Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 115 : *TEN* Gym Bag Essentials + TIPS!

Episode Date: August 9, 2021

In this episode, coach Danny outlines the TEN Things you need in your gym bag for gains, practicality, and consistency.---Thanks For Listening!---RESOURCES/COACHING: I am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE! Want Coach Danny to Fix Your S*** (training, nutrition, lifestyle, etc) fill the form HERE for a chance to have your current approach reviewed live on the show. Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!----SOCIAL LINKS:Sign up for the trainer mentorship HEREFollow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERE!Support the Show.

Welcome in everybody to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue Podcast. As always, I'm your host Danny Matringa and in today's episode, I'm going to be going over 10 gym bag essentials. to the gym. They want to optimize their performance, their recovery, and just generally increase your adherence because, guys, life happens. Sometimes shit is going to happen and you want to be prepared for that. So this episode is all about keeping you prepared, making sure you are ready to perform at your best, whether you're going to the gym, training from home, or doing anything in between. But before we get into that, really quickly, I want to take a minute to tell you about my new coaching company, Core Coaching Method. Core Coaching Method is the brainchild of 10 years I've spent coaching in person and online in the fitness space. And I have wanted to bring this to you guys for a very long time. But it's hard to do things right. So over the course of the last year, I have sat down

and tirelessly worked to kind of assemble a team of awesome coaches who have experienced training people in person and online that I respect a lot. And I'm so excited to bring that to you guys in the form of Core Coaching Method. You can check that out in the link in the show notes below. We have so many amazing offerings for you from in-person coaching, online coaching, Zoom coaching, programs, consultations, and so much more. You can head over to www.corecoachingmethod.com if you want to work with me as your online coach or any of the other awesome coaches we have at Core Coaching Method. I'm also really excited to announce that we're one of the first coaching

companies to create coaching offerings online in person for those whose primary language or preferred language for coaching is Spanish. Making sure that as many people have access to quality coaching as possible is really, really important to me. And that was a big piece of getting core off the ground and launched. So again, corecoachingmethod.com. Come check us out. Without further ado, let's get into the episode. So getting into our 10 gym bag essentials and why these things are important. And I think that whether you've been going to the gym for a long time or you're just getting started, you'll be pretty familiar with all of these things. Some of them will definitely be new, so stick around and make sure that you listen to the entire episode because right around number, actually starting with number one, things

get a little bit different than maybe what you're expecting. But number one, the first thing you should have in your gym bag is your program or your log. And when I say log, I mean a gym log for recording your sets, your reps, and your weights. And so I do recommend that clients bring a log with them when I train them in person, and I absolutely insist on my online clients printing out their programming and bringing it with them to the gym so that they can fill in the boxes for the weights that they've used and leave little notes but I think it's really really important to do this on paper so if you have a gym bag I

recommend a small three ring binder they make these that are about a half an inch thick and you can print your programming out three hole punchhole punch it, and throw it in there. Having it in something like a plastic binder, particularly a three-ring binder, is kind of nice because sometimes your gym bag can get a little moisture in it from things like gym towels, sweaty clothes, spilled shaker bottle, and you want to have something to protect it. I used to keep my logs in old composition books, which if you know anything about composition books, you'll know that they're made from super thin paper and super thin cardboard, and they're very absorptive. So if you spill on them, it's going to soak everything up. And while I certainly have enjoyed some of the pros of having a

composition book, you can just throw that into your binder. But I recommend printing your program, taking it with you to the gym and writing it down. If you aren't currently on a program or you're not following something structured, that's kind of a problem in and of itself. You will always get better results if your energy and effort at the gym are focused on executing and not figuring out what to do next. If you're bouncing around from swipe workout to swipe workout, I strongly recommend heading over to corecoachingmethod.com and checking out some of the awesome programs I have for you guys over there. They're all going to help you and probably help you get much better gains than just doing a whole lot of nothing. But one of the things that I enjoy about bringing a log is when you're logging your weights, you're writing down what you're doing,

you're leaving notes, you can actually go back to the previous week and see where you've improved. And that's a big deal, guys. Like it really, really is a big deal when we're talking about training in the aggregate, right? We're talking about not just one session, but how do we feel motivated and maintain motivation to train over the course of an entire week, over the course of an entire month, over the course of an entire month, over the course of an entire year. Seeing progress can really, really help with that. And one of the best ways, in my opinion, to see that progress is to log it and then go back and look through old logs. So the number one thing that should be in your gym bag is your program

and your training log. Number two is some combination of grips, wraps, or chalk. I do think that training your grip is important, but I have found, particularly for female lifters, that grip can be a limiting factor on some of the most important exercises in their programming. So for example, we've oftentimes got things like RDLs. We've got things like goblet squats. We've got things like walking lunges or split squats. And it's a real, real... He is failing my assholes. When you can't grip things properly because your straps, your wraps, or I'm sorry, your grip is just not up to snuff.

