Slaves to fashion

Why those tight yoga pants are bad for your health

You’ve spent an hour getting ready. The mirror rewards you with a reflection of outer beauty. But how do you feel physiologically? Your legs are numb from the skinny jeans, your man/lady parts are squeezed and displaced and your shoes feel like anacondas digesting your feet. If you’re like me, you’re frequently perplexed by the bizarre habits and cultural conditioning you find yourself buying into. 

Apple bottom jeans

Most people own compression pants, boxers or maybe an overwhelmingly tight pair of jeans. They look rad, but at what cost to the cardiovascular and nervous system? Integrative medicine practitioner Dr. Andrew Weil writes that tight clothing “can compress a sensory nerve called the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve that runs from the abdomen through the thigh.” The result is meralgia paresthetica, or “tight jean syndrome”—tingling, numbness and sometimes a burning pain on the front of the legs. 

There is a gorgeous mess of arteries and nerves at the front of the hips. We restrict this area with clothing and further compress it when we sit, drive and compute. A looser fit at the waist and thigh allows the blood to flow and the nerves to manifest unrestricted sensation. Fashion is cool, but having feeling in your legs is cooler. Look for trendy tapered sweats and baggy “parkour” pants as stylish alternatives. 

Boots with the fur

At the end of the pant, the foot’s 200,000 sensory receptors, 33 joints and endless maneuverability are begging to be liberated. Instead, we jam them into crimp-toed heels and cushiony sneakers. Whether you’re wearing wedges, boots or traditional athletic shoes, most footwear elevates the heel above the toes, shifting weight to the balls of the feet. This creates a biomechanical imbalance and causes overcompensation in the front of the legs. The Achilles tendon shortens, the hamstrings weaken and the pelvis tilts forward, putting your butt muscles to sleep. 

Pointy toes narrow your connection with the ground, further offsetting balance up to the base of the skull. This makes it even harder to control our giant heads as we text our way to our desk jobs. You can restore your balance by going barefoot more often and making a gradual transition to minimal, zero-drop footwear.

Crown jewels

Our precious sex organs are last on the list. The vulva, breasts and balls were meant to hang and breathe, yet we squeeze them into sports bras, synthetic panties and compression boxers. My favorite biomechanist Katy Bowman puts it best on breasts in her amazing book Move Your DNA. 

Bowman writes that bras weaken important suspensory muscles in the female chest by adapting the tissues to unnatural support rather than the natural breast weight. This suggests that once the bra comes off, the breasts hang lower. She recommends initially going braless at home and overnight. Gradually, try spending more of your time with less unnatural support. 

Bowman also addresses a recent study concluding that compression of breast tissue can redirect malignant breast tissue toward normal growth patterns. This study shows that breasts’ mechanical environment affects breast tissue development. 

“The issue with affluent ailments such as breast cancer is that incidence correlates with modern behaviors,” Bowman writes. “This is why evolutionary medicine/biology researchers are calling for a return to ‘more natural’ behaviors. Medicines and surgeries cannot bridge the gap between the cellular experience of modern habits and ancestral habits.”

Try letting your breasts hang while integrating the shoulder blades. Use the chest muscles that typically go quiet when your head hangs forward, and expand the ribs under your breasts with deep breathing. To go deeper on this topics Bowman’s books are essential reading. In the meantime, experiment with a short braless walk. 

As for guys, we’ve already heard that compression boxers can lower our sperm count. But what about our cremastor muscle, the suspensory muscle encasing our testicles? If the balls are smashed against the torso all day by underwear or tight pants, this muscle atrophies. Commando is the way to go. Try sleeping in the nude to initiate the shift.  

Our bodies were meant to sense our environment. When we’re all buttoned up, we block blood flow, sensory receptors, perspiration outlets, vitamin D exposure, movement patterns and more. As you begin to cast off erroneous habits, remember to make each transition slowly and mindfully. a

Zac King is a natural movement instructor at DEEPmovement Studio.

For more from Zac King, check out his advice on urban movement