Over the past week, temperatures have dropped dramatically! The other day here in Sheffield, it was -1 degree – as I stepped out of my personal training studio, I nearly completely stacked it on a hidden patch of black ice (thankfully, it was me and not one of my 1-1 personal training clients!). 

With the cold winter approaching and the darker nights looming, it can be an easy time of year to let your diet slip (consuming more sweet treats and traditional English comfort food!). It’s also easy losing motivation to train hard in the gym. 

That said, if you genuinely value the gym and working out, you’ll find a way to stay motivated, and you may as well do so in style. What you wear in the gym makes a big difference in how you feel, and therefore how you train. 

Here are 5 Key Items To Wear In The Gym This Winter (2019)

#1 Gym Hoodie 

I’m a big fan of warming up in a gym hoodie – whether it’s winter or summer! BUT obviously, there’s something particularly comforting about gym hoodies in winter.  If you train in a hardcore bodybuilding gym, then often your gym doesn’t have central heating! I went to a bodybuilding gym recently, and picking up dumbells was like picking up icicles in each hand! If you train at one of these gyms, you need warm clothing, and therefore a gym hoodie is perfect.

Even if you train in a commercial gym, it’s still worth wearing a hoodie while you warm-up for 5 minutes on a cardio machine before hitting the weights. 

#2 Thermal Top

In terms of winter gym wear for men, you can’t beat a tight-fitting thermal top. For one, if you have a good body, it shows off your physique, but a good quality thermal top also acts as an extra layer of skin, keeping you warm. 

Whenever I go on morning runs in the winter, this is the first item of clothing I’ll put on. I’ll then add on other layers such as a men’s gym t-shirt and gym hoodie (as mentioned above). 

As a bonus tip, if you struggle to get warm in winter, you could also pick up some thermal jogging bottoms too – then wear tracksuit pants over the top, which brings me onto my next item.

#3 Tracksuit Pants 

Essential to wear in winter, shorts are only for seriously hard blokes, lol! 

For most of us, it’s wise to wear some comfortable tracksuit pants, ones that aren’t to tight (not good for squats!) and tracksuit pants that allow us to get warm in the gym without overheating. 

I like the tracksuit pants from Gym King, and they’re an excellent fitness clothing brand. However, I find that they are better for more casual wear than working out in (I find them a little tight). 

The tracksuit bottoms I wear (and highly rate) are Nike Men’s Therma tapered bottoms. These tracksuit pants are perfect because they keep your lower body warm, but allow your skin to breathe still, and they also look super trendy.  

#4 Headphones

There’s nothing to get you in the mood for a top-notch workout like some awesome music that inspires you and helps you pump out an extra couple of reps (it’s these reps that make the difference from somebody having a good physique, to an amazing one!). 

To get the most out of your workouts this winter, I’d recommend picking up some wireless headphones. For music quality, I recommend Bose quiet comfort headphones. That said, the Bose headphones can be a little clunky when working out, so my preference is the apple AirPods – these headphones fit neatly into your ears and produce an excellent sound quality. 

#5 Gym Vest 

“What?!?!” – I hear you say! “A gym vest in winter, are you crazy?” lol. BUT yes, once you’ve warmed up on a piece of cardio equipment, done a few warm-up sets, and got a good sweat/pump on, you may want to take off your gym hoodie, and peel back the layers. 

As you go through your workout, your muscles will look better and better. This is called the pump, where muscles fill up with blood and make you look bigger and more athletic. Midway through your session, you may want to train in a vest or stringer vest to show off your physique in the gym.