8 Gym Bag Essentials You Need For Your Next Workout
These 8 gym bag essentials you need for your next workout are going to make sure you are prepared for you trip to the gym in order to have everything you need to have a productive workout. These 8 items will ensure you get the most use out of everything the gym has to offer. The gym has so much to offer, but just adding these few extra gym bag essentials will make sure you feel good and, in time, look great!
1. Resistance bands
Resistance bands are a great addition to your gym bag essentials. They allow you to do exercises with just the bands or you can add the bands to your weight training to amp up the exercises quite a bit more. You can use resistance bands for both your upper body and your lower body increasing the tension in your muscles causing them to contract. The more you stretch the band, the more intense the exercise becomes toning and strengthening your muscles. Resistance bands are also great for assisting you with workouts like pull ups or stretching. They are light weight and easy to just throw in your bag.
Resistance bands come in all sizes and weights. These bands are for your lower body. Find the bands that work best for you.
Get the resistance bands:Â
2. Ankle weights
Ankle weights are going to take your leg day to the next level. When it comes to gym bag essentials ankle weights are going to help you maximize your workout and help tone up and strengthen your leg muscles. Just throw a pair of these on, they can even be the lightest weight, and it is going to add more resistance into your workout. Anything that involves you lifting your leg, you will be lifting just a bit more than your body weight really helping gain that leg muscle.
Get the ankle weights:Â
3. Headphones
This is obvious when it comes to gym bag essentials, but it is ABSOLUTELY an essential. When it comes to headphones at the gym, your best bet is getting ones that are wireless. Wireless headphones are going to allow you to travel and move around and not be restricted by a chord. Even though the chord is not something that gets in the way to much it definitely is a bit of a nuisance that ca easily be avoided. You can get headphones like Air pods or Beats or you can just head over to Walmart and get you a wireless pair for cheap! Either way, using music to pump up your workout, get you in the zone, and keep motivated is a great for your workout and will keep you working hard. Don’t forget to always keep a regular pair of headphones in your bag as well, just in case they lose battery or you cannot connect!
Get the headphones:Â
4. Cell phone arm band
If wireless headphones aren’t your thing, then you should definitely invest in a cell phone arm band. These are great to keep your phone right in your reach, still on your body so you know where it is and your headphones don’t have to reach too far! These are great to use not only at the gym, but if you go on a run as well. You don’t have to carry it with you in a bag or in your hand it’s just attached right at your arm! It’s not possible with the arm band to drop your phone or move to far from your phone and your headphones popping out!
Get the cell phone arm band:Â
5. Barbell foam pad
This pad to put on your barbell is a life saver. It is lightweight and easy to use. The best part about it is you can complete all of your rigorous workouts with as much weight as possible to give you a challenge, without the pain of the barbell digging into you. Sometimes when doing exercises such as hip thrusts or side squats, that barbell and all of its heavy weight, is pushing down onto sensitive areas that make it much harder to complete your workout to the best ability. With this foam pad, you can now max out your barbell without the pain!
Get the foam pad:
6. Water bottle with protein powder
Duh! You need to keep hydrated while you are sweating away all of the water inside of your body. Keeping a water bottle in your gym bag at all times will really help you stay in the gym as long as you want to rather than losing energy and leaving the gym. However, this is not the water bottle that you are going to walk around the gym with. This water bottle you are going to scoop some protein into before you leave, throw it in your bag, so that after your workout you can fill it up and drink it on your way home from the gym. Protein is super important to get those gains, just remember this is a supplement and you need to be getting protein from whole food as well!
Get the Blender Bottle:
7. Gym shoes
These are obviously the biggest of the gym bag essentials. Gym shoes at the gym are what you need to perform your workouts throughly. Keeping your gym shoes in the gym bag is what we are really talking about here. By keeping your gym shoes in the bag they are not getting dirty outside, and they will not loose their traction as quickly as the will from the wear and tear of outdoors. Depending on your workout, you need a specific kind of shoe. For leg day, having a flatter shoe is a better base when your have to keep stable. When you’re doing cardio you can use a more light weight and snug shoe. Just keep at least one pair in your bag and you can switch them up depending on what you are working out!
Get the shoes:
8. Cable machine attachment
Depending on what your gym already has to offer, there are certain accessories you can purchase for a low cost in order to personalize your workout to best suit you. Attachments such as a padded ankle strap or glute kick back attachments to use instead of what is already provided for you can make a big difference in your workout routine. If you see an exercise you want to do, just look into the equipment you need in order to complete it, pop it in your gym bag and you can do anything you want. The gym already provides the cable machine, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t be doing an exercise you want to do just because they do not have the appropriate attachment to suit your workout.
Get the cable machine attachment:
