Inexpensive, light and quite stylish, they are perfect for carrying nearly anything. This being a site about gym bags, we’re going to look at their suitability to carry your gym equipment.

Any duffel bag is going to be spacious. That’s the nature of this type of container so you should expect plenty of space to store:

• All your gym clothes
• A change of ‘outside of gym’ clothing
• Spare shoes
• Water bottles
• Towels
• Electronic equipment (mp3 players, heart rate monitors etc)
• Toiletries

You’d also expect a canvas duffel bag to be compartmentalized. That is to have separate spaces for keys, jewelry, breakable items, shoes (so they don’t dirty your clothes) and cosmetics/toiletries.

Lastly, I would say, ensure the one you get has a strap that’s going to be sturdy enough to support a full duffel and comfortable enough to carry.

Here are my recommendations for the best

Canvas Duffel Bag

August Small Canvas Sport Bag

Let’s start off simple. This bag is attractive, not huge and has a low price. 10 bucks or so will get you this basic sports bag and if you don’t need many frills, this is the one to get.

Outdoor Products Mountain Duffel

I like this one very much. It’s massive.

It handily includes:

• Travel pouch for stuff you want to keep apart. Like the shoes we mentioned above.
• End pockets
• Side pocket

It’s lightweight and looks good.

You don’t need to think too much when an item is this good.

Texsport Canvas Tactical Bag

This is my favourite, and although it’s shameful for me to say, it’s because of how great it looks.

It’s got all the functionality you could need and holds everything you want. It also looks like an army bag. Winner!

Whichever canvas duffel bag catches your eye, make sure it fits your needs. Happy shopping.

Firstly, being fit helps you look good. This may seem shallow as a reason for exercise, but good self-esteem is so very valuable and important in our day to day lives.

Secondly having a great immune system, which being fit and healthy will give you, is a must have for fighting off flu and colds and even more worrying illnesses and diseases.

Being physically fit also helps you withstand injury, makes you stronger and more able to act when necessary. Imagine the extreme example of there being an emergency and you need to carry somebody. You’d certainly wish you were strong in that case.

So what is physical fitness and how does this tie in with the benefits of exercising?

To put it simply, it’s the ability to go about your day to day tasks, performing the usual activities of a regular person and still be able to handle extra exertions or emergencies that you may need to handle. All this without shortness of breath. Can you walk up 3 flights of stairs without huffing and puffing? If not I bet you wish you could!

The base factors that make up your fitness levels are:

• Cardiorespiratory Endurance – How well your body moves oxygen through your bloodstream and around your body when needed. Also how well it moves waste products away from your cells increasing their efficiency.
• Muscular Power – How much force your muscles can exert.
• Muscular Endurance – How long your muscles can exert themselves to near maximum effort for a period of time.
• Flexibility – The ability to move body parts through normal motions.
• Body Fat Composition – Percentage of body fat, measured through BMI etc.

People will do nearly anything to look good and those who take the route of going to the gym to get fit and lean want to look good while doing it. Many want to look good, going to and coming from, the gym too.

Women’s Gym Bags, in this context, have 2 main functions.

· Carrying, in a wearable and safe fashion, everything a lady will need to make her gym visit a positive one.

· Being an attractive accessory.

Women’s Gym Bags

Gym bags for women are quite specifically feminine in nature. And they’ll also need to meet basic requirements…

· Attractive – going back to what I said about looking good, it’s important for the right bag to look good and if not completely match, at least compliment one’s workout apparel.

· Spacious – the amount of accoutrements you need when going to the gym is spectacular. I won’t even start listing them here but a tiny little bag won’t help you at all. And don’t try to stuff things in. Over filling it will do more harm than good.

· Secure – if you added up the value of everything you took to the gym you would probably be surprised. The clothing itself would be in the hundreds of dollars, let alone the jewelry, the electronic items and the cosmetics/toiletries. Not only do you want something that will hold everything you have, but you want it to hold those items safely. Gym bags for women get knocked about and it’s preferable to be safe in the knowledge that nothing inside is being smashed and broken.

If you believe that anything is basic any more, you’ve got another thing coming. You couldn’t just walk into a sporting goods store and say ‘give me a gym bag please, suitable for a lady’. There are a thousand choices for everything.

Some Excellent Women’s Gym Bags

In order to get the most suitable and necessary item for you, you’ll need to think about what you want your gym bag for…

· Tennis – Will it have room for your racket, your balls and your gruntometer? The same for squash, racketball and any other racket sport.

· Swimming – Small and compact is good.

· Gym itself – massive – changes of clothing, room for everything and it’s gotta look good.

For every sport, there may as well be a different utility bag, and it totally depends how seriously you take your sport, but if you want to get the most out of your exercise then you’ll need some serious equipment.

Women’s gym bags are important if you want to lose weight, get fit or just hang at the treadmill, looking hot.

The Vera Bradley Large Duffel isn’t strictly a gym bag, but it’s a duffel bag and I’ve seen enough women at the gym using these, including my own wife, that it would seem silly to miss out what is such a popular item.