It's very challenging, particularly for women. You end up with really, really strong legs. And I know plenty of women who can RDL 185 plus pounds, walking lunge with 35, 40 pound dumbbells, split squat with the same amount of weight. But the grip is a limiter. And so I do think that independently training your grip matters, but having these things around is really important. important. Let's say we're training our lats and we're trying to train our lats with a high degree of fatigue. Maybe not having to worry about your grip as the limiting factor would better let you fatigue the lats, right? Because again, building up your grip matters, but when we're trying to train a tissue or we're trying to train a movement, you want that tissue or that movement to be the limiting factor, not your grip. So I am a big fan of just your super, super basic, super plain lifting straps. The kind that are basically a long piece of fabric with a loop that go around your wrist and you kind of loop them between your pointer finger and your thumb on each hand. Those are like 10 bucks. Those

are phenomenal. I have a pair that I got from Rogue when I purchased a huge amount of home gym equipment and they're great. They really do the trick. If you are somebody who wants the next level up, like you want to take it, you really want to take it to the next level. Something like Versa grips can be really, really positive and really, really effective. Um, those are more of a Velcro that go around your wrist in the kind of grip itself is attached. So there's no winding and weaving like you have with the straps. And so those are a more premium option. And then lastly is just some chalk or some liquid chalk.

I had a follower of mine who owns a company called Grip Armor send out some liquid chalk. It was my first time using liquid chalk and I was actually pretty impressed. It definitely helped my grip on a few exercises and liquid chalk, I've carried chalk in my gym bag forever

and it has a tendency to just end up everywhere. You don't want it. And it's so, so annoying when you open up your gym bag and you're like, Oh my God, there's chalk on everything. And so this liquid chalk is really, really solid. So I would recommend the second thing that you should have in your gym bag is something that will enhance your ability to grip the bar, to grip the dumbbells, to perform your pulling exercises to the best of your ability. You don't need to become dependent on these things, but they should be in there. Your price range is going to be generally anywhere from 10 to 50 bucks. So get some grip assistive tools in there. That is number two. Number three is protein powder and a little baggie or some protein bars. Now, I recommend keeping these with you in your car or anywhere like your

workspace where you might be at a point where you're like, oh shit, it's been a while since I've had protein. But we tend to travel with our gym bags in our vehicles, leave them in our vehicles, whether we're taking them into the office and then bringing them back out when we go to the gym. Maybe a lot of you work out at gyms at work. I know those of us who live in the Bay Area, that's not uncommon. But having some protein rich snacks, particularly powders and bars, I find that those keep a little bit better in your gym bag is a really good idea if you're ever hard pressed for protein, right? One of the things that's really important if you want to optimize your body composition, your training response, and your recovery is getting adequate protein. I recommend for clients whose goals are muscle building or weight loss that we go somewhere

between 0.7 to 1 grams per pound. For a 150 pound individual, that can end up being quite a bit of protein. For a 200 pound individual, that's a hell of a lot of protein. And sometimes it's hard to get that from whole foods. So having a little backup secret stash of protein powder and protein bars in your gym bag really makes a big difference. What I like to do when I get to the bottom of my protein jug, I'm sure you guys are familiar with this, where you get to the kind of like very tail end, grab your scooper and throw it in a gallon Ziploc bag, okay? Then when you get your next bottle, throw about 10 scoops of protein in there. Keep that in there. You probably won't even use it all over the course of the entire year, but if you're ever in a pinch and you're ever in a bind, having a nice powdered protein available

