Before Covid, I was a regular at fitness classes. I loved trying out new workouts and frequently found myself in a new studio every week, taking advantage of some trial membership or discounted first class. 

The only thing remotely consistent about my fitness routine was my outfit. No matter the temperature or intensity level, you could always find me in leggings and a T-shirt, and no AC malfunction or summer heatwave could ever get me to take that top layer off.

Even when I started to feel stronger and more experienced, exercising in a sports bra never felt like something I could do. It seemed like a badge of honour you earned for being fit or attractive. Exercising in a sports bra felt exclusive to glamorous Lululemon yogis and those women who could max out the speed on their treadmill without needing a break.

Wearing a sports bra became something I subconsciously aspired to: if I could get my dream body or run a 7-minute mile, perhaps I too would be worthy of the sports bra.

Discomfort around working out in a sports bra is a common issue among women, as evidenced by numerous articles and Reddit threads documenting similar experiences to mine. Dr Jaclyn Siegel, a social psychologist at San Diego State University, explains that such discomfort around workout attire can stem from self-objectification. 

The objectification that women experience in society on a daily basis, she believes, can easily become internalised, at which point we begin to think of our own bodies as things to be looked at, rather than things to be lived in. When you get uncomfortably hot in a workout class, your default reaction won’t be to relieve that discomfort by taking off your T-shirt, because subconsciously you’ll be thinking: “I don’t want people don’t look at my body.”

Even though you would be more comfortable in a sports bra, an objectified perspective prevents you from listening to what your body needs and makes you more concerned about what it looks like.

The social and competitive aspects of a fitness class also make us prone to engaging in social comparison. According to Dr Siegel, we predominantly engage in ‘upwards comparison’, comparing ourselves to people who we view as ‘better’ than us, which – in a fitness environment – often means having ‘better bodies’. And constantly comparing yourself to people who you think are better than you generally makes you feel like you’re always falling short. No wonder, then, that so many of us feel like working out in a sports bra is aspirational rather than achievable.

Self-objectification and social comparison can be particularly acute in fitness spaces because they place so much focus on the physical appearance and performance of our bodies. For instance, the mirrors covering every wall at the gym are helpful in making sure you keep proper form, but they can also direct your attention towards more aesthetic concerns (can you honestly say you’ve never used those mirrors to see how your butt looks during a squat, or how your new workout outfit is sitting on you?).

Unfortunately, Covid put an end to my dreams of looking like a semi-pro athlete in a sports bra. My first time exercising in a sports bra turned out to be much less glamorous than I’d pictured. On a particularly hot summer day during lockdown, I tried to do a HIIT workout in my tiny studio apartment. Within minutes, I was red and dripping with sweat. After the third much-needed break to splash cold water on my face, I was ready to do anything to cool down a little, and so my shirt came off. It felt somewhat jarring and exposing at first, like I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to be doing, but I was quite simply too overheated to think too much about it.

The summer heatwave lingered, so I continued to exercise in a sports bra in the following weeks. Gradually, it stopped feeling like a big deal. According to clinical psychologist Dr Gemma Sharp, this mental shift happened because exercising alone in my apartment made me less exposed to the objectification and comparison I felt in a fitness class, which allowed me to focus more on how I feel and what my body needs.

Over time, I got used to seeing my body in movement. I would still notice things about it that I didn’t particularly like, but in the moment I would be too focused on exercise to dwell on my physical shortcomings. The concept of body neutrality suddenly seemed to click: I could see my body and accept it, and not worry so much about what I loved or hated about it.

This experience was completely serendipitous. I never made a conscious choice to exercise in a sports bra to improve my body image, but it felt good to achieve a better relationship with my body through fitness, which can often have the opposite effect. Invigorated by these discoveries, I asked experts what other practices could be helpful for improving our relationship with our bodies via exercise.

The key is in making sure your workout is focused on its ultimate purpose: movement. For instance, personal trainer Laura Ghiacy recommends adopting a bigger picture to understand your body’s performance. If you can manage a few pull-ups one day but not the next, don’t criticise yourself for being weak, but try zooming out to figure out why: perhaps you didn’t sleep well that night, or perhaps you need a rest day. 

In a similar vein, running coach Kelly Roberts recommends focusing on hitting your personal best effort (as opposed to personal best time or weight) every day. Even if you’re working to achieve an outcome-based goal, she says, it is crucial to come at it from the perspective of the feeling you are chasing instead of forcing your body to do something it doesn’t want to do.

What started out as a small step outside my comfort zone by wearing a sports bra ultimately helped me feel more comfortable in my body. Of course, it is no panacea – I’m still not completely in love with every part of my body, and moving in a bra can’t undo the much larger issues of objectification, comparison and judgment that we are often faced with in fitness spaces. 

But I do think it is important to think about how we can get our fitness routines to feel empowering instead of shaming, and help us accept our bodies as they are. After all, what is the point of exercise if not to help us feel better, stronger and more confident?

For more fitness experiences, check out the Strong Women Training Club.

Images: Getty