This ultra trendy bag comes in a huge variety of colours, ranging from Blue Lagoon to Very Berry Paisley.

By now you have realised that the Vera Bradley Large Duffel falls into the category of gym bags for women, but I’ll be honest that they do look pretty good, although as a man I’d never been seen dead with one.

The Vera Bradley Designs company is well know for its brightly colored patterned bags and while that may be the selling point for many people I can tell you that there’s a lot more to recommend than simply good looks.

While the bag is spacious it’s still easy to carry. It has a 15 inch strap affording plenty of room to carry it because you’re a gentleman. It folds flat and is machine washable as it’s made completely from cotton.

While you may buy this as a present for a lady in your life, or as a lady you may purchase it as a gym bag, it won’t stay as a gym bag. This has enough room for everything but the proverbial kitchen sink and fits well as a travel bag. Just make sure you are storing your sneakers in a plastic bag and not loose in the Vera Bradley Large Duffel.

Vera Bradley Large Duffel Reviews

“This was ordered for my daughter who loves the color. It was in great shape and was lovely. My daughter just loved it and uses it everyday.”

Read all of the reviews here…

Your 10 most important gym bag essentials.

Got the best gym bag your heart desires?

Make sure you make good use of it.

Water Bottle
It’s vital to keep yourself hydrated whilst working out. (BPA Free recommended)

Towels
Wipe down those sweaty machines with a hand towel (or even better, sanitary hand-wipes) and don’t forget a shower towel either or you’ll be drying yourself with a gym hairdryer. A shower after your work-out is not only good for your muscles, but is good for the soul. Ahhh, relaxing.

Heart Rate Monitor
Keep in the Zone!

Running Shoes
Don’t wear your gym shoes out and about, they’ll become stinky.

Laundry Bag
If you want your fancy new gym bag to stay fresh and sweet, put your sweaty gym clothes in a laundry bag.

Flip-Flops
Planning to use the pool, the shower or the steam-room? Don’t want athelete’s foot? Get some flip-flops.

Fuel
A power bar is an excellent choice, as is a banana.

Deodorant
Self-explanatory

MP3 Player
Is this essential? In my opinion yes. Unless you’re one of those guys that works out with his buddies, you need something to protect you from the potential boredom that arises from spending 30 minutes on a treadmill.

Workout Journal
How will you know if you’re improving, unless you make goals and keep track of your performance?

There may be other items in your top 10 gym bag essentials. Maybe you like to read magazines whilst on an exercise bike. Maybe you shave in the locker room. Whatever you do, run a quick check before you leave the house.

The Yoga Mat Carrier, or Yoga Gym Bag, may be something you’ve never heard much about.

Yoga is pretty popular these days with most gyms offering at least one class.  As a way to de-stress, and keep fit at the same time, Yoga is supreme.

Being a popular pastime, you’ll find that Yoga accessories have sprung up all over the place, but let’s be honest all you really need is the following:

• Some light, non-constrictive clothing
• A mat

Consequently a Yoga Mat Carrier may well be be the simplest, most basic bag you’ll ever buy.  The prevailing style of the Yoga gym bag is an over the shoulder affair, most often with an oriental looking logo. or symbol, that looks a little like a thin sleeping bag when in a carrier.

The spiritual nature of Yoga encourages manufacturers to create Yoga accessories with the environment in mind so the average Yoga mat carrier will be made of a natural fiber.

One small nod to modern life is that most Yoga gym bags will have a compartment for car keys, cell-phone or something else small and necessary.

The most popular Yoga gym bag is the Gaiam Printed Yoga Mat Bag (Damask)

Made by Gaiam, a company whose vision is all about green, life-enhancing products.  Predictably it is 100% cotton, very light (about 2/3 of a pound), super attractive and has a couple of little pouches for your personal gear.

More Yoga Mat Carriers Here

There’s nothing else for it.  Simple and effective.

Tennis bags for women are slowly becoming more popular. Inspired by young, attractive female tennis stars like Maria Sharapova such bags have become more feminine and suitable for ladies.

That’s not to say that all tennis bags for women have to be pink, but many specifically designed for women are!

Tennis Bags For Women

Apart from the aesthetics the only major differences between those tennis bags made for women and those for men are…

• The bulk – Ladies tennis bags are generally smaller, more lightweight and easier to carry.
• The design – Women are more used to carry bags and will be less fussy about wearing their bags over their shoulders.  Men tend to want to carry their bags in one hand rather than across their chest.

For a bag that’s not so much definitely for women, but more of a unisex item, look no further than the Head 2010 ATP Combi Tennis Bag

Moving to the inevitable pink bags, for the serious player who may have more than 1 racket, or if you need to carry more than 1 for friend’s or club’s use, the Prince Inspiration Tennis Bagis ideal.

In an entirely different style the Wilson Hope Backpackis more like a backpack than a specially designed tennis bag, but it has a zip racket compartment that fits a tennis racket nicely. It’s very comfortable and easy to carry and will carry a LOT more than just a racket. This is an all-round great bag that can function as a normal backpack, a gym bag and obviously a racket bag.

