Today I'm going to give you a glimpse into one of the most important parts of my routine and that is the stuff that's in my gym bag. Now I've seen plenty female versions of these, but never seen a guys one. Whether this is for a reason or because people don't really care what's in a guys gym bag, I dunno, but I'm going to show you anyway.
Lets start from the top left shall we?
Here we have my Adidas Adipure Five Finger running shoes. Now that's not to say that I go running at the gym every week, but I really like using these on the days I do squats, which at the moment, is every time that I go. These are something I never thought I would ever want to wear, due to the fact they freaked the hell out of me, but I suffered from serious shin splints during amateur football season and after some research, discovered that these can help change your running pattern. I bought them, ran in them and it seemed to work pretty much immediately. No more shin splints. Whether it's just down to the shoes or not, I'm still hooked on these and won't really run on a treadmill in anything other than these.
Travelling clockwise around the picture, we have my overly patriotic St Andrews cross towel, or Scottish flag towel to anyone unsure who St Andrew is. This one is pretty self explanatory. Most gyms have an etiquette rule in place where you need to wipe down equipment after you use them. If they don't, then they should.
Below that we have my Maximuscle Lifting Gloves. These gloves are the comfiest and best fitting gloves that I've found for my hands. I think they cost me £9.99 from Argos, but if you shop around you might get them cheaper. The grip on these are pretty great and they last for ages. They will suffer the usual wear and tear, but nothing that stops them from doing their job. My last pair lasted just under a year I think, which isn't bad going.
To the right of those are my RDX Lifting Straps. Now these I am yet to find the benefit of and to be honest, I find them more of a hinderance than a help when it comes to using them on Deadlifts. My hands can't seem to grip the bar properly when using them, but it might just be me. The one time I did find them useful was when doing one arm bent over dumbbell rows. They seemed to keep my grip pretty solid on those. Just not so great on the olympic bar.
Then we have possibly the most important part of my gym bag. The Padlock. I need this to, well, padlock my locker shut when I get to the gym. Not really much more to say other than that. This one is a Pure Gym padlock, bought straight from their vending machine.
We then have my bag of Creatine Charge. This is just unflavoured Creatine Monohydrate. I bought this one with points that I had accumulated on Maximuscle.com and this one is part of their Maxiraw range. Creatine's claim to fame is that it increases power and strength, decreased performance time and increased the synthesis of lean muscle tissue.
Next up is my much loved and battered protein shaker from The Protein Works. I try and keep one of these in my bag at all times, since I have about 7 different shakers. It's handy for keeping me hydrated at the gym thanks to the water fountains dotted around the place. I usually take a scoop of creatine in this with water just before my workout then refill it for the rest of the workout.
The last exciting thing in my gym are a pair of RDX Compression Shorts. Now these I only usually wear during the winter months, to give me that extra layer of warmth when walking to and from the gym. These were originally bought with the intention of being used to practice BJJ, but unfortunately I haven't had the time to continue learning, so for the time being they are just being used as a base layer.
So there you have it. That's the exciting insides of my much loved gym bag. Now to put them all back in before I forget anything the next time I go to the gym.
What do you guys take with you to the gym?
If you have any questions about any of these products then leave a comment below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
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