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I Exercise with My Shirt On. Is that Weird?
I wouldn’t call myself a prude. I’m also not a gym rat or fitness influencer, so maybe I’m just not in the know. But it’s never occurred to me to take my shirt off and exercise in just my sports bra. Even when I’m at home and no one’s around, even when I’m dripping with sweat, it never crosses my mind.
So when I see others posting online photos or videos of themselves exercising at the gym, at home or outside in their expensive leggings and just a sports bra, I can’t help but wonder, why?
Shirts vs. Skins
There’s an obvious answer — to show off the body that they’ve worked so hard to sculpt into a socially-accepted standard of physical attraction. If you’ve got it, flaunt it, right?
I wanted to know real answers and not just run with an assumption built on stereotypes. So I polled my social media followers and asked if they wear a sports bra and a top or only a sports bra to exercise, and why. To be transparent, I don’t usually connect with people who “do it for the ‘gram” or have a strong streak of vanity in their personality, so I didn’t expect the stereotypical answer. Most of my connections are strong, independent individuals.
The votes were just about split for wearing a shirt or not. Those who responded that they only wore a sports bra did it for a…
