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Relevant To Your Interests: Be The Gym Leader

It’s Learn To Live in my Body 2018, and for me, that means (ugh) hitting the gym. As a person with a history of eating disorders and obsessive exercise, this is fraught territory for me. But I’m beginning to accept that to feel healthy in my body means to have some sort of exercise situation, and because I often have trouble committing to things solo, that means some sort of fitness class or trainer.

I do not like gyms. They smell like people. Not in the good way. I always, ALWAY, need a cheer up at the gym. Even though I used to work in one. Even though it is often (read: always) the only way to get me to do the fitness. If the rest of y’all nerds also need a cheer up, here are some nerdy gym accessories to ease the weird gym feelings!


Legend of Zelda Sports bra, $12 and shorts, $7. Black Widow Tank, $13 and shorts, $13.


Pokemon trainer duffle, $80 and gym leader shirt, $20. Wonder Woman sports bra, $17 and Wonder Woman sneakers, $37.


Widowmaker yoga leggings, $25. Dragon Scale yoga leggings, $50. Aguamenti water bottle, $20. Star Trek swimsuit, $37.


For more tips on getting hyped on exercise, check out our Gym Class series!

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A.E. Osworth

A.E. Osworth is part-time Faculty at The New School, where they teach undergraduates the art of digital storytelling. Their novel, We Are Watching Eliza Bright, about a game developer dealing with harassment (and narrated collectively by a fictional subreddit), is forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing (April 2021) and is available for pre-order now. They have an eight-year freelancing career and you can find their work on Autostraddle (where they used to be the Geekery Editor), Guernica, Quartz, Electric Lit, Paper Darts, Mashable, and drDoctor, among others.

A.E. has written 542 articles for us.

6 Comments

  1. Methinks the aguamenti water bottle needs to enter my life asap.
    I‘ve just gotten home from the gym and I could probably log around some advice like, „Oooh, Nerd Fitness!“ or „Darebee!“ or the runtastic app or zombies run, or what not, but honestly, the only that has gotten me to go to the gym is being honest about why I‘m really going to the gym.
    For me, it‘s the onl pla

    • ..ce where I can put in the headphones and spend some quality time with myself and some really good and loud music.
      You can’t check your phone when you’re on the treadmill or the rowing machine.
      Also, it’s the only place where I can wear ALL of my nerd t-shirts!

  2. this article was like…eerily well-timed for me. i just hit 100 hours on breath of the wild and literally today i signed up for the gym!

    also i need everything in this article and also for this article to be quadruple the length so i can see all the beautiful geeky things

  3. Damn you, I’m tempted to break my rule of not buying any clothing item beyond socks off the internet. Black Widow merch I could dance in, my inner child is howling.

  4. Just want to say good luck with the exercise and the gym Ali. Can’t face it myself but am in awe of those who can.

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