Jake Bowler
- Dec 5, 2021
- 4 min read

What to Wear to the Gym?

What is up Gym N Japan Fam! Are you someone who has all the gear, thinks you’re sponsored by gymshark, but never lifted a day in your life? Do you have all the gear and some idea? Or are you a Haydon, where you train...most of the time...but use old worn out ‘running’ clothes from when you were 13 years old. Well we are here to tell you what to wear to the gym so that you can perform your best, be your best and most importantly look your biggest and best.

Clothing

As much as Jake shits on the old worn out clothes I wear from Kmart, they certainly do the trick for both the budget and functionality. To be fair I have started to buy some decent shorts for the gym and I love the fit of 5 inch shorts and makes your legs look good ;). Obviously if the right material ones came up for sale at kmart i'd be there.. My outfit is generally 5inch running shorts plus shirts or singlets that I have obtained from running events such as parkrun or darwin runners club as well as some of my touch football singlets.. See I am an absolute fashion icon in the gym…

As Haydon said, not everyone fork out $30-50 on a T-shirt from Gymshark, but there are benefits of ‘gym clothes’. They are typically labelled this because they are super stretchy and comfy, they contour well to almost all body shapes and sizes and come in a variety of colours and styles. So although K-Mart may be your thing, there is definitely something in getting some quality gym clothes...SMART TIP - just wait for it to go on Black Friday or Boxing Day sales when it is half price. Good shorts for squats, some tracksuits for the cooler weather or the non-leg trainers and a tank top or tight shirt to show off that hard work you have put into the gym.

SHOES

Alright and now for shoes, I know that all Jake wears to the gym is converses, specifically the low cut white canvas ones and rightfully so because they are our gym shoes of choice. They are relatively cheap (Compared to dedicated gym shoes) at around $130 so definitely affordable. The reason that we pick these are for 2 reasons and spoiler alert it's not the price. First reason is that they are a neutral shoe with minimal support which can be good for leg day. The second reason is that because of their skinny profile they make your calves look bigger… which is very important to those of us that get an ego boost from it haha. Alright you might be asking us “But Gym N Japan I have wider feet”, the answer is simple just squeeze your feet in. That's all from our shoe review… JKS...or are we...

Alright now for gym shoes there are so many on the market that will do the trick for you but we have two recommendations. First is what I (Haydon) wear 80% of the time: the under armour HOVR sonic 4s pictured see attached image! I find that these are really comfortable for everyday wear, decent for running although I don’t run in them regularly and look good with no show socks.

Next is the Nike Metcons, to be fair I don’t wear these often because I bought a crappy silver colour that I don’t like but they aren’t necessarily a bad shoe. They have inserts that can raise your heel in the shoe (for those with poor ankle mobility when squatting). They are similar to the ones Jake has recommended below.

For those super keen squatters or powerlifters, there is one more shoe you probably would want to invest in - I say invest because yes they are more pricey - and they are lifting shoes. They have a 4-8mm heel raise depending on which ones you need, and basically they allow for greater ankle mobility and depth in the squat. The Nike Romaleos which I would say are the best on the market, are around $270, but worth it. You can definitely get cheaper ones, but these have been around the longest and are used by most extreme lifters wanting to take their squats to the next level.

Here are our overall looks:

Haydon

As I said before I’m an absolute fashion icon! I don’t spend too much money on gym clothing because I honestly don’t care how I look in the gym because I’m there to put in the work. There are clothes I prefer but can’t part with the money it costs.. My outfit pictured here isn’t what I would wear on leg days because the shorts aren’t very flexible, so I will opt for some 5inch running shorts and some long sleeve shirts.

Jake

For most of my training days, I will typically go for a shorter cut pair of shorts - because duh, they make your tiny chicken legs look bigger than they are. Second I wear my converse and high cut socks, because as Daddy CBum says, higher cut socks make the calves look bigger, and he isn’t wrong. Finally, the top. If it is a leg focused day and there is minimal to no arm pump, I will opt for a shirt, whether that is oversized (which I love) or a tight fit. If it is upper body, I will usually go for a tight fitting shirt because I just prefer them, but in the heat of summer a nice tank is always good to show off that FILTHY pump.

Overall we think that you need a good balance of comfort, price and looks by buying bits and pieces from each brand when they are cheap or getting some decent stuff from Kmart or H&M etc. You dont need to be an influencer who only wears one brand and just look for things that make you feel confident and make your muscles look bigger!