5 May 2025

The best gym bags to carry all your gear

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Upgrade your workout with the right gym bag

Whether you’re heading back to the gym or plan on joining soon, it’s a good idea to invest in a quality gym bag.

Gone are the days when gym bags were plain, bulky duffels that got squeezed into gym lockers. These days, gym bags are designed to satisfy specific needs. Some gym bags now have wet/dry compartments to separate swim gear and dry clothes, while others have antiodor properties or straps to hold yoga mats.

Find a brand-new gym bag with help from this buying guide. It covers everything you need to know before you buy one and shares popular styles appreciated by gym-goers.

What to know before you buy a gym bag

How big are gym bags?

It’s easy to narrow your options among gym bags by determining what you intend to bring to the gym. If you’re only bringing essentials like athletic shoes and a towel, a small backpack is suitable. If you need to pack a change of clothes, athletic equipment or shower gear, opt for larger totes or duffel bags.

Features to look for in gym bags

With so many gym bags on the market, you’ll come across a variety of features among them. Here are some of the most popular ones to examine:

Durability: Well-made bags have reinforced straps and seams. Many of them are made with rip-resistant or water-repellent materials that hold up well to regular wear and tear.
Organization: Some gym bags have a single compartment, whereas others have several. Certain gym bags even have wet/dry compartments to separate sweaty or wet clothes from dry ones. Others have separate footwear compartments.
Easy carrying: Gym bags should be easy to carry. There are some that have more than one carrying option, such as gym bags that have both handles and removable crossbody straps.
Water bottle pocket: Staying hydrated is a top priority, so many people seek water bottle pockets in gym bags. They’re typically present in the form of outer compartments and may hold bottles between 16-32 ounces.

How much do gym bags cost?

Affordable gym bags priced $14-$30 include a variety of smaller backpacks, duffel bags and totes. Midrange gym bags made by popular athletic brands run $35-$75. High-end gym bags, which boast the best quality, cost $100 and above.

Popular types of gym bags

Gym duffel bags

Duffel bags usually have a spacious main compartment and a few smaller ones. They’re available in a wide variety of sizes, so it’s fairly easy to find one to suit your needs.

The Adidas Logo Duffel Bag, for example, measures 26 inches by 12.5 inches by 13.5 inches. It’s considered a midsize duffel, though it has plenty of room for athletic shoes and a change of clothes.

Gym bag backpacks

Backpacks are popular for their versatility and easy, hands-free carrying. There’s a broad range of small, lightweight styles, as well as larger ones with capacities to hold bulkier items.

Nike Elite Pro Basketball Backpack is a game-ready design with a large opening to accommodate a regulation-size basketball or basketball shoes.

Gym tote bags

Gym totes are appreciated for their stylish yet practical designs. These sporty bags are highly versatile, and they can be used outside the gym for travel or commuting.

Yoga gym bags

Given the popularity of yoga and other wellness-focused exercise classes, there are many gym bags designed to hold mats. They’re usually lightweight and easy to sling over the shoulder.

Gaiam Yoga Mat Bag is a perennial favorite for its simple, functional design. It has an adjustable shoulder strap and a roomy front pocket to hold small items.

Best gym bags for women

Fila Sprinter 19-Inch Sport Duffel Bag

This Fila duffel has an organized design, making it a good option for separating essentials. The bag is made with 600D rip-stop polyester.

Ewedoos Yoga Mat Bag

Head to yoga class stress-free with this spacious open-top mat bag. It’s the perfect size to fit most mats.

Best gym bags for men

Adidas Graphic Duffel Bag

The rugged Adidas duffel is a popular option for both gym and travel use. It’s well-liked for its machine-washable design.

Under Armour Hustle 5.0 Backpack

The feature-rich backpack has double outer water bottle pockets, wick-away straps and an abrasion-resistant bottom panel. It has an inner compartment to hold 15-inch devices.

Nike Brasilia 9.0 Medium Training Duffel Bag

This larger Nike duffel has plenty of room to hold clothes, uniforms and sports equipment. Choose from five colors.

Best overall gym bags

Adidas Alliance II Sackpack

The right size for just the essentials, this classic Adidas Sackpack is perfect for those who need to pack light. It even has drop mesh water bottle pockets.

