You may have decided that 2025 is the year of your fitness achievement. If so, well done! It’s great to set a goal and stick to it, particularly if it’s focused on your health and wellbeing. Getting out there and becoming stronger and healthier might take effort, but it’s a process that both feels amazing to go through and can return better results than you had expected.
But of course, anyone interested in fashion will know that a changing body, especially over time, can require a new approach to the wardrobe. However, it’s true that there are some misconceptions here. For example, you might be squatting in the gym, but that doesn’t mean you’ll wake up one day with huge thighs and calves that can’t fit into any of your leggings.
For this reason, we hope to offer some more measured, helpful advice for those looking to work out, but not feel hesitant or worried about the self-improvement process.
Use Full-Body Workout Programs With Compound Lifts
When you first start working out, you might hear about splitting your routine into specific body parts or focusing only on certain areas. This is often advice given by those trying to sell a particular workout regimen or to target you by suggesting that all women want toned abs or a bigger butt. There’s an element of misogyny here of course, but let’s just focus on the truth to counter it.
The reality is that full-body workouts using compound movements tend to create the most balanced changes to your shape. Exercises like squats, deadlifts, and overhead presses work multiple muscle groups together, helping you develop proportionally and ultimately allowing you to feel your best and most capable.
This means your clothes will tend to fit better overall, rather than getting tight in some places while staying loose in others, or making you disproportionately wider in some areas. We all have our own natural body shapes of course, but this way you’ll be working yourself out as a complete unit, so you won’t have to worry about shopping for trousers twice as large with nothing else to counter it.
Consider Your Ideal Gym Wear
Good gym clothes make a huge difference to your workout experience, but that doesn’t mean buying the most expensive items right away, nor does it mean having to purchase the most overly marketed activewear.
The truth is that gym fashion doesn’t matter outside what is decent (of course) and what makes you feel your best. So, you could start with a few basic, comfortable pieces that let you move freely. Most people find that having three or four good workout outfits is plenty, as this gives you enough options while letting you figure out what actually works for your routine.
Dark colors tend to be practical since they hide sweat marks, but really, pick whatever makes you feel good and don’t overthink it. However, investing in a good pair of supported gym shoes can be essential, especially if you hope to do cardio or weightlift. The former is best if you have arch-supporting shoes, while the ladder is better with a sturdier frame, and you can buy lifting shoes for this.
Plan For Shape & Comfort
As your body changes through exercise, you’ll probably notice clothes fitting differently, but these changes usually happen very gradually. This means instead of rushing to buy a whole new wardrobe, focus on adaptable pieces that work well across different sizes depending on how your progress is going, so stretchy materials and adjustable waistbands can be helpful during this transition period, especially if you’re on a weight loss journey.
If just working out for strength however, remember that muscle gained through exercise tends to be dense and compact especially for women, so you might get stronger without necessarily needing larger clothes. Of course if you do wish to grow proportionally, full body workouts, Vegan protein from EatProtein.co.uk and good nutrition can achieve excellent results.
Dressing For Altered, Improved Body Architecture
Exercise often improves posture and body composition more than it drastically changes your size, the latter being a common misconception. This is often because guys who lift to workout want to increase their muscles, but the same doesn’t happen as easily in women.
So for example, you might find that clothes start fitting better rather than differently. Your shoulders might sit straighter, your core might be more stable, and this can make existing clothes look better on you. If you do need new items, focus on nice, quality basics that complement your improving posture and strength. A well-fitted white shirt or a good pair of jeans can look even better on a body that carries itself with confidence, so you might even say that good, full-body strength programs, like Starting Strength, becomes its own form of fashionable investment.
Expressing Body Confidence
As you get stronger and healthier, you might feel more confident about wearing certain styles, and that’s wonderful! That said, this doesn’t mean you need to show more skin or wear tighter clothes because of it, as confidence comes in many forms.
Different people prefer different things of course, and while you might have more options now, your taste may not have changed. Some people feel great in loose, flowing garments that emphasize their movement and strength. Others might enjoy wearing more fitted items that show their improving muscle balance. Either way is fine, and your preference might change from day to day, or perhaps you just feel more slender, supple and capable, and now more confident in different beach wear. It’s all up to you, however you like to express body confidence.
With this advice, we hope you can think about how fashion changes often complements a developing body, as opposed to assuming this process is going to limit you. Too many people, women especially, are told that if they work out too much they’ll get too bulky, big, and unflattering. But the truth is that good workouts only help you feel better and nothing else. We hope this guide has been able to soothe those concerns.