There are also bags that you may not necessarily carry your racket in, but are centred towards the lady playing tennis and are highly fashionable, for example…

Tennis bags for women are destined to become more popular and more niche. Just as women’s tennis is now as popular as men’s tennis, so will tennis fashions follow.

Ogio Golf Bags are designed like the rest of Ogio’s products, with quality and innovation in mind. It’s no surprise that they make the best gym bags known to man, and their golf bags are proving no different.

These are 4 words you would use to describe Ogio golf bags if you owned one.

The thing that really strikes me about Ogio golf bags is how cool they are. Call me shallow, but you don’t see Tiger Woods with a rumpled old brown bag. I’m not sure having an attractive bag makes me a better golfer, but it sure makes me feel happier hitting the green.

Ogio Golf Bags

We’re gonna look at 2 today. A carry bag and a cart bag.

The OGIO Assassin Ultralite Stand Bag is simply incredible.

You don’t want to be schlomping a great big heavy bag around the course, so something like this is perfect if you aren’t going to be using a cart. It weighs only 9 pounds and looks great.

It comes in 4 colors. The red is by far the best looking.

Now to the cart bag. Seeing as I agree with Mr Twain (sort of) when he stated that ‘golf was a good walk ruined’ I prefer to use a cart and then nothing is ruined at all. I know that some people like the aspect of golf where you’re out in the fresh air, enjoying the scenery. That’s nice and all, but I like to play golf, so I’ll leave the walking to Mark Twain.

What I really like is the Ogio Syncro Cart Bag.

And you know what? It hardly weights anything. 10 pounds the blurb says, and that’s not much more than the Assassin Ultralite.

The brown/fawn colored bag is exceptional. It has a leather appearance and the great features add to its appeal.

It has a separate putter compartment. A waterproof pocket for your phone or keys or whatever. A place for your drinking container and many, many other pockets for who knows what, but it’s got room for everything.

So, if you like stylish, a little bit unusual, yet functional and reasonably priced (especially with the Amazon discount) then Ogio golf bags can be the answer to your ‘what golf bag is best’ question.

Gym bags for women will be fashioned with women in mind. That might sound obvious, but it’s not quite as easy as offering a greater range of colours and making them more elegant. If you think about it, ladies carry a bag way more often than a man will, so they’re probably a bit more critical.

So, gym bags for women will have to have certain great qualities…

Attractive – As a woman you don’t carry around your personal effects in a plastic bag, so why would you use the ugliest old bag to visit the gym? Of course, different strokes for different folks. You may be a girl who likes pink, and there’s a gym bag for you. You may be super-serious about your fitness and there’s a gym bag for you too.

Compartments – Generally, ladies need more separate spaces than men do. Somewhere safe for your jewellery. Cosmetic products, hair-brushes, hair-ties, hygiene products; all of these need somewhere to go, and you can just throw it all in the main compartment if you like, but why bother when you can get gym bags for women that have these features.

Lightweight and Compact – You don’t want to be humping around a giant duffel-bag, but at the same time, something tiny might not do the trick. If you’re just nipping in from home for a brief spinning session, something like the Nike Varsity Girl Gymsack is absolutely ideal.

Light and with enough room for the bare essentials. And let’s face it, it looks great.

For something a bit more heavy duty, with enough space to hold everything but the kitchen sink, and a place for everything, is the Nike Brasilia IV M Duffel

Whatever you choose, make sure it fits your needs. And gentlemen, gym bags for women are a great present, but make sure you keep the receipt.

Gym bags for men will differ from gym bags for women for a variety of reasons. Now, I’m not saying that, as a man, you can’t have a pink bag with butterflies on, but you’ll get some strange looks in the locker room.

Hardwearing – It will need to be tough. Your bag will suffer from being bashed into doors, stuffed into lockers, kicked and crammed full of clothes. A bag that falls apart after a couple of days if a waste of time and money. For that reason, make sure you get something that’s well made. You get what you pay for.

Spacious – You’ll need plenty of space. Even if you wear a suit to work and ‘gym it’ beforehand, there’ll need to be enough room for

• Exercise clothing
• Shoes – maybe more than 1 pair
• Toiletries – probably a spare deodorant, hairbrush, toothbrush, aftershave, razor.  You name it, a veritable bathroom cabinet could well be lurking in your gym bag.
• Accessories – heart rate monitor, headband (haha I hope not), weight gloves, weight belt, towels, water bottles.

Compartments – You’ll want to keep your sweaty socks away from the rest of your clothing.  A space for your shoes, a wet towel .  A secure space for jewellery, a watch, your phone, ipod,  headphones, car keys.

Looks – You’ll want something rugged in a manly color.  Well kept enough to say, I’m a serious gym user and I take pride in myself and my belongings.  Appearance isn’t everything, but why pay good money for something that looks unattractive?

One Of The Best Gym Bags For Men

There are many gym bags for men that meet all the above criteria, but one I’ve used in the past, and that has a particularly macho name and appearance, is the UNDER ARMOUR Adult Team Duffle

It’s pretty big, without being huge, has plenty of pockets and is sturdy and longlasting.