Are heigh-wasted leggings a problem?
Height-waisted leggings are EVERYWHERE!
Snug, sleek and not just for gym wear, make you feel safe, secure and confident. Like a lycra-glad Marvel character, ready to take on the day or workout. But if you spend most of your days in leggings, it's worth knowing how they affect you physiologically. It might seem silly to ask, but could your heigh-waisted leggings cause damage or affect how you move?
Your core can respond to this external pressure and compression in one of two ways:
1. Sucking in
The pressure on your tummy can make you subconsciously contract your stomach or "suck in".
When we hold our tummy in, we restrict breathing and increase the intra-abdominal pressure (pressure inside your abdomen).
This excessive and constant pressure can cause a bearing down of pressure on the pelvic floor, forcing it to bulge.
2. Pushing out
If you don't tend to suck your tummy in, you may be pushing your belly out to fight the compression.
When you push your tummy out, even a little bit, it increases the downward pressure on your pelvic floor, increasing your risk of pelvic organ prolapse and leakage.
Ideally, your abs and pelvic floor should lengthen when you inhale to regulate pressure. When you wear tight, high-waisted leggings, it prevents your abdominals from lengthening properly when you inhale. If we cannot do this properly, we could use a reversed breathing pattern; we start keeping our belly button drawn in when we inhale — or all the time — which can keep our pelvic floor muscles tense. In other words, you begin to tighten, rather than lengthen, your abs and pelvic floor as you breathe in, then release as you exhale.
This may not sound like much, but over time, this can contribute to posture, core, and pelvic floor changes. As well as contributing to pelvic-floor tension, urinary leakage, urinary urgency, constipation, painful intercourse, pelvic pressure, and even things like back or hip pain.
This could, in turn, cause more "upper chest" breathing, which is when you breathe through your neck, shoulders, and back, which increases tension in all these areas!! Now I know none of us need more tension in those places.
Wait to throw out the leggings.
It doesn't sound all that appealing to keep anything heigh wasted at this point, but all is not lost.
If you need or want to carry on wearing high-waisted leggings, consider the following-
Roll down the waistband during tummy/abdominal specific parts of your workout. Really make sure those muscles are working as they should when they should.
Mix up your style so you're only in them some days.
Breathe practice- reset your breathing pattern with deep, relaxed breathing. Also, it is excellent for helping ease any upper back or shoulder tension, reducing stress and having a solo moment to pause.
Try a different seam. Small tight waistband seams can often add to the compression; opt for bigger bands.
They may be a wee bit too tight... see if a different size gives you more freedom to breathe.