I’ve changed. When I was younger I did try to look a little natty. Now it’s whatever. Usually a pair of baggy sweats and an old t shirt.
I wear gym shorts and a t shirt suitable for sweating in. Last batch I bought was under armor tech vent. I’m going 5-6 days a week (I usually go four days and take one day off) so I have a lot of gym clothes, many identical. Oh yeah, in the winter, spring and fall, I have a selection of joggers, quarter zips and hoodies.
The gym is the place I go to more than any other, except maybe work. I’ve been going to the same gym for over 15 years, and I meet a lot of people I know there. In fact quite a few of my friends I met there. When our kids were young and in various classes together (swimming, gymnastics, martial arts, etc). So I try not to look sloppy.
My teenager still says I dress like a homeless person.
Same.
When I go to work, I wear a dress shirt as part of a suit. Underneath that I wear an A shirt (sometimes called by the unfortunate term “wife beater”).
When I go to the gym after work, I strip down to that undershirt, along with a pair of shorts (I have several pair from YoungLA, a popular workout clothing brand; they’d be considered pretty short if worn outside the gym; about as long as basketball shorts in the 80s).
But I wear a modified sweatshirt (I’ve cut off the arms and hood) over the undershirt (something bodybuilders call a pump cover) and rarely take that off when I’m working out.
When I use my elliptical, which sits in my living room, it’s first thing in the morning. So I just wear what I wore when I slept : my underwear. But I also put on my sandals, since otherwise my feet would hurt against the rough foot pads. I’m quite a sight!
ETA: Usually on leg day, instead of the sweatshirt over the undershirt, I’ll wear one of a few select t-shirts, which all fit kinda tight and have funny slogans (i.e. Godzilla smashing buildings with the slogan I’ll tread where I want; another has a cartoon whale with a curly haired wig and the slogan perm whale)
Tomorrow I’m going on a bike ride with my brother and sister in-law. They’ll be in their cycling gear, on their gajillion dollar road bikes and I’ll be on my hybrid bike, wearing leggings and high tops. I think I embarrass them 
Like @Procrustus and @DSeid I’m exercising at home (light resistance for 25 minutes on a stationary bike daily) so it’s generally shorts and a t-shirt in poor enough condition that I wouldn’t even wear in my own backyard, much less in public. Generally washed every other to every third day.
During the time I briefly had gym access through work, then it was clean shorts and t-shirt, but the extra time to and from the gym meant I was only going three days a week, which became far too easy to make excuses to just… not go.
I walk 5 mornings per week, pretty quickly for an almost 60 year old, just under 7kmh. I wear the same bottoms, a pair of short compression tights that have an internal pocket for my phone with a pair of AFL shorts over top. Depending on the weather I either wear a hoodie over top of whatever top I slept in last night or one of 3 singlet tops if it’s warmer. IDGAF how I look, it’s all about function. When I do weights, it’s at home and I wear what I’m wearing.
If I’m exercising at home, it’s whatever’s to hand as nobody’s going to see it. When I go to the gym, I have decent leggings and a proper sports bra so things stay where they’re meant to stay. I do make a point of buying decent trainers as I have had issues with tendonitis and other injuries in the past so I make sure I am at least taking care of my feet and ankles. Other than that, whichever band t-shirt/vest I want to be advertising!
I have clothing which is dedicated for going to the gym, whether it’s my gym, or a gym at a hotel (wistful thinking). I also have clothing that I wear for walking and hiking, that I do not wear for just going to work, shopping etc.
I may also go for a walk with my normal clothes. And if I do any body weight exercises at home I’ll just wear my normal evening at home clothing which is usually a random t-shirt and leggings.
My gym clothes are divided into set A and set B. Each set contains a shirt, leggings, socks, head scarf and hair tie. If I’m packing a set for travel, I’ll add underwear and a sports bra. If I’m at home, I’ll just get what I need from the appropriate drawer.
Both sets live near the gym bag, which is near the front door. They do not get stored with my normal clothing.
Set A is the clothing I’ve had for many years, and still works. Set B has a newer top and the leggings have a cross waist. Which no one sees, as my shirt is long enough to cover it, but I like how the cross waist leggings feel. Eventually Set A will be replaced, but it’s still serviceable.
I did get rid of my original gym shirt because I decided that I really didn’t like the color. I decided that my gym clothing should bring a bit of joy, so the shirt went. I do like the leggings, just not as much as the set B leggings.
Wait, what?
Of course I dress to make some statement.
Sometimes I wear stuff from my carefully curated “I don’t care” collection.
Sometimes stuff from my “I only care about comfort” collection.
But mostly I “casually” wear shirts from sports events from 1-10 years ago.
All those people that are proclaiming their non-fashion choices:
Why aren’t you wearing new, cheap, generic sportswear? Could it be you are trying to make some kind of statement?
Is the idea that anyone dressing for anything (if you are not completely destitute) would not consider how they look or what impression they’re making as dumb as I think it is?
Why is there conformist groupthink going on that “comfortable” or “casual” is not a fashion statement?
Of course it is.
We are humans, we find little ways to impress the girls or express our status in everything we do. If you think you are randomly putting together stuff you should get two toddlers to assemble a truly random outfit to wear to the gym. I bet you you won’t wear what they select for all kinds of plausible sounding reasons, but the real reason will be “that is not what the cool kids are wearing”.