FocusGear Ultimate Gym Bag 2.0

A bestseller, the FocusGear Gym Bag is a customer favorite for its wet/dry compartments. It has several pockets and compartments.

Puma Evercat Candidate Duffel

Sporty and affordable, the Puma duffel features high-quality construction and a stylish design. It comes in eight unique colorways.

Adidas Defender III Medium Duffel Bag

The Adidas Defender III has a dedicated footwear compartment. The duffel has a padded shoulder strap and is backed by a lifetime warranty.

Prices listed reflect time and date of publication and are subject to change.

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5 May 2025

Timberwolves’ keys to success against Golden State, and a series prediction

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Golden State avoided catastrophe Sunday, going on the road to beat Houston in Game 7 to dodge the 3-1 series collapse and advance to Round 2.

So it’s now No. 6 Minnesota hosting No. 7 Golden State in the Western Conference semifinals, with the sixth-seeded Wolves getting unexpected home-court advantage in the Western Conference semifinals.

Here’s a first look at what’s to come over the next two weeks.

Series Schedule

Game 1: Tuesday, 8:30 p.m. at Target Center

Game 2: Thursday, 7:30 p.m. at Target Center

Game 3: Saturday in San Francisco

Game 4: Monday, May 12 in San Francisco

Regular season results

Golden State won the season series 3-1. The last of the matchups was played on Jan. 15, weeks before the Warriors acquired Jimmy Butler.

Keys for the Timberwolves

Win early: Minnesota will be fresh off five full days of rest after dispatching the Lakers in five games. Golden State, meanwhile, just won a hard-fought battle that went the distance in Round 1. The veteran Warriors will have just 46.5 hours between the end of their series with Houston and the opening tip of their series with the Wolves.

It’s on Minnesota to utilize its fresh legs and superior depth to wear down Golden State in each of the first two games at Target Center to claim a commanding lead early in the series and put doubt into the Warriors’ heads as to whether they can withstand another 12-round, heavyweight bout.

Corral Curry:  A big reason the Timberwolves went 1-3 against Golden State this season was how badly Minnesota was torched by Warriors superstar Steph Curry. Curry averaged 30.3 points and 9.3 assists over the final three meetings – all Golden State victories – on efficient shooting nights.

He created offense for himself and others. Yes, Curry is an all-time great, but Houston just dialed up a Curry-centric defensive approach that, at times, grounded the Warriors’ offense to a halt. Minnesota should aim to replicate those results and take its chances betting against consistent offense coming from the likes of Buddy Hield and Draymond Green.

Ant show: The Warriors were the best defensive team in the NBA after acquiring Jimmy Butler at the trade deadline.

But Golden State doesn’t have a lockdown perimeter defender, nor a rim protector. So it wouldn’t be surprising to see Golden State deploy a similar gap-heavy defensive scheme in an attempt to slow Anthony Edwards.

That would mean it’s again on Edwards to facilitate Minnesota’s offense to largely create for others, while still putting pressure on the Warriors by aggressively seeking out his own opportunities when available.

Imposing size: Houston got back into the first-round bout by leaning on its size. Golden State had difficulty matching up against the two-big looks featuring Steven Adams and Alperen Sengun.
Finally, in Game 7, Warriors coach Steve Kerr opted for more minutes from reserve center Kevon Looney.

That worked well for Golden State. But it’s clear why Kerr didn’t want to go that route. Already heavily featuring Green and Jimmy Butler, Looney only further clogs Golden State’s spacing and limits the team’s offensive upside. But if Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle and Naz Reid can prove to be too much for just Green to handle – both defensively and on the glass – then Kerr will likely be left to make the same choice again, which figures to be an advantage for Minnesota in the long run of the series.

And even with Looney getting some run, Golden State was severely out-rebounded by Houston even in Game 7. Everyone saw against the Lakers just how beneficial a significant size advantage can be for Minnesota in a matchup.

The Green game: Green has put Rudy Gobert in a literal headlock. He’s gone on national television numerous times and publicly trashed the center. He’ll likely do much more of the same to not only Gobert, but other Minnesota players throughout the course of a best-of-7 series.

It’s on Minnesota – an emotional team in its own right – to stay within itself and keep its focus on the Xs and Os within the lines.

