I face the problem of camel toe with most of my workout tights. In fact, for the longest time, I rejected most of my workout tights because of that. It got me thinking that instead of comfort, women have to think about so many things when they should be concentrating on just getting fit. What’s worse is when I did a google search on camel toe, most links that came up were on the lines of, “How to hide the camel toe?” or “How to avoid the embarrassment of a camel toe?”. So, here’s a list of things that I feel, as a woman, we should not be embarrassed about, and ensure we support other women rather than shaming them.
Camel Toe
We do realise that most of the tights and shorts are made of Lycra and have high waistbands. We also end up pulling it up while working out. And since women also have a vagina, there’s a high probability of a camel toe showing. It’s as natural as the shape of boobs showing through a figure hugging gym tee. Let’s not be too bothered and affect the next killer squat or the 5 km PB just because we were busy being conscious.
Panty Line
It’s ok if it shows through a pair of tights. It mostly does. The most comfortable panties for running or workouts are cotton ones and not thongs. If you can buy seamless cotton panties, great, but if you can’t, don’t be bothered about it showing during your workouts.
Hair On Legs/Underarms
It’s ok. We don’t always have time to shave or wax. What the hell, sometimes we are just too lazy to do it. It can’t be the reason to not work out in shorts or three-quarter tights or sleeveless tees or a sports bra.
Boobs Spilling Out
It’s tough to find the right sports bra and even if you have, some of the exercises like jumping jacks, and asanas like downward doggie, have them spill out a bit. It’s ok. I feel better ever since I stopped being bothered about it. No one’s bothered if you aren’t.
Stretch Marks
So all of us have them. Men have them too, mostly hidden under hair. I have spent most of my life dealing with body image issues and I refuse to let them affect me anymore. I might have given birth or I might have them after losing weight or I might just have them because of any other reason. It cannot come in the way of being healthy. I will do that hang at the pull-up bars, and if my tee rides up, so be it.
Pokies
Everyone has nipples. And one can get pokies anytime for any reason or no reason at all. Can’t keep stuffing our sports bra with extra pads or keep hunting for the perfect sports bra with the right amount of padding which also fits well!
It’s time that instead of looking for longer tees for our workouts, we get comfortable with our bodies. Having said that, longer tees are great too as long as we wear them because we want to and not because we are constantly trying to hide something.
A version of this post was first published here on the author’s personal blog.