to you will make a huge difference. I like Legion's Whey Plus. You can support the show by using the code DANNY when you check out with all of your sports supplements over at legion.com. But if you don't want to use Legion, some other brands I recommend are Muscle Feast, which is easy to find on Amazon. I like their grass-fed whey isolate. And if you're a plant-based protein person, I really enjoy the Four Sigmatic vanilla flavored whey protein, and that's a plant-based one. That's really, really good. And so just keeping that in there, protein bars are also a really good option as well. Although I do find if you leave a protein bar in a gym bag in a hot car, that can be problematic. So just be aware of your geography

and the temperature. Number four thing that you should have in your gym bag is creatine, whether that's in powder or pill form. There is some research that suggests taking creatine around your workout is better for absorption and uptake. I also find that the most common pitfall in creatine and any supplementation for that matter is forgetting to take the damn stuff. So having your creatine available for you immediately after your workout is really great because you'll kind of habitualize it. You'll be like, okay, workout's done. Going to put my training log away. Going to put my wraps away. Going to take out my creatine, toss it in my bottle and have it in the car ride home. Really reduce the friction around taking this supplement.

I think that creatine supplementation for healthy adults is massively beneficial for your performance, massively beneficial for your recovery, really, really good for strength development. And there's also some really exciting long-term cognitive benefits of creatine supplementation could really be beneficial for long-term brain health. A lot of these studies are still what I would describe as relatively new. We haven't seen a massive amount of replication, but we have every reason to believe that creatine supplementation could be beneficial for long-term cognitive benefits. That's huge, guys. We're currently living in a world where almost everybody listening to this podcast probably

knows somebody who's struggling with something like Parkinson's disease. My dad has Parkinson's disease, for example. Alzheimer's, dementia, forms of long-term cognitive decline. And I'm not going to tell you that creatine can reverse it. But what I will say is there are a lot of reasons to believe that it could be beneficial. And so supplementing with it for your performance makes a lot of sense. But there are myriad reasons to consider supplementing with it beyond what it can do for performance. So I like to keep it in my gym bag. Creatine monohydrate is the kind you want. I take Legion's Recharge.

I think it's a really good supplement. But you could just take creatine monohydrate, whether that's in powder or pill form, anywhere around your workout. And I find that keeping it in the gym bag really helps. I keep it on the shelf in my garage because that's where I train seven days a week, basically. Not seven days a week, five to seven, five days a week. My point there is I train in the garage. So seven days a week, I have to walk out to that shelf and take the creatine. I never forget. I know exactly where it is. I also keep some in the house. I've got creatine everywhere, but I put it where I know

I'm going to see it. And that way I never, ever forget to take my creatine. Hey guys, just wanted to take a quick second to say, thanks so much for listening to the podcast. And if you're finding value, it would mean the world to me. If you would share it on your social media, simply screenshot whatever platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story or share it to Facebook. But be sure to tag me so I can say thanks and we can chat it up about what you liked and how I can continue to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode. Number five, guys, we're hitting the halfway mark. This is big. Yeah, I'm loving the soundboard. It's so much fun. Okay, so number five is a water bottle, preferably a metal water bottle. The reason I want it to be metal, I'll get to it

in a minute. But look, we're talking low-hanging fruit here. We're talking shit that's going to make a huge difference. If you take your performance and health seriously, it is so lame to be dehydrated all the time. It's like the easiest shit. And I get on people a lot when people are like, tips for drinking more water. And I'm like, really? You really need help drinking more water? Like you can't just sip on a completely flavorless beverage that does not, like there's, it's not like drinking water causes stomach issues. It's not like drinking water is hard. Drinking water is literally drinking water. It's so easy. And so making sure that you have a water bottle with you while you're training is awesome because it's something you can do in between sets. Oh, I'm going to take a

sip of water. Oh, I'm sweating. I'm going to up my water intake. Oh, I'm on my way to the gym. I'm going to sip on my water throughout the day. Sip on your water, have that bottle with you. Always be sipping on your water, always be filling it up. Being dehydrated is, you know, like when clients, online clients send me their check-ins, you know, that's the one thing that I can almost always, you know, with whatever's going on, that's the one thing that most people always nail is water. It's the lowest hanging fruit. It's very easy to get enough water. And I hate to see people miss it, but bring your water bottle with you to the gym and get a metal one. Here's a few reasons why. Number one, when you put some crazy ass shit in that bottle and leave it in your car for three days and dig it out from under the seat, and you're like, oh,

