What’s The Right Gym Gear To Aid Your Workouts?

There is a lot that comes with hitting the gym to get into better shape. You have to find the right program to follow and find the best exercises to help you reach your goals. Of course, finding the right gym is essential, unless you have a home gym. The right activewear is also needed, you don’t want to be the guy wearing jeans at the gym, do you?

Use The Right Tools To Level Up Your Workouts

For many, a gym membership and workout clothes are enough for effective weight training. However, if you want to get into some serious training and optimize your gains, there are certain tools to aid you in your quest. To take your workouts to the next level, some of these items are must-haves.

Some of the best gym accessories include weight lifting belts and wrist straps, which are absolutely essential for any serious lifter. Both of them can help you lift more on multiple compound exercises.

To enhance your workouts even further, there are plenty of other helpful products you can take advantage of. These range from fitness trackers to time your rest periods and heart rate to workout logs and apps to track what you do.

 

 

Fitness Trackers

Fitness trackers are important workout accessories for a number of reasons. The vast majority are worn on the wrist like a watch, and they basically are watches that can track your activities. There are also fitness trackers that can be strapped around the chest for more accurate heart rate readings. Recently, I’ve even seen fitness rings that can be worn on your finger. No matter what type of tracker you get, you want it to be reliable and as accurate as possible.

Benefits of Fitness Trackers

One of the main benefits of a fitness tracker is that they provide accurate data about your fitness level and progress. This is essential for setting fitness goals and measuring your success. You can track how long you are training and your heart rate so you know the intensity level you’re exercising at. I like to track the amount of time I take between sets while weight training with the stopwatch feature on my fitness tracker as well.

The best fitness trackers will motivate you to keep moving and reach your fitness goals. They do this by providing feedback about your activity level and fitness progress. My Apple Watch will tell me to stand up if I’ve been sitting too long, for instance.

Finally, the top fitness trackers can help you create a personalized fitness plan that meets your specific needs. By tracking your fitness data, fitness trackers can help you identify areas where you need to improve and design a workout plan that will help you reach your fitness goals.

 

 

Wrist Straps

Enhance Your Grip with Straps

To me, wrist straps are the absolute must-have gym accessory. You can have a strong grip with powerful forearms, but the large muscles of the back are still going to be stronger. Exercises targeting the lats and other back muscles such as pull-ups and bent-over rows are going to cause your grip to give out before the muscles you are training if you don’t have something to enhance your grip. Try deadlifts without grip enhancement and you will be cheating yourself.

Wrist straps can even help on an exercise dumbbell bench press if you are going very heavy just to get the weights to where you want them to be. This makes wrist straps an integral, yet simple, accessory to keep in your gym bag.

Chalk Makes A Mess

There’s always chalk, and obviously, it’s a big thing when it comes to competitions, whether they are powerlifting, weightlifting, or even gymnastics. However, most of your every day, not super hardcore lifting gyms frown on chalk use. It’s just flat-out messy and most gym owners don’t want to deal with it. With wrist straps, you can enhance your grip with no mess.

Straps Don’t Last Forever

I’ve been through many pairs of wrist straps throughout my lifting career. They do wear away over time, but it takes a lot of time and requires a lot of weight. There may come a time when they do get worn all the way through, but it certainly won’t be sudden. At this point, go ahead and buy another pair – they are quite inexpensive.

One of the most dreaded things to do in the gym is to forget or lose something. Wrist straps can be very easy to forget if you take them off and set them down somewhere in the gym. I’ve lost them before and actually found them in the gym during my next visit. Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened every single time I’ve lost them. If I do not find them, I will get another pair right away. They’re that important and my favorite item to use at the gym.

 

 

Weightlifting Belt

Many lifters may see weightlifting belts as the most essential piece of gym equipment. Their importance can’t be understated when going heavy on squats and deadlifts. The core support they offer really does allow you to go heavier when maxing out or going for low reps.

Types of Weightlifting Belts

There are two main types of weightlifting belts: the classic type with holes and prongs or velcro. I’ve always used the classic type but both versions have their advantages. Using the right size belt is also important, as you want the belt to fit quite tight around your midsection. As somebody who’s lost a good amount of weight, I can say that it’s possible to get to the point where your waist gets too small for your belt.

As important as weightlifting belts are, you also shouldn’t over-rely on them. It’s just not necessary to wear one on exercises that don’t involve squatting or deadlifts. Even On those exercises, I like to only use a belt on my working sets and do my warm-up sets without one.

