…but fresh gear to sweat in isn’t. Which means, a new gym wardrobe (that makes you look as amaz­ing as all the other cloth­ing in your closet that you prob­a­bly spend too much on) isn’t exactly jus­ti­fi­able in your mind.

That said, I’m here to change your mind! Let me try to con­vince you that well-made, good look­ing, flat­ter­ing, fresh ‘n’ fit gym attire is just as impor­tant as well-made, good look­ing, flat­ter­ing busi­ness attire and day-wear. Wanna know why? Keep read­ing! 

Now, before you try to argue that gym attire can’t pos­si­bly be fash­ion­able no mat­ter the price, let me remind you that gym attire keeps becom­ing more ver­sa­tile, styl­ish, trendy, and flat­ter­ing (while still super comfortable)!

If you’re like me at all, I like my gym gear to trans­fer to ‘errand run­ning’ with­out miss­ing a beat, but I want to feel good and look great too. That’s a lot of pres­sure for a pair of Umbro shorts and your boyfriend’s old t-shirt.

To add to my argu­ment, there’s a lot to be said for feel­ing great in what you wear for the sake of your con­fi­dence, and don’t think that doesn’t apply to the gym! How excited are you to wear a new out­fit when you know how great it makes you look and feel? VERY! So how much more excited would you be to work up a sweat in new kicks and fresh gear than in the pre­vi­ously described ensem­ble? This applies to every­one that I’ve dis­cussed the topic with, and it applies to both men and women.

Here are my top three rea­sons for going out and get­ting some new ‘sweat-ables’:

1) GET NEW SHOES! Know your feet. If you have flat feet, you need shoes with great arch sup­port, espe­cially if you run! If you lift weights (espe­cially if you do exer­cises like squats, over­head press, etc) you don’t want unnec­es­sary cush­ion or “air” pock­ets in the soles of your shoes. Some­times I even lift in my Con­verse Chuck-Taylors.

2) INSPIRATION TO MOVE! New work­out gear can be the dif­fer­ence between stay­ing on the couch and get­ting to the gym! I rec­om­mend search­ing Pin­ter­est for key words like #gym, gym out­fit, work­out gear, work­out out­fit, etc. I’ve com­piled some ideas on my “Fresh ‘n’ Fit” Pin­ter­est board for you to start with.

3) CONFIDENCE: As you may know, I’m not only in the busi­ness of body sculpt­ing through train­ing and nutri­tion, but I’m also, and unof­fi­cially of course, a ther­a­pist, coun­selor, best friend, ‘big sis­ter’, ‘mom’ and con­fi­dant to my clients. Per­sonal train­ing is just that. It’s very per­sonal. Peo­ple usu­ally open up to me and I am hon­ored to be there for every­one who does. I respect it and keep their pri­vacy, but I have noticed a change in those who do open up to me over the course of our train­ing together. Usu­ally, they come in in the baggy pants, shorts, and big t-shirt and have very lit­tle, if any, con­fi­dence in their demeanor. When they real­ize that they have the power to change their body, which changes their health, their energy, and their out­look on life, their con­fi­dence blos­soms! I see them start to come in in tank tops, Lul­ule­mon capri pants (tight), and big fat smiles on their faces! Some where in the process and jour­ney it took to get to that place (and yes, we’re all on the jour­ney in dif­fer­ent places…no one’s actu­ally arrived…) I made sure to men­tion to them that they should show off their gor­geous arms and watch their mus­cles work. Or, maybe get some bright, fun new shoes and capris to get them amped about “leg day”. Tight black pants are usu­ally more flat­ter­ing than baggy sweats any­way you slice it.

Granted I refer to ladies over gen­tle­men a lot because I am a lady (*ehem* sometimes…tom-boy more often), but these rules apply (minus the gen­der spe­cific com­ments) to men just as much as they do to women. I have a client who I sug­gested sleeve­less t-shirts too (to see his form on “shoul­der day”) and he did it. Turns out, not only did he get to see the form and tech­nique specifics i was que­ing, but he saw stri­a­tions and lean mus­cle work­ing that was hid­den under t-shirt sleeves before. Guess who always wears “shoul­der shirts” now? :)

#Just­Sayin

YOUR TURN:

1) How does what you wear affect your mood, con­fi­dence or oth­er­wise make you feel dif­fer­ently about your­self? Please share! I’d love to know your thoughts!

2) Wear gym gear that makes you feel like a rock­star already? Where do you find deals? Where do you like to shop? Share! We, read­ers and myself, all want to know! :)