We all need to be heard for a little while.

tea_lover

I'd invest in a decent sports bra (if I had the need lol) and some decent trainers. Then happily wear a cut-price binbag for the rest of my outfit

codemonkey

I have the good trainers - I bought a pair to suit my running gait because I was doing lots of running and got shin splints. Just need the bra.

purpleshoes_2

I wear new balance trainers, they arent too expensive, maybe around 35 quid or so, you can get ones more expensive as well, they break in really well, thats why I like them. Nothing worse than putting on a pair of new trainers and coming home with blisters.

One of the girls who do my classes was saying to me, I like your classes because you dress like a normal person, that was kind words for sometimes I look a bit scruffy.

You really don't need to spend a lot to look and feel comfortable in the gym and like anything else, certain products, well you'll pay a lot more just because there's a big brand name stamped on the side.

I love the nike workout trousers I have, but I love them more because they cost me 99p.

I also get the cool and freeze sprays I buy from poundland or world, same with ibuprofen gel, you can pay 5 times the price in lloyds the chemist for much the same thing just because its deep heat as opposed to not.

One thing I have done this year which I havent before is get a massage although Im still working up the courage to have a deep tissue or a sports massage, because I'm starting to creak.

Comfort first, how I look second, something that applies to just about every aspect of my life

purpleshoes_2

Just seen some shock absorber bras on ebay for 17.50 plus a quid postage, thats a very decent price for that brand.

Primark and asda also do sports bras, but its been so long since I bought any from there, I cant remember how good they are.

When I used to teach zumba I had a front row of members who were very nice, very enthusiastic, all from the same family and who were very curvy lets just say. And never wore a sports bra. I tried to gently encourage them to do so, but it just wasnt happening. Every week they would be mid dance, grabbing their boobs and saying, next week I'm going to buy one, they didn't, it would amaze you the number of people who turn up to classes in an ordinary bra. Which is fine if you are doing a class where you don't move off the spot, not so good if you are running around like your life depends on it.

codemonkey

Just got one for £15 on ebay. Turns out my size is easy to get hold of in shock absorbers.

Pyxis

Oooh! Purpleshoes! Did you used to teach Zumba? :T
I go to between 3 and 5 classes a week, depending when my other activities are on! It's absolutely the only exercise I have ever, ever enjoyed!



I second the charity shop hunt for things like sportswear! I get loads of clothes from charity shops, and currently have two sports tops from them, plus several little bolero cardigans to wear over them until I get hot, all for Zumba.
I have seen sports trousers in them as well, and there may well be sports bras too!
In fact I won't buy new now, unless desperate! I trawl the local charities once a week or fortnight. It's amazing what you can pick up!

purpleshoes_2

Yes I did. I taught for 4 years. Gave up my licence in 2013, Zumba lock you in so after you train you have to pay 20 quid a month for choreography CDs and DVDs until you give up teaching and I just felt it was time to move on and teach other stuff that wasn't so time consuming and cheaper. I teach hiit classes now. I've moved away from teaching dance fitness and I'm a pt now. But I meet loads of folk in the street who used to do my classes, I've been stopped in asda and tesco by staff. It's odd because you can spend loads of time worrying whether people like what you do and since I stopped teaching Zumba I met so many folks who have said really nice things about my classes.

Am just in the process of selling off my Zumba wear. But most of my facebook friends are Zumba instructors. I just like teaching, but Zumba was the first thing I ever taught. I've come a long way from those knee knocking nervous days.

If you ever get the chance to go to a masterclass by Donna giffen, go, she's one of the master trainers. Scottish but does events all over. She's fabulous.

mellymoo74

After another hideous weekend I am going to shower and lie down.

I will get calm

lostinrates

codemonkey wrote: »

My gym is a dodgy basement room in my office building which costs me less than £10 a month so neither am I. I do need the sports bra though.

Supermarket joggers are always 6inches too short. Will pop into the supermarket on the way home and see what they have.

Gym is a dodgy basement room below office, who cares what you wear? Six inches too short? They are capris, and keep your ankles cool.

ATM I want gold lurex footless tights for yoga. Trust me, I should not be wearing gold lurex footless tights for yoga. Feel happy for my yoga teacher and friends that my search is fruitless. ( I do need some more yoga gear though and am struggling because of specific wear issues. Current yoga trousers keep falling down so, cannot keep with them for ever. I'd like to wear shorts for summer, but only if I can find footless tights for underneath them. I'll have to get boring ones I guess, sigh.

A month a go I wasn't sure I'd be able to do this, and now I'm finding that, yes, I am not who I was but I still have some strengths and am finding pleasure. I have a great teacher who has been through my medical file and understands problems with inversions and makes me rest and drink after each time my head goes lower than my heart without making me feel like a 'weakling' or a fool, and corrects fairly and positively and praises enthusiastically good form and improvement.

We explore ideas of emotion during my practice and I find it remarkably easy to be open and relaxed with this person, we also discuss how we both think about things. While a return to yoga is like a return to old shoes, these shoes feel both less glamorous, as my body is not as beautiful nor as flexible ....I don't make the shapes aesthetically I aspire to, these shoes might also be more comfortable and the stretch feels less forced yet more hard won, as if I'm earning in not simply claiming something not so hard to grasp.

Ok, I'm not going to be doing a crow pose any time soon, but simple stretching, even trying to find peAce and rest then succeeding in a child's pose ....these smaller triumphs mean more.

Indie_Kid

purpleshoes wrote: »

One thing I have done this year which I havent before is get a massage although Im still working up the courage to have a deep tissue or a sports massage, because I'm starting to creak.

Comfort first, how I look second, something that applies to just about every aspect of my life

Warning: they hurt a lot! I was nearly in tears when I had my first one done. But I was injured. I had one done last year after a race and was laid there falling asleep. She then dug her hands in. Well, that was one way to wake me up!:rotfl:

If you're short enough / your feet are small enough, you may get away with buying kids running gear. I sometimes do this as the shorts are quite a bit longer and don't ride up as a I run.