 

 

Weighted Dip Belt

One of my personal favorites of the best gym accessories is a weighted dip belt. Dips are well known as one of the best upper body exercises to hit the pecs and the triceps. Progressive resistance is the name of the game when it comes to weight training, and you’ll soon find that your body weight just isn’t enough on dips. With a dip belt, you can easily add one or multiple weight plates. I’ve added as much as 150 lbs. to a dip belt, so you know they’re built for serious weight. Now’s the time to take the most advantage of this excellent exercise.

You Can Also Use Them for Pull-Ups

The pull-up is another exercise you can take advantage of with a weighted dip belt. How many pull-ups you can do will depend on not just strength, but your body weight as well. For some, whether due to being naturally lean or having lost weight, pull-ups with just their body weight almost becomes too easy. With a weighted dip belt, you can put a 25-pounder, 45-pounder, or even more if you can handle it to really push yourself on the pull-up.

 

 

Water Bottle

It’s definitely preferable to have a water bottle handy as opposed to quenching your thirst at the drinking fountain at the gym. Staying hydrated is always important, even more so when you are sweating while working out. Trying to do a long cardio session without hydration can be downright unsafe. With a water bottle, you can sip whenever you need to. It doesn’t have to be just water either, as there are some excellent hydration-enhancing supplements available.

In the past, I’ve used the same bottle at the gym as I use while I’m cycling. I think bike bottles work quite well in a gym as they have squirt tops for easy access and can fall without spilling as they have screw-on lids. Even just using bottled water works for me a lot of times, again preferably with a squirt top. I also see quite a few milk gallon jugs filled with water at the gym. Honestly, that’s just more than I want to carry around, but if that’s what you like, go for it.

 

 

Workout Log or App

One of the keys to success in building muscle strength and size in the gym is to consistently be able to do more than you previously could. This could be more weight or more repetitions with the same weight. With all of the exercises that are done throughout a workout, it’s best to keep track of your exercises, sets, and reps. This way you know what you have to try to beat at your next workout. The best way to do this is to write down and track your workout stats.

There are plenty of exercise log books that are the right size to take with you to the gym. You can either use a log book specifically meant for the gym or just a plain general notebook. Something smaller will be easier to carry around in your pocket. I did this for many years myself. Nowadays, I would say that carrying a log book with you to the gym is pretty damn old school.

Use An App on Your Smartphone

Of course, the preferred way to track your workouts nowadays is with an app on a cell phone. There are a variety of workout log apps to choose from. I use one called Fitlist, and there are others like it. It won’t be a problem to find one you like, and you’ll likely have your phone with you anyway. Check the web for the best workout log phone apps.

No matter what type of log you use, you need to find one that allows you to track everything you want to. Weight, sets, reps, time, average heart rate, or any other factor you can think of can be recorded. You should also be able to modify how you track everything.

You are always trying to improve, right? Take advantage of how you track your training to actually see if you are. You may be surprised by what you see.

 

 

Earbuds or Headphones

I feel that having your own music to listen to can help you really get into your workout. It took me a while to actually take advantage of this. I used to just listen to whatever the gym was playing. Now that I have earbuds I realize I was missing out.

Let’s face it, the gym you go to isn’t going to always play the music you’re into. Even if it does, it might not fit your workouts. You also want to focus, which can be difficult if you are always talking to other gymgoers. This doesn’t mean you have to be antisocial, but you want to get the most out of your time at the gym.

There are some very popular music apps on your phone that will allow you to create your own playlist or listen to random tunes from the genre you choose. By just putting earbuds in or headphones on, you can jam to what you want and get more fired up.

Should You Go For Noise Cancelling Buds or Headphones?

I use regular earbuds at this time. It’s a good idea to at least be somewhat conscious of what’s going on around me just in case, and even with the volume up all of the way I still can hear something if it’s loud. I find it to be much safer to be able to hear outside of my buds when I’m biking as well. However, this comes down to personal preference, just don’t put yourself in danger.

 

 

I Use These Myself

I take advantage of all of these gym tools in my own training, besides a log book since I use an app on my phone to track my progress. From my experience, the ability to enhance your workouts with the items above is going to benefit you in a variety of ways. At the very least, start with a weightlifting belt and wrist straps and go from there. You won’t regret it.