Athleisure (n): a trend in fashion in which clothing designed for athletic workouts at a gymnasium, sometimes termed activewear, is worn outside of the gym to go to the office or shopping or other social occasions. Athleisure outfits are “yoga pants, tights, and leggings” that “look like athletic wear” characterized as “fashionable, dressed up sweats and exercise clothing”. The idea is that “gym clothes are making their way out of the gym and becoming a larger part of people’s everyday wardrobes” – Wikipedia
Yoga pants, leggings, and other tight-fitting, lycra-or-spandex pants have been turning into quite the fashion statement. That statement? “I go to the gym” or “I work out” or maybe even “I’m *always* on my way to the gym so I always need to wear my yoga pants.”
As health and exercise have been on the rise for some time now, people want to show off the fact that they are both healthy and exercising – even when they aren’t exercising. So they wear their yoga pants all the time.
Yoga Pants Rash, From All-Day Athleisure
Yoga Pants All. The. Time.
And it’s not smart. Why? Sure it shows off your gains – your shapely legs and glutes – and it fits into the collective “style” in the Western world, but what are the hidden dangers of over-wearing your comfy yoga pants?
First: Yeast Infections. Dr. Michael Eidelman, the medical director of Chelsea Skin & Laser and assistant professor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine warns against wearing clothes that “don’t breathe as well and hold sweat closer to the skin”. This creates warmth and moisture, that leads to problems like zits, rashes, and infection.
One concern Eidelman has is folliculitis, an inflammation of hair follicles that comes from damaging or blocking the follicles’ natural growth. What damages or blocks the follicles? Rubbing and irritation caused by tight clothes.
Rubbing and irritation like, oh let’s say, spinning. This also causes sweat and moisture to build up and, if you don’t change out of your yoga clothes, causes flare-ups from the growth of fungus and yeast.
Tinea Cruris
More often known as jock itch, tinea cruris usually affects men, Eidelman says, but can occur in women as well. It is a fungal infection that irritates the skin of your inner thighs, butt, and genitals. Not exactly something you want to walk around with.
Yeast infections and vaginitis are more common for women and often come from wearing tight, moist clothing for too long. Intertrigo is another type of inflammation that happens in warm, humid folds in the skin – inner thighs, armpits, butt, and genitals, to name a few – which makes skin raw and irritated.
Eidelman warns about acne as well, which flares up due to sweat and oil being trapped, specifically under clothes that don’t breathe as well.
Dirty, Wet Gym Mats
Bianca Jade, the founder of MizzFit.com, says that after working out we should think of ourselves as a gym – sweaty, covered in bacteria, and in need of a good clean, otherwise you’re “sitting in a pool of your own toxins.”
This is why you need to change out of your gym clothes and yoga pants immediately. Gynecologists are seeing a recent surge in women complaining about vaginitis, due to the “perfect storm” – a combination of processed foods, over-cleansing and wearing tight, synthetic clothing like thongs and yoga pants.
So What’s A Woman To Do?
There are a few important things to remember for your post-workout routine that will keep everything under your yoga pants safe.
- Remove both sweat and bacteria from vulva directly after working out. Any bacteria-causing moisture is too much.
- Allow your skin to breathe. “Down there” and everywhere. Prevention is always better than treatment.
- Choose moisture-wicking clothing for your workout-gear and, after you shower, change into different, more breathable clothing.
To get to the bottom of it (excuse the pun) you don’t want your butt to be in your activewear all day. If you want to wear yoga pants, leggings, or other tight-fitting clothing, make sure it is breathable and make sure to have different pants to workout in.
