ton – that in itself is a good rea­son to con­sid­er them. But they offer not just cov­er­age but also core con­trol and tum­my flat­ten­ing, and who can’t use a lit­tle of that in the gym? This style also works well with street clothes, which means you can toss a leather or den­im jack­et on top and head out to the gym from home dressed in your work­out gear. The same is true of yoga pants – they are fine for a casu­al cof­fee date or drop­ping the kids at school before head­ing for your workout. Gym clothes aren’t just for the gym any­more. One more thing – opt for seam­less yoga pants or leg­gings, rather than the old-fash­ioned kind. Seams can be itchy, or shift too eas­i­ly, or tear when stress is placed on them. Seam­less leg­gings are a big trend in 2021 and for plen­ty of good reasons.

4- Speaking Of Fabric

When you work up a sweat at the gym, you don’t want to be wear­ing any kind of poly­ester fab­ric that does­n’t breathe. Fur­ther­more, the fab­ric should wick mois­ture away from your skin, pre­vent­ing you from over­heat­ing and becom­ing uncomfortable.  Qual­i­ty work­out clothes are usu­al­ly a blend of lycra (for stretch) and cot­ton, and that’s the ide­al com­bo for cardio.

5 ‑The Gear Should Be Appropriate For The Activity

Loose cloth­ing (like a bag­gy T‑shirt) is fine for the tread­mill. But when you’re engaged in an activ­i­ty like yoga or weight train­ing, you need to see your mus­cles respond to the demand you’re plac­ing on them. We aren’t sug­gest­ing tight-fit­ting cropped tops – not by any means! But your clothes should allow you to check your form occa­sion­al­ly, and your pants should­n’t be so long that they inter­fere with move­ment or impede your steps. Trip­ping in the gym is dan­ger­ous!  Essen­tial­ly, you need semi-fit­ted cloth­ing for these work­outs, but they should be com­fort­able, appro­pri­ate and make you feel good about your­self and how you look.

6- Don’t Forget To Choose The Right Shoes And Socks

                                                                                             You may be tak­ing yoga, and that means bare feet once you’re on your mat. But traips­ing through the gym in bare feet isn’t just unsight­ly; it’s unhealthy and prob­a­bly against your gym’s rules and regulations. Invest in a good pair of sneak­ers you wear only in the gym, ones with good sup­port and a great fit. That way, when you decide to take an aer­o­bics class, yoga or a weight train­ing ses­sion, you’ll be all set. It can be tricky buy­ing shoes online, we know, but that may be your only option, depend­ing on how relaxed the coro­n­avirus pre­ven­tion mea­sures are where you live. Ask a train­er at your gym for coun­sel on this, and be sure you can return them, no ques­tions asked, if you do pur­chase run­ning shoes online.

7- Patterns, Solids and Prints – Oh My!

So much to choose from these days! Are you con­fi­dent enough to rock a bold plaid on your fit­ness clothes, or do you pre­fer some­thing more calm and sedate? No mat­ter which way you lean, there is a work­out out­fit to meet your style preference. Flo­rals, plaids and stripes are every­where, and if you’re a fan of those in your office wardrobe, why not try them when choos­ing your work­out wardrobe? The only rule these days about pat­terns and colours is that there are no rules! Wear pink on top and black and white stripes on the bot­tom, or neon green for both. Your choic­es should be deter­mined sole­ly by what you love, the activ­i­ty you’re doing in the gym, and what makes you feel won­der­ful when you wear it.

8- Opt For a Set To Keep It Simple

If you’re not a fan of surf­ing fit­ness gear web­sites and want to keep it sim­ple and quick, choose a set – bot­toms, top and even a jack­et to throw on after your workout. Like Nike and Adi­das, many stal­wart com­pa­nies offer an array of these sets that are com­fort­able, gor­geous and made for dif­fer­ent activ­i­ties. Buy two sets so you can switch them out when one set gets sweaty and tossed into the laundry.

Last but not least!

Dress­ing for the gym isn’t a mat­ter of toss­ing on an old T‑shirt and yank­ing on worn-out leg­gings any­more, and thank heav­ens for that! Now, women of all shapes, sizes and ages can look mar­vel­lous when work­ing out, as more and more activewear com­pa­nies have lis­tened to what women want and need in this cru­cial aspect of their lives. You look gor­geous in every oth­er sphere of your life – when you’re at work, when you’re social­iz­ing and enter­tain­ing – so why not look great when you’re work­ing out? You’re in the gym to get healthy and beau­ti­ful, and the gear you wear should reflect those goals. And don’t just dress for the body you have, dress for the body you’re work­ing on getting! Com­fort, style and stretch should be your guid­ing prin­ci­ples when choos­ing a work­out wardrobe, so keep those in mind, and start shopping!