there it is. When you open it, it won't smell as bad as when it's in plastic, particularly if you're doing things like mixing shakes in there, right? Number two, if you like to, again, leave your gym bag in the car, you don't want to have a reusable plastic water bottle just sitting, getting bombarded by the heat, bombarded by the sun, warming up and leaching BPAs and plastics into your bottle. You don't want that. A metal bottle will help you circumvent that. Additionally, if you go into the sauna, I go to the sauna at least three times a week. I like to have a metal water bottle. You do have to be careful because those bottles, particularly things like hydro flasks or anything that's insulated, those will actually draw the

heat from the sauna. And it's hot as fuck when you're like, oh, can't wait to just, you know, sit back and I'm going to enjoy my bottle. I'm going to just, you know, I'm going to melt in the sauna. And then just before you know it, you go up and it's too hot. It's actually too hot to drink from your bottle. And you're like, okay, well, here I am in this hot wooden box, miserable with my metal bottle. So you do have to be careful with drinking from them when you're in the sauna. But again, you don't want to be in a 200 degree cedar box getting a plastic bottle unless it's, you know, BPA free and it's free of all those toxins and it's not going to leach, right? You want to be very careful about what it is that

you bring into those environments. So a metal bottle is superior. So that should be the fifth thing that you have in your gym bag. Number six, this is a big one. This has saved so many clients, so many online clients over the course of the years. You don't have to actually keep this in your gym bag. You can keep this in a small plastic bag, a little tote bag, even just a paper grocery bag, but that's an extra pair of gym clothes and an extra pair of shoes. If you go to the gym four to six days a week, there's going to be at least one to two times a year where you show up and you're like, oh my God, I forgot my gym shoes, or I forgot my gym clothes, or I forgot a change of clothes and I have to go somewhere after this. So here's how I would approach this. Go to your

closet, look through your gym clothes. Odds are you have at least one gym outfit or a pair of shorts or top, some combination of gym clothing and shoes that you don't wear that often and that don't get a ton of run, if you will. So take that, put it in a bag, throw it in your trunk, leave it there. Leave it there with a towel, leave it there with a one serving of protein, whatever. That way, no matter what, you'll never have the excuse of, oh, I didn't bring my shoes. I didn't bring my clothes. If somebody says, hey, do you want to go to the gym and work out? Hey, do you want to go do something active? You will always be prepared. It will be sitting there.

If you end up going to the gym and you work out and you're like, holy crap, I forgot a change of clothes. I'm going to be so sweaty and I'm going to take my shower and have to change back into my dirty gym clothes. I've done that numerous times. This will save your ass there. This is an awesome kind of little hack, if you will, for covering your ass. When you're living

a busy life, going to the gym is hard enough. And it's very easy to forget things when life gets hectic. So having this stuff in your back pocket, in your trunk, in your gym bag can really make a big difference. Number seven, a gym towel, a shower towel, and then just general cleanliness, hygiene products, right? Like I understand that not everybody's comfortable bathing and showering at the gym. Some people prefer to go home and do that, but at the very least, do yourself a favor. Keep your deodorant in there, you know, keep a body spray in there, not like Axe or anything distasteful or gross, but you know, maybe some wipes that you can use. Um, we'll get more to that in a

minute, but I think it's really important that you keep things in that gym bag for your personal hygiene so that you're prepared to go to and from the gym and you don't get met with excuses like, Oh, I'm going to be all sweaty. Don't worry about it. You got a towel, you got your shower stuff, take a shower, switch into a fresh, you know, change your clothes, reduce friction, keep things in or around your gym bag that will reduce friction. And all of these things can go in that gym bag, right? Like a small, tiny little zip up travel bag with a stick of deodorant of like a couple cleansing wipes for your face, some toothpaste or mouthwash, some deodorant. That's very simple. Keep that with you. Throw it in your

gym bag. Easy peasy. Number eight is a swimsuit. A couple of things here. A couple of big things. A lot of gyms have pools. Sometimes on days where you want to recover or you're sore, you're dealing with an injury, it's nice to get in the pool and move around. You might want to lay out by the pool and get a little vitamin D depending on how comfortable you are in your bathing suit. That's totally up to you. Another awesome reason I like to wear my bathing suits in the sauna or the steam room. You want to have that stuff with you. So what I recommend, get a gallon Ziploc bag, put your dry swim trunks in it, put it in your gym bag. When you get in the, maybe you would prefer to shower in a bathing suit. Some people prefer to do that. That's very

