Mage said:
^ Cutler looks like a fatso when not exposing skin. The modern pharma-heavy bodybuilders are just muscle-fat bulks.
On topic:
Originally I also thought that it doesn't matter what you wear in the gym, because gym is supposed to be for me and not for picking up girls so I wore my worst and oldest plain oversized t-shirt that covered any definition and gray plain shorts and pretended that i don't give a fuck. Also I didn't wash my hair in gym days when if it needed washing because it will be sweaty after gym anyway.
However I have changed my ways since I couldn't help but notice how cool some dudes dress for gym and how badass they look compared to me even if our muscles are relatively on the same development level. I started to wear more tight and interesting clothes and also I always make sure my hair and beard look sharp. I feel this helps in my lifting. Somehow looking into mirror and seeing yourself a bad motherfucker makes me feel more confident before big lifts and more energetic. I believe that appearance is very important because it influences our subconscious self image a lot. We men are visual and we base most of our opinion on women on their looks, but subconscioulsly we are also visual when it comes to other guys, we visually access them as our competitors and think how we would measure up. I believe our self assessment does affect some hormone levels and thus strength output, maybe it's just placebo, but for me it does bring benefits to dress sharp.
The gym is me time but in this mean time I also like to feel like a sharp and confident slayer not as a dull slob, so dressing has some importance. It's by far the one of least important things in lifting and the difference it makes is subtle but still it makes some difference.
Mage,
I went through a similar process. I make an effort to look good outside of the gym, so I figured I could afford to step it up a little bit when I'm in the gym.
I always go pretty hard so I kind of employed a "whatever" attitude; you notice real athletes when they work out are decked out in name brand gear, but they're usually sponsored by somebody, and even if they had to pay, it's money they can afford to spend without even thinking about it.
Some of us don't want to or can't afford to spend $40 on a Jordan muscle tank or Under Armour compression shirt, but we can still upgrade our gym gear at a reasonable expense.
Nike.com had a sale recently -- in fact it's still ongoing, although the inventory is not as much -- so I bought a few $15-$20 tanks.
The nicer tanks replaced my beat up old wife beaters and t-shirts.
I already have shorts since I play ball fairly regularly and saw no need to buy more.
I bought a few
compression and tanks from Champion, all between $6-$10 off Amazon and the Champion website -- I have prime, so I get a lot of things off Amazon and don't have to worry about shipping costs fucking up the deal prices.
The compression shirts are just as good as Under Armour and cost less than half the price.
Also if you workout outside or play ball outside, then its understandable to not give too much of a fuck about the shoes, but for the gym, it's reasonable to have one pair of nice shoes.
Sites like Finish Line, Eastbay, etc. always have sales and coupon codes so you can get a pair of fresh kicks at a reasonable cost.
I do most of my shopping anyway off Ebay, so I ended up buying a pair of
pair of new white Jordan SC-3's off Ebay for $40 including shipping.
That was a rare find, I've noticed that on Ebay most people are trying to sell their old shoes at nearly brand new prices, so it often just makes more sense to get a pair of Eastbay or similar site.
All in all, I probably spent about $125-$150 to completely refresh my gym gear, and now I'm good. Some of those items I won't wear when I'm working out outside to keep them fresh.
As with anything in life, if you have the money, and it's something you want to do, do it, but make sure you do it for yourself, not because you want some chick to notice you -- most are in their own world at the gym, trying to workout while being cognizant of the fact that guys are checking them out while they get their reps in.
In my case, when I'm at the gym, there usually aren't very many women around, and the ones that are, are typically ones I wouldn't have any interest in -- they're not real fitness chicks, they're just overweight chicks who are on a temporary "gotta hit the gym" kick.
It doesn't hurt to have that psychological feeling that you do look good, regardless of where you are, just don't worry about going overboard, keep it reasonable, again, do it for yourself.
