There are many Accessories that you can buy for the gym, Different shoes, Supplements, Clothing and electronics, however, how do you know which ones to buy? Fear no more in this article we will be listing and explaining our favourite accessories and why. We are not saying that any of these are must-haves, but will help/improve your fitness journey. So let’s begin with the first one.
Wireless Headphones
Out of all the Accessories we are going to mention, this accessory, personally, is a life-changer. Changing from Wired to Wireless is night and day. No more dangling wire, having to keep your Phone/Device in your pocket all the time or having the cable come out the mid-set. I use to have all these issues, so I made the choice to give wireless headphones ago, and guess what, I haven’t looked back since!
I started off buying a cheap pair of In-Ear Bluetooth headphones of Amazon and they were amazing for the £20 I paid for them. Not having to untangle cables, in fact, no cables to worry about at all. Easy to connect, the charge last ages so no need to worry about that.
I have since swapped to Apple AirPods, Which really are cable-free, this isn’t a review but personally, they are amazing! They work so well with an iPhone. Well worth the money.
So if you haven’t already head over to Amazon and grab yourself a pair. It will be an Accessories purchase you won’t regret!
Dishwasher Safe Shakers
This one is a huge game-changer. Nothing I hate more than having to clean out a cheap shaker cup. Take ages, not something I really want to be spending my evenings doing. We have all left one in the car or gym bag. Might as well throw that straight out! No recovering that one!
With my recent MyProtein order I purchased a few of there Slim Shakers, which are made by Smart Shaker, and also with my Ghost Supplements order purchased some of their shakes, and let me tell you, I’m not going back. Have a protein shake, and just throw the shaker in the Dishwasher, I don’t need to hand wash them anymore!
The only downside to this is that you have to have enough shakers so that if one or two are in the dishwasher then you will have spares, but they are only about £2-3 each so grab a couple and ditch the washing up by hand.
A Gym Bag
This one is something everyone should already have, but this is going to be more about the contents of that gym bag. Things that will help almost every workout. The first one is a pre-workout, Always keep a small tub of pre-workout inside your gym bag in case you ever need it. Always pays to have a backup!
Next is Belts and wraps, If you have any kind of back pain, wrist or knee pain then make sure you use wraps and belts, buy some, put them in your gym bag and keep them there. As said above, Wireless headphones. Always keep those in your gym bag, And if you use them outside the gym as well then pack a cheap pair of wired headphone in case you forgot your main ones. Nothing worse than forgetting your headphones!
Also, the actual gym bag, Make sure you get one that suits your needs, For example, if you are a powerlifter and you have lots of various lifting gear, then a rucksack isn’t any good for you. Make sure you get the Gym bag that fits your needs!
There are other Accessories you can pack in your gym bag, Like Chalk, Protein, Different shoes (We will get onto this shortly) but this should keep you going for now. So let’s move on.
A High Quality Water Bottle
This one goes hand in hand with the dishwasher shakers. Buying a high-quality water bottle will change your gym life. Stop buying a cheap water bottle, they only end up leaking, Splitting or discolouring. For a bit more money grab yourself a high-quality one, ones that keep your water or liquid cold for ages. They will last longer, Won’t split, won’t crack and won’t leak. Most people will use a Shaker as a water bottle, this is okay, but make sure you are using a high-quality shaker, This way they will be long-lasting and won’t split or crack.
You can also get those metal bottle that keeps your drinks cold or hot, this is good if you enjoy ice-cold drinks at the gym. They are pretty watertight so don’t worry if someone walks past and accidentally knocks it over. Depending on where you shop depends on the price, but they can get pretty expensive.
There isn’t much more we can say on this, just make sure you spend a little bit extra for a long-lasting Water bottle.
Proper Shoes/Trainers
Everyone has various goals in the gym, people train for different things. What everyone overlooks is footwear. Different shoes should be worn for a different reason. Depending on your goals, depends on your footwear. Powerlifting? Invest in some good powerlifting shoes. Running? Athletics? Get yourself some good trainers. Every goal will be easier to reach with the correct footwear.
Don’t think that you have to go to the gym with one pair of shoes either. I see many gym-goers warming up, doing cardio with trainers on, then swapping to a lifting shoe for Squats or Deadlifts (Top tip: Converses make amazing lifting shoes, anything with a hard sole will be good as a lifting shoe). So don’t think you have to do your Jog or stair master with lifting shoes on.
Do some research online, see what people with similar goals use. You can even ask around at the gym what people are wearing and how they find them. If you want our opinion then give us an email on our advice page. We will be more than happy to help.
Fitness Planner/Tracker
No matter how you chose to workout, Could be in a gym or at home. If you are working then we highly recommend tracking your workouts! We track or food, we should also track our workouts! Buy yourself a workout planner, or make your own form a standard planner, as long as you can track each workout each day, how many Reps or Sets and at what weight. You will see a huge benefit.
Start tracking your Personal bests, start rating your workouts and you will start to see a huge difference. If you compare workouts to the food you will be able to see what foods and snacks made you have a good workout, and what food caused you to have a less than perfect workout. This will help you calculate your food with your workouts. Making sure you have amazing workouts every time while eating correctly.
A top tip is that you don’t have to track every exercise in your workout if you wanted to just track big compound lifts, Bench, Deadlift, Squat and Overhead Press, Track these and everything else will improve with it. Using a Planner or tracker is one of the accessories that is going to speed up your gym progress!
Conclusion
In conclusion, there isn’t anything that is going to help speed up your fitness goals, nothing will help speed up your weight loss, however, there are a few things that will help. The example accessories above are just a small selection of the ones that we thought off, but if you think of any, then please comment below. We would love to hear your thoughts! Make sure to check out our other blog posts as well.
Also don’t forget that if you are looking for the perfect workout application then give Sets & Reps a go! Everything you will need in one application! Download Here
Written by Kieran Blacker
Kieran is the CEO and Founder of Sets & Reps. He decided to make an application that helped people get a gym workout when not at the gym. He designed, Coded and built the application himself.