The Best Gym Bag

As you probably know by now, I go to the gym a lot. I go every morning before work, because it’s an easy routine for me, and I feel less sluggish when I get to work. But the problem with going to the gym before work is that you have to lug around your stuff all day, you carry two bags (a handbag and a gym bag) and gym bags are butt ugly. So after writing that post, I looked online for a gym bag and found GymTote*. They’re bags designed so you only need to carry one bag, and they can keep everything in specific sections.

I bought the Reese tote* as a birthday present to myself and have been using it on a pretty much daily basis. It’s a great bag, but there are a few things I would change.

First – the size. The Reese is the largest women’s bag that GymTote sell, but I still feel like I could do with a bit of extra space in there! For example, there’s a pocket that they advertise to put your water bottle in – the bottle I use on a daily basis is a 700ml Lifefactory glass bottle* and there’s no way that’s fitting in there! I have reduced down my toiletries bag to this tiny hanging bag* and these travel bottles* which all work nicely, but isn’t as easy as just shoving a normal shampoo bottle in your bag.
Oh, and if you’re wondering about headphones – Alex bought me a pair of AirPods for Christmas, which I wasn’t very excited about at first, but I totally appreciate how small they are with this bag! I also picked up a Nanette Lepore tassel keychain (similar from Belkin on Amazon here) from TK Maxx before Christmas – it’s hiding a lightning cable inside it for last minute charges which is super useful.

Secondly – the material. I am happy with how this has held up over six months abuse, but one of the handles and the strap has started to show a little wear, which is expected I guess! I would have preferred to have a leather bag, but I wonder if that would hold the sweat smell more?

With the bag I chose, there is a top section where I can keep my purse and all the other rubbish I feel like I need to carry around on a daily basis – it’s obviously smaller than having a separate bag, but it does mean that I don’t feel like I need as much stuff with me as I used to. The top section isn’t exactly small though – when I used the bag to take stuff to the Forge to take these photos, I was able to fit in both my SLR and my compact camera in, as well as my purse, spare battery, etc. I’d totally buy this bag again, and I like the Charli backpack as well as the Sophia tote but I need more space in the bag!