If you’re like me, then you almost certainly acquired many a-random things that you believe
would be great exercise additions, only to find it stuffed way down a corner of
your gym sack 7 months later after using it approximately zero times.
After years of trial and error and three full bins of fitness accessory rejects,
I, PictureFit, now wanna share with you five things that I ultimately kept in my gym bag,
and I think you should too, and I’ll even have a bonus item at the very end, so stick around.
Let’s get the obvious essentials out of the way first, and they are things like a water bottle,
a towel, gym shoes, your smartphone, a locker lock if you need it, a PictureFit
cutout for inspiration, and a set of clothes and toiletries if you plan to change at the gym.
What this video is more about are things that I would also deem essential but
might not be as obvious to everyone, especially if you’re new to the gym.
Let’s get right to it with the first thing you might want to consider packing into your gym bag,
and that’s a set of barbell collars or clamps.
Barbell collars are those cylindrical things attached at the ends of the
weight plates on a barbell you might have seen used by your local gym bro.
Collars can provide added safety and stability in exercises that will benefit a lot from them,
like deadlifts and rows, and especially Olympic lifts like the snatch.
Personally, my exercise experiences are night and day with and without a collar. It doesn’t
necessarily help me lift more, but the added peace of mind can go a long way.
Now, some commercial gyms have barbell collars available to use, usually a spring-style clamp.
These should be good enough for most. But to save you the headache of wondering
where the heck it actually is in the gym or waiting for someone else to be done with them,
you can pick up a relatively inexpensive collar online with a more user-friendly clamp function.
You don’t need the very expensive all-metal collars unless you’re lifting very heavy,
which I would assume if that’s the case, then you already have a decent set in your gym bag.
I do wanna warn though that collars shouldn’t be used for every single lift for two reasons.
One, ironically, is that some exercises might be less safe with collars. The most prime example
is the barbell bench press without spotters and safeties, where the only way to bail out
of a failed lift is to allow the plates to slide off the ends of bar. Can’t do
that if they’re locked in place with collars. The other reason is dependency. Stability in
exercise is great, but it’s even better if the stability is provided by you.
If you regularly see the plates on the bar shifted around after each set of your workout,
chances are that there is something about your lifting technique that needs to be addressed.
If that’s the case, ditch the collars for your lighter sets and work on
cleaning up your technique first, and save the collars for the heavy stuff.
Another thing everyone should have in their gym bag is a foam roller.
A foam roller is a tool used for self-myofascial release, or a kind of self-massage of the muscles.
There has been a decent of amount of scientific data showing that foam rolling improves joint
range of motion and some limited data showing it improves muscles soreness and recovery.
For something as simple as a log-shaped plastic wrapped in foam,
those benefits are quite impressive. From my experience, it just feels pretty
darn good to foam roll, just like how people enjoy massages, although they aren’t exactly the same.
Like barbell collars, foam rollers are provided by some commercial gyms, but, again,
to save yourself some hassle, it’s a good idea to throw a friendly-sized foam roller into your gym
bag or smaller alternatives, like a tennis ball, a fancy massage gun, and even your barbell collars
if you’re feeling courageous enough. Don’t actually do that.
This next thing to have in your gym bag is actually a collection
of things I’ll categorize as lifting gear. With powerlifts like the deadlift, squat,
and bench press being all the rage these days, it’s a good idea to be well-suited
with some lifting gear, legal lifting gear. There’s a lot of different ones out there
but we’ll focus on a few accessories that covers most of the bases, and those are:
Knee sleeves, which offers more rigidity in your knees, aiding in performance and
stability in leg exercises. Wrist wraps, which provides
greater rigidity in your wrists for better stability in press exercises.
Chalk, which gives greater grip and bar contact, especially those with
sweaty hands. Just make sure to not touch your face too much and clean up after yourself.
Lifting straps, which also provides better grip to accommodate grip strength limitations when
focusing on other muscles, like targeting the posterior chain muscles on heavy and controlled
deadlifts. They are not, however, a substitute for weak grip strength, so keep working on that.
And last but not least and one of my personal favorites, a lifting belt,
which helps drive and support bracing patterns, improving stability and overall performance.
Lifting gear is probably my favorite item or items on the list,
and I use at least one of them every time I go to the gym. So big recommendation on this one.
The next thing you want in your gym bag are resistance bands.
Resistance bands are decent standalone workout equipment in the own right but are limited by
their progressive strength curves that aren’t well-tailored for many exercises.
But thanks to their portability, a set of bands with varying shapes and resistance
levels can complement a gym workout quite nicely.
They can be used in a warmup for muscle activation, aid in mobility drills,
used as part of a superset workout, and when a certain gym equipment is occupied,
bands can be used as temporary alternatives. If you are a beginner, I highly suggest getting
bands first out of everything on this list. The versatility is second to none.
And the final item that you should have in your gym bag is… a cable handle.
I can’t tell you how many times I approached a cable machine only to
find that the cable handle is freaking missing. Whoever you cable handle thief are, how the heck
do you know which gym I’m at every single time? Of course, handles might be removed when a machine
is broken, so make sure that’s not the case first. If it isn’t broken, then look at you,
pulling out that precious spare and making that gym bro that REALLY wanted to do single
arm cable curls very envious of you. I recommend having two handles just
in case and even a pair of ankle straps as well. Just make sure all of them are
properly rated to support heavy weights. And that’s the five things I believe
everyone should have in their gym bag. That said, none of them are at all necessary
to get a good workout at the gym, so don’t feel like you HAVE to get them right this moment.
Now, as I said at the top of this video about leaving you with a bonus item,
I’m actually gonna DOUBLE that and offer you TWO additional recommendations that I personally find
useful. One a bit obvious, another not so much. The first is the not-so-obvious bonus item,
and that is a menthol rub. Menthol rubs are commonly
marketed for its topical benefits, but I can’t really support how true those claims are.
For me, it’s more about the olfactory experiences, or the inhalation and smell
of a menthol rub that has noticeably improved my performance, or at least the perception of it,
in my cardio and high rep training, probably related to its impact on expanding airways.
Unfortunately, there’s no good data to support this and it is largely anecdotal,
which is something I don’t normally share but hey, this is a bonus item so why not make an exception.
That said, the use of smells for performance aren’t completely devoid of evidence.
Most notably, the use of ammonia inhalants, like smelling salts,
have demonstrated a positive effect in certain psychological and physiological aspects.
Whether a similar effect occurs with menthol remains to be seen, but I like it.
If you wanna give it a shot, check for allergies first and make sure to take it
out of your gym bag if you normally leave it in your car so it doesn’t melt when it gets hot.
And the second much-more-obvious bonus recommendation is a pair of earbuds or headphones.
Music, what can I say really that you don’t already know.
We have data showing that music can positively impact performance,
drive sympathetic responses, as well as making working out generally more enjoyable.
All wins in my book, so put on those headphones and rock out as you work out!
And that’s it for my list of five things plus two bonuses everyone should have in their gym bag.
Would also love to hear your recommendations of the things you carry in your gym bag.
Other than that, if you enjoyed this video, please give it an baggy thumbs up and share it with your
music-loving friends. Subscribe for more.
As always, thank you for watching and don’t forget to get your PROTEIN!!!
But don’t leave it in your gym bag cause that can get ugly reeeeal quick.