Prediction

Timberwolves in 5. Credit the Warriors for showing their championship DNA by mustering up enough fight to beat the Rockets on the road in Game 7, but Golden State’s aging core looked tired in the latter stages of the series before Houston’s Game 7 brick-fest.

And now the Warriors are staring down another deep, physical opponent that can make their lives difficult in just about every way.

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4 May 2025

Francis Opened Discussions to Those Outside the Church Hierarchy. This Cardinal Would, Too

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Only about a half-million people live in Malta, the tiny set of islands in the Mediterranean that make up one of Europe’s smallest countries.

Yet a Maltese citizen could soon be elected pope.

Cardinal Mario Grech, 68, the former bishop of a Maltese island, Gozo, has emerged as a candidate for pope because of his role as secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body mandated by canon law to consider “questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world.”

Pope Francis, who died April 21, made the most recent synod much more inclusive and participatory, and Grech’s role in stewarding these efforts to open up the church stand in contrast to some of his own history. While he was bishop of Gozo, from 2005-20, he held conservative stances on several issues, including homosexuality and the legalization of divorce, which he opposed when Malta held a referendum in 2011.

He changed his tone under Francis, who made him a cardinal in 2020, and is seen as someone who would bring continuity to the papacy.

The synod began in 2021 with discussions among local churches around the world on issues they felt most pressing, a rare opening for all Catholics to help chart the church’s future.

The final results of the process are still to come. When the synod ended in 2024, many questions, including whether women could be ordained deacons, were relegated to separate study groups.

In mid-March, with Francis’ approval, Grech announced the process would continue until 2028 and end with an assembly involving various levels of the church.

If Grech became pope, those discussions would undoubtedly go on. Some critics of the process, including traditionalists who defend an all-male clerical hierarchy, fear it could dilute the authority of the pope and bishops. Others have questioned how representative the synod has actually been of Catholics, with only a tiny percentage of the nearly 1.4 billion worldwide having participated in meetings.

But synod supporters say it is the only way the church can stay relevant.

The synod’s future and implementation “will be crucial for the Catholic Church,” which must become “more participatory and inclusive,” said Helena Jeppesen-Spuhler, who works for a Swiss Catholic relief agency and was a synod participant.

Failure to enact real change, she said, could be lethal for the church, at least in Central Europe. “If there are no changes, it will be really challenging, and I think the cardinals are aware of this,” she said.

As secretary-general of the synod, Grech emerged as a key figure in that process. There are 133 cardinals who can vote at the synod. About 60 of those cardinals were present during at least one of the synod’s monthlong discussions in 2023 and 2024 at the Vatican, meaning that in a College of Cardinals where many of them don’t know one another because they are geographically distant, his role has made him a familiar face to many.

Grech has also taken up global causes that were close to Francis. Malta is a key point of entry in the Mediterranean for migrants arriving from Africa, and Grech has called on Europe to open its doors, not close them. When the war broke out in Ukraine in 2022, he raised alarms that fleeing Ukrainian women and children were at risk of being exploited by human traffickers.

Like other senior church leaders over the past 20 years, Grech has been accused by some of not doing enough to reckon with sexual abuse that took place in his diocese. He is one of the cardinals singled out on the website Conclave Watch, which scrutinizes how some cardinals handled abuse cases.

As bishop, he began several initiatives to confront abuse, including a commission for protecting children and vulnerable adults. But his critics say he could have done more in specific cases.

Some of the allegations in Malta center on Lourdes Home, an orphanage run by the Dominican Sisters of Malta on Gozo. The church commissioned an inquiry into the orphanage, which closed in 2008, and it apologized that year. Pope Benedict XVI met privately with some survivors in 2010.

Lara Dimitrijevic, a lawyer who represents two survivors in a constitutional case against the state being heard in Maltese court, said the church should have done more for victims, including offering psychological counseling.

“There has been such severe trauma that these mothers in their 50s are still suffering today,” she said, calling the abuse “vile.”

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One of her clients in the lawsuit, Carmen Muscat, 52, said she was not satisfied with the role played by Grech, and wanted compensation. “We didn’t get justice, and it’s not fair,” she said.

Grech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

4 May 2025

Opera review: How does the inane ‘Barber of Seville’ become transcendent?

