Im a male trying on several black leggings for running, stretching and cycling, I’ve never bought anything so tight. Im skinny built and have tried new balance, asics and adidas. My questions:
I’ve read some more expensive leggings have not a single, but double seam at the front side (crotch), whereas most simple leggings for men and women have just one seam in the middle. Should I return the leggings I bought and buy only the ones that have 2 seams at the front to better accommodate my manhood bits? I’ve also seen that expensive adidas leggings have just one seam at the front so, maybe I’m overthinking this?
Im not going commando or wearing sport shorts over the leggings because it doesn’t have any purpose, except to drag you down when running, and look unflattering, even my boxer shorts make it look a big silly, because people notice them on my leggings, so I’m thinking about buying a thong, but I don’t know what brand to look for, if cotton would be better than polyester or if I should buy a V string or a G string.
The adidas I bought are cross high waist and are for women, however, I don’t see why I shouldn’t buy them: they sit good and aren’t too tight on the waist (seller told me leggings for women are wider on the thigh and smaller on the waist, but to me they look and sit good and the knit is softer than the other ones I bought, I like them. Am I going to regret keeping them?
Any other tips you have, welcomed.
From my experience, cycling specific clothes aren’t worth it for most people. I ride my bike every day usually with jeans or shorts. If you have good saddle it doesn’t matter that you don’t have padding.
As for running I didn’t run in a long time so can’t help.
For cycling, I think it depends on speed here. I agree with anything under 15mph (24km/h) you’re not going super hard, but when I was biking every day, I could see the use of bike shorts when I was biking harder. (Chafing sucks)
It depend on your morphology I guess: for me below 15km rides, I can wear jeans and it’s fine, but above that it starts to be painful. When I’m touring I really enjoy having my cycling pant, even a cheap one does the job perfectly for me. But again, I have a quite large distance between my ischium bones, so the same may not apply to everyone.
I’ve read some more expensive leggings have not a single, but double seam at the front side (crotch)
Are you sure that’s the front side? If so, I’ve been wearing mine the wrong way around …
well I see 4 vertical seams: 1 left, 1 right, 1 middle front and 1 middle back. Online I’ve seen some leggings have 2 frontal seams around the manhood, that’s what I meant.
Tuck it back
I’d like to frame challenge a little bit and ask: what specifically is your goal here? Why do you want to wear the leggings? Is it about keeping warm while exercising outside in winter? Do you just like how they feel and/or look? Are you exercising or cycling for transport?
Personally, when cycling for exercise in winter* I put on my usual short cycling knicks or bib-knicks, and then over that I put long leg socks designed for cycling. Unlike tights, leg socks don’t interact with your waist and hip at all—that’s left to your normal clothes. They’re cut to smoothly allow you knee to bend, and they are long enough for the top to cover your knicks and he bottom to be covered by your (foot) socks. I also wear arm socks, which do much the same over the elbow. It’s also possible to buy long knicks if that’s preferable.
When cycling for transport in summer I often wear cycling gear and get changed at my destination. In winter I’m much more likely to dress for the destination. I wrap a hair scrunchie around my right leg to keep my pants’ material from getting dirtied and cut by my chainring.
For running, where I live just normal running shorts work fine in winter as long as I do a really good warm up. But I imagine the leg socks could be helpful here too.
/* Though I live somewhere quite warm. A cold winter’s night might, at the most extreme, reach as low as 6 ℃. But it’s far more typical for the night to not drop below 10°, and for the day, even the early morning, to be 14–18°. So exactly how applicable my experiences are to where you live is unclear.
I basically want to use them as regular sport pants to run, walk, cycle, stretch and given that I have to walk a lot for my job, I may use them daily as a first layer, so my legs don’t hurt as much as without them. I’d also like to use em with nothing on them, because they look good like that with no lines (where I live I only see men with the leggings on, with nothing to cover their crotch). The regular pants I have are very loose, I’m tall and skinny built and I always have trouble finding the right pants: long enough to cover my legs and thin enough not to waste too much fabric. The leggings I’m testing (asics, nb) seem to do exactly that.
I’m not going to wear them on social occasions but I may do the groceries with them on.
Yeah so my recommendation is that for cycling, wearing knicks or bib-knicks is a better idea. The padded chamois is much more comfortable while cycling than unpadded regular clothes, even regular non-cycling-specific sports clothing. They’re also explicitly intended to be used without any underwear. I think with the exception of wearing them around to the shops, knicks are a much better option for cycling than leggings.
I don’t have any more specific advice for running, because I’ve always worn loose-fitting running shorts. Leggings may be the best option for you there.
Check out Kapow meggings
For cycling the standard procedure is to wear cycling shorts underneath everything else. If its warm then just the bike shorts. For cooler weather, I have lycra leggings with the crotch pad built in. Another option is cycling shorts under long pants without an big crotch seam. Like these. Even colder weather, long underwear, snow boots and flat pedals. That’s getting into full-on winter cycling with maybe studded snow tires and etc.
For running in cold weather I have wool leggings. They’d probably be fine for cycling (with cycling shorts underneath), but I usually don’t bike when its cold enough to need them - under 25 degrees or so.
That’s a lot of text to confess that you’re cross-dressing 😂
Jk of course, it doesn’t matter once you get used to them.
