I used to find it silly to buy special gym clothes. In sports, I had a few pairs of shorts and a bunch of tank tops, most of them from some camp or tournament, and that did the trick.
Then I started teaching fitness, which is when I started making sure I looked the part.
And I realized something: even though you’re just going to get it all sweaty, it kinda does matter what you wear to the gym.
The better you feel, the better you’ll do.
This is true for the office and it’s true for the gym. If you love your gym clothes and feel like you look good in them, you’ll be more confident which will lead to a better workout. It also helps if you’re not worried about the clothes flipping up or falling down–you can focus on what you came to do.
High-quality, specific gear makes a difference.
I’m not the one to recommend the $90 yoga pants when there are tons of excellent $20 yoga pants, but for some activities you want to make sure you’ve got high quality, activity-specific gear. Buying actual bike shorts will make your cycling class a lot more comfortable. Make sure you’re running in running shoes and doing kickboxing in cross-trainers. For that matter, buy a real yoga mat for yoga, rather than relying on another sort of exercise mat that might be too cushy or not sticky enough.
Comfort is key.
Exercise gets uncomfortable sometimes, and that’s ok–that’s part of it! But you don’t want uncomfortable clothes to hinder your workout. We’ve all seen the people working on the elliptical in jeans, right? It makes me cringe to imagine how hot and sweaty I would be if I were wearing jeans, how irritating the waistband would be. The wrong clothes in the wrong activity can cause all manner of annoyances aside from excessive heat and sweat: sagging, bunching, revealing, not supporting, and, the worst, chafing.
Having special clothes makes the activity special.
When else are you going to wear those colorful running tights but to work out? Your gym clothes should be reserved for physical activity–and that goes double for your shoes. Your gym shoes are your gym shoes: they are not for gardening, cleaning, or going to the store. In fact, I never even wear my gym shoes to the gym–I change into them there.
Do you take care in choosing gym clothes? What do you wear to work out?