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One question that arises from Minnesota Opera’s production of Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville”: how did such an inane story become so embedded in the consciousness of Western culture?

Musical themes from the opera appear in so many movies, TV shows, and commercials — from Looney Tunes to Seinfeld to Doritos commercials, it’s probably got some of the most recognizable music ever, and yet, the plot of the opera is unmemorable. It’s a credit to Rossini’s genius that the opera’s music remains ubiquitous in our cultural soundtrack.

It probably made for riotous comedy back when the opera first premiered in 1816. Count Almaviva, having fallen in love with a young lady named Rosina in Seville, disguises himself as a poor student so she’ll see him for more than his money and status. Rosina is the ward of the awful Doctor Bartolo who wants to marry her himself, and the count employs his old servant Figaro— who happens to be a barber— to help get past the Doctor and into Rosina’s heart. Many antics ensue.

One of the best parts of the opera takes place before any performers are seen onstage. The audience takes in the overture while looking at Allen Moyer’s set design showing a painted backdrop of red curtains contained within a proscenium arch as well as chandeliers that are lifted up at the end of the music.

The Minnesota Opera Orchestra, conducted by principal conductor Christopher Franklin, performs the innovative overture superbly. Rossini had a talent for creating thrilling contrasts of weight and lightness that make for a wholly absorbing piece of entertainment.

Throughout the opera, Moyer’s set design reveals ornate scenes, from a town square in the beginning to various rooms within the home of Doctor Bartolo. Often, Moyer used layers of drops to create perspective, even as the style of the paintings themselves are quite flat. They are focused more on decorative elements than creating something that looks realistic .

Matthew Anchel, from left, Katherine Henly, Kara Morgan, Stefan Egerstrom, and Lunga Eric Hallam in the Minnesota Opera’s production of “The Barber of Seville,” which runs May 3-18, 2025 at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. (Cory Weaver / Minnesota Opera)

The same could be said for Chuck Hudson’s stage direction. He takes a very theatrical approach, going for large, physical gestures rather than subtle expressions.

As an example, when Count Almaviva (played by Lunga Eric Hallam opening night in the double cast production) tries to serenade Rosina (played by Katherine Beck on opening night), he makes little attempt to make it seem like he’s actually playing the guitar he’s holding. It’s the sentiment he portrays — a man in love — that becomes what is transmitted to the audience, not the mechanics of his guitar fingering. Later, Almaviva pretends to be a piano teacher in order to see his love, and in that case, Hallam makes a joke of being surprised by the orchestral sound his harpsichord seems to make (which is actually coming from the orchestra pit).

Playing Figaro on opening night, Takaoki Onishi handles the physicality of the role well, and stops the show with the famous “Largo al factotum” aria, where he sings his name repeatedly and engages in quick patter singing.

Another crowd pleaser is Stefan Egerstrom as Don Basilio, the conniving sycophant. With his long black wig designed by Emma Gustafson, enormous black hat (in a delightfully morbid costume designed by Mathew J. LeFebvre) and deadpan delivery, Egerstrom is a hoot.

As Count Almaviva, Hallam taps into his character’s lovestruck air admirably, and sounds especially good when blending his voice with the lovely Katherine Beck, as Rosina. Throughout the opera, Rossini throws in wonderful fast-paced articulations and comedic zingers, but Rosina and Almaviva’s love duets add a sweet romantic touch.

The world is quite different today than it was in 1816, and some of the comedic elements don’t read for a modern audience, but the music endures, and this bright and boisterous production delivers on that score.

If you go

What: The Barber of Seville
When: 7:30 p.m. Thu., May 8 and Sat., May 10; 2 p.m. Sunday, May 11; 7:30 p.m. Sat., May 17; 2 p.m. Sun., May 18
Where: The Ordway, 345 Washington St. Saint Paul
Tickets: $25-$263 at mnopera.org.
Accessibility: Elevators access all floors of Concert Hall, accessibility seating for all mobility devices (request when buying tickets); service animals welcome (inform ticket representative); listening units and large print available upon request. One single occupancy, accessible restroom in the Music Theater lobby. Ordway.org/visit/accessibility.
Capsule: Minnesota Opera’s bright and boisterous production shows off Gioachino Rossini’s catchy music.