Own it and have fun with it.
Today in the gym I was wearing shorts (my legs are my best feature) with a “casually” selected shirt from a running event from last year, this year’s edition is tomorrow.
Tomorrow at that event I’ll wear a shirt from the first edition of a different but similar event.
When I still worked in stage building and rigging, the “casually” worn shirts from past festivals and tours indicated a complex pecking order. Meeting new colleagues we always made sure to wear something really special and impressive.
People never wear truly random clothes. It might be you want to project that image, but it is a lie. Everybody knows exactly what they’re wearing, how they got the shirt, why they decided to buy it, why they like it and why it was selected today.
Well, I guess I do like to wear a T-shirt that’s long enough to cover my big gut. But I would say that is the only special effort that I might take when it comes to the clothes I wear to exercise. And I guess if that shirt didn’t have an insane amount of holes, that’d be cool, too.
Same here.
As for running, a t-shirt and shorts. For hiking, weather-appropriate clothing. Very good shoes for both.
To sum up, I favour practicality and need over looks, but I do tend to make sure the colours don’t clash at least.
A lot of women don’t like to be ogled at the gym. I’m of the opinion that a woman who feels that way can work out in a baggy t shirt and loose shorts and be pretty much ignored. If you add in a hat and headphones then the statement is probably “don’t bother me”.
That doesn’t mean, though, that people who dress up for their workouts are necessarily attention seeking. Form fitting workout wear facilitates seeing the muscles move. While that might seem like a very narcissistic thing to care about, it is something that is specifically relevant when exercising, since using proper form is important for making progress and avoiding injuries. That’s also why people usually work out in front of a mirror.
Even if the clothes are worn to “show off”, there might still be a practical reason behind the look. Exercise is best if it is done with great effort, so taking a few steps towards looking good can encourage that mindset. If people are noticing you, or you feel confident, you might be more motivated to work hard!
I used to workout with a guy who would encourage good form on exercises by saying “make it look pretty.” Sometimes that starts with how you look.
I had a partner in a mixed doubles league who wore a fairly form fitting outfit (similar to what many on the pro tour now wear, but this was 35 years ago).
She had pockets in her skirt, but refused to keep a ball in the pocket because it “ruined the line of her figure” (I might be misremembering the exact words). So when she was serving it was my job to feed her balls like a ball kid for each serve.
She was otherwise very smart and very nice, but this is what I remember 35 years later.
ETA: I see that she is now head of emergency medicine at a big hospital. She was probably an undergraduate student at the time. So she was indeed very smart.
I wear whatever clothes fit the weather when I walk, some of them pretty ratty. Yesterday I wore a shirt where the front bib area colors had run after repeated washing - kind of a localized tie-dye effect - but it was the exact thickness/weight for a cold day.
I mostly exercise at home, alone, in my basement. No, i don’t think about what impression I’m making in my clothing choices.
Actually, i kinda do. I sweat enough that anything i wear exercising has to be washed. And that means more wear and tear. So i avoid wearing my favorite clothes when i exercise. I have 5 identical pairs of shorts that i wear both for exercise and square dance, and i wear one of those, with a t shirt that i don’t especially like.
If I’m going out for a walk, i usually just wear whatever i was already wearing that day, unless it’s a very favorite shirt, in which case i might swap it out for a less loved shirt. So, yeah, that’ll be something i like to wear in public. But i don’t have additional requirements for exercise other than, “not my favorite”.
When i go to square dance festivals, (which, unlike “exercising” is a social activity) i do, in fact, think about the impression i will make with t-shirts.
I don’t know- my exercise mostly consists of walking either on my treadmill or outside. I don’t really choose my clothes to look good, but some of that is because I don’t really have to - I usually wear yoga pants (black or gray) and a t- shirt and I don’t keep ripped or badly worn clothes. To the extent that I care about how I look, it’s limited to choosing either the navy blue shirt or the black pants - not both.
I am back to running after a hiatus. A month ago I could barely manage half a mile, but I am now up to 2.5 miles. (And it’s a fairly challenging run, with a couple steep hills.)
I don’t dress up. I wear the exact same thing each time, regardless of the temperature or weather: full-length synthetic underpants, full-length synthetic pants, long-sleeve Vapor Apparel UV-blocking shirt, Halo Headband, and glasses strap. And Brooks running shoes.
No shorts or short-sleeve shirt for me, even during the summer. Am trying to keep the Sun off my skin. I also apply sunscreen to my face when it’s sunny out. Sun bad.
How comfortable do those stay in more extreme heat?
Lately I have been doing some videos, none of which I think are showable. I am trying to figure out what would look decent on me with my belly. Today I plan to order some gym shorts and White t-shirts that have the extra room in the belly. If that doesn’t work, I am going to recruit a model.
I almost never look in the mirror at the gym unless I’m adjusting my baseball cap. It’s a terrible habit to get into if squatting or doing technically hard weightlifting. At the commercial gym where I work out, the few people looking in the mirror do not seem to be trying to avoid injury. They seem to be mainly rather self-absorbed young men who have taken off their shirts to see if the drugs have kicked in yet, practicing posing in public while curling twenty pounders. I try not to judge. But I find it kind of amusing.