After diving into your fitness lifestyle, there comes a time when you start to pick up a number of items that make your daily commute to the gym more efficient. These are your essential items you always pack in your gym bag. With no further ado, here are my 15 gym bag essentials:
1. Gym shoes
This is probably the most obvious one, but quite essential for a couple of reasons: It’s shrewd to have a separate pair of shoes for your workouts especially when you look at it from a habit forming point of view. Because once your brain make the connection that each time you wear those shoes you go to the gym, it’s going to be solidified in your subconscious that once you put those shoes on, it’s gym O’clock. So it becomes a cue – an involuntary action, a trigger that gets you in the zone with no need of extra motivation.
Secondly, you could wear them right from home, but in certain weathers or seasons they might get dirty on the way. And you don’t want to be the guy coming in to the gym with dirty shoes and dirtying the whole place up. So you can just through them in your gym bag.
2. Mask & Card-Wallet
In this day and age we live today, your card wallet and mask is definitely something you can’t go anywhere without. Especially the latter sadly. So I always make sure I have a mask on stand-by in my bag. (comment down below if you’re reading this post apocalypse).
3. A box of orbit
I usually keep some gum in my gym back. Aside from the pure bliss of having a fresh breath, I just enjoy munching on something when waiting on something or doing something passive (e.g on my way to the bus stop).
4. Extra pair of boxers and shirt
Theses two are vital for obviously reasons. After a workout, the shirt and boxers you worked-out in will be sweaty (especially if you put in that good work ๐ฏ ) and you don’t want to put back your sweaty clothes after you shower (not very hygienic). So always make sure you have an extra pair of underwear and shirt in the bag.
5. Bottle of Water
This is a handy thing to have with you because you will get dehydrated. Personally, I’m not the type to take sips during my workouts, I tend to gobble down afterwards. The point is you will loose tonnes of water during a workout, so always have a bottle of water to replenish your supply.
6. Workout Handbook
This could be anything from a note book to a tiny A5 booklet. It will prove beneficial if you have a record of all your workout plans and progressions over time. It will serve as an accurate reference point to look back on and see how your body has reacted to certain exercises, what you are doing right or what you are getting wrong and how you can improve. This of course doesn’t necessarily have to be a physical booklet. You can just use your phone memo app to keep track. But either way, make sure you have a medium. This is bound to elevate your Health & fitness Lifestyle.
7. Gym Gloves
There was a time when I used to workout with no gloves. Although it’s doable, you end up getting calluses. Especially if you workout often or work with heavy loads, your palm will have swells. That’s not the sweetest experience to have trust me, especially you are just starting out. I’d recommend you to get yourself a set of durable workout gloves and throw them in your gym bag. But you can adapt and get used to working out glove-less (if you wouldn’t mind your palm hardening overtime), it is adaptable.
8. Swimming cap
This is not necessary but for those that like to take a dip in the gym pool after a workout sometimes, having a swimming cap will prove handy. In some facilities, they do provide swimming caps but again, having yours is a better option (hygienically speaking).
9. Post-Workout Protein Shake
This is a must for me. I always make sure I am stacked on Protein because of two things:
Firstly, protein is necessary for building muscles. It is vital for protein-synthesis. This is the process your body goes through to rebuild your broken muscle tissues (after a workout) into bigger, stronger ones. And without a supply of protein this will not occur. Thus protein is a very crucial pillar in the art of bodybuilding.
Secondly, it’s advised that after working out, you should replenish your body with nutrients as soon as possible (within an hour after your workout). And given that the gym is usually not just a walk across the street, it will cost you time to go back home first before eating anything. So I always keep some whey protein on the stand by so that immediately after working out I could get the photosynthesis regenerative process started ASAP.
10. Bathroom Slides
This is vital in order to freshing up at the gym after your workout. I wouldn’t recommend you to shower in your gymshoes, so you should pack a pair of slippers. Usually gyms don’t offer slippers to the general public. And again, from a health & hygiene stand point, it’s just better to have yours.
11. Shower gel & sponge
This one is also quiet apparant. You don’t expect yourself to just shower with only water after all the sweating you did. Thus you need some soap and a sponge to scrub off good.
12.Towel
For the reason mentioned above, you should come with your towel to dry off after showering.
13.Body cream & deodrant
The next thing I always make sure to have is some body cream and body spray or deodorant. I heard some people say, allegedly, they don’t use any bodycream for their skin after showering. I personally can’t go without. My skin is definitely going look dry and abandoned if I don’t moisturize it after washing. Plus taking care of your skin keeps things fresh both on the inside and outside. And of course some body deodorant is the icing on the cake.
14. Post workout snack
After a workout, you’ve obviously exhausted tonnes of energy and it’s natural for your stomach to start hinting for a refill. So I usually keep snacks around to munch-on before I get home to a proper post-workout meal. I usually opt for some sort of nuts, because despite how tiny they look, you’d be amazed the tonnes of calories those tiny bits hold (small but mighty).
15. Bar of soap
This is the hidden gem amongst all the things I listed. You might have thought “a bar of soap to rob down your body” but no, this is not for that. This bar of soap is for your gym bag. Yes, you heard right.
Picture this; every time, you pack your gym back with all your essentials, you go have your work-out and then dump back your (now) sweaty clothes and wet towel back in the gym back. In no time, your gym bag is bound to start smelling foul. But just by dropping in a bar of soap in your bag, the soap will absorb all the germs and sweaty smell that would have been marinating in the bag, thus keeping your bag sterile and smelling good.
Bonus
And for you that stick till the end, I have an extra life hack for you!
About the gym shoes, what I noticed is that (based on how shoes are shaped and there size) they take a lot of space and add more heaviness to my gym back. So what I do now is that I just leave them at the gym. Since that’s the only thing I use them for. Thereby automating one item from my essentials and having to carry less luggage to and fro every day.
Disclaimer: make sure your gym locker/changing room is a safe place (i.e your shoes wouldn’t be taken) and the staff have no problem with it. Because at my gym, people even leave dedicated slippers in the locker room to be used in the shower, sauna and steam room at the gym.
So there you have it, my 15 gym bag essentials. Don’t forget to comment down below: What are your gymming essentials? What’s your best essential on the list? and What other great essential there is that I haven’t mentioned?