understandable. Um, if you, after you've done the sauna, the shower, the pool, whatever, take them off, put them back in the bag. Boom, you're good to go. They won't leak all over your shit. So you want a gallon bag and you want your swimsuit and make sure that this is a swimsuit just for the gym. It doesn't have to be fancy. It could be like, I wear my chubbies, shameless plug, love my chubbies. But if you don't want to wear a two-piece bathing suit to the gym because that totally makes sense Get a one-piece suit get a swimming focused suit something like that So you can wear it in the sauna You can get a little sun you can get in the pool if you need to just have it in there if your gym allows

Or um has those amenities. Okay number nine This one is for the ladies for the most part and that's going to be hair ties and dry shampoo I have found I worked with mostly women over the years, that, ah, shit, I forgot a hair tie is a very, very common thing. So in that little toiletry bag, throw some hair ties in, and dry shampoo seems to go a really long way. This is number nine. So that was 9A for the girls. This is 9B for the boys, and that is cleansing wipes or wipes that are mildly scented that you can use to wipe down. I have noticed that for whatever reason, men's body odor tends to be a little bit more repulsive. If you are somebody who struggles with BO and you

don't like to shower, deodorant only goes so far. So some small cleansing wipes that you can use on your skin, on your face, on your armpits, on your balls, they go a long way. And hygiene to me matters. I understand that to most people, it's not their number one priority, but these are things that you can throw in your gym bag and they go a long way. There's a brand, I think it's Everyman Jack, you can get it at Target. They have some really good like shea butter scented Body cleansing wipes that will last you forever. And if you're like shoot, I don't have time to shower I'm running off to something else after my workout. It takes 10 seconds wipe your body down You'll feel a lot fresher and you won't be putting everybody off with your nasty bo and lastly number 10

this is Absolutely killer guys. This has been a game changer for me, and that is a battery bank, a USB battery bank, so you can charge your wireless headphones or your phone. Nothing is worse than heading to the gym only to realize that your headphones are dead or your phone is about to die, and having something in there to charge them is awesome.

You never want to just plug your phone in the wall at the gym. That kind of shit happens all the time and phones get stolen. Not all the time, but it's definitely worth having something more secure. So a portable battery bank, like a USB powered battery bank is totally worth having in your gym bag. So going over again, my 10 gym bag essentials, guys. Number one, your program.

Make sure you have something with you that you're taking with you every day and you're filling it out. A program and a program log. Number two, something to help you with your grips, whether it's wraps, bursa grips, liquid chalk or chalk, all of that stuff is really valuable. Number three, some form of protein, whether it's a little bit of beef jerky, some protein bars, or what I think is most convenient, some protein powder, have it in there. Additionally, have your creatine ready to go. Keep it in your gym bag so you never forget to take it. Number five, a metal water bottle. Number six, for your gym bag or the back of your car, just a little go bag with a gym outfit, a break in case of emergency gym outfit so you are always ready to go and you're never SOL

if you forget a change of clothes either. Number six, a towel and a toiletry bag. Number seven, or I'm sorry, number seven, a towel and a toiletry bag. Number eight, a swimsuit for the sauna, for the pool, for the steam room, for laying out in the sun, whatever you want to do. There's a lot of different reasons to, you know, have one with you. These things are all supplemental. They're not as important as resistance training, but they can make a difference in your performance. Number nine, hair ties and dry shampoo for the ladies. Most cases, number nine for the guys is 9B. Cleansing wipes were, you know, your armpits and balls. And number 10, a battery-powered phone charging bank. This stuff goes a long way for wireless headphones and balls. And number 10, a battery powered phone charging bank. This stuff goes a

long way for wireless headphones and phones. Okay, guys, those are my 10 gym bag essentials. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Do me a favor, share it, subscribe, do everything you can to help the podcast grow. It helps me out a ton. If you're listening on iTunes, something really simple that you can do is leave me a five-star rating and written review um that makes a big big difference all the way so thanks again so much for tuning in to another episode of the dynamic dialogue podcast as always guys this has been your host danny madranga stay tuned for more episodes