New Running tights

[redgrowlers]

I have converted some of my cycling shorts into running tights by removing the padding - I really love the outcome and it has expanded my "running tights" collection a lot by this way!

[Torchwatch]

Lycra cycling shorts are designed to be worn sitting down (on the saddle of a bike). Although you can stand up in them and move about, they are shaped for the seated position. There are plenty of swim jammers, running, and exercise Lycra shorts on the market designed for standing up. When removing the seat padding from cycling shorts you are liable to damage the fabric.
If you want Lycra shorts without padding it's probably best to buy them that way.

[sebbie]

On all things Lycra

I was sorting through my Lycra gear this morning and thinking about some things. As all of you know, I have been a stationary rower for many decades and spend time every day in my Lycra gear. Being retired now and not having any reason to go out, on most days I frequently spend all my waking hours in a compression tee and, depending on the season, either a pair of compression shorts or full-length tights. I love the look and feel of both the shorts and the tights, and I have a lot of compression shorts that could be used as underwear or the other way around, as well as jammers intended for swimming, but work well too.

I do like the look of the wrestling singlets too, and the fact that they are very similar to the costumes the stationary rowers wear in competition, but I find getting in and out of the shoulder straps during the day to not be any fun and this gets old quickly.

I discovered how neat compression shorts and tees were for my rowing activities many decades ago. I think I first ran into these shopping in a Walmart aisle next to the athletic equipment, where they had a wall filled mostly with straps but also with a few compression shorts and tees. Two of the earliest ones I bought were sold under the Star or Star Fit label. Interestingly, I still have these two pairs of shorts, one a MED and the other a SM.

I have worn these quite a bit over the years, but interestingly both are still in excellent condition. Imagine a black compression short with blue contrast stitching. The MED fits, well, tight, but the SM is super tight. Just a great look, fit and feel. Yesterday I spent the day in the MED, but I wore the SM on some days the previous week. Some great and sturdy gear for doing what I do in my home gym.

Still, I can’t just go out and buy more of these. So the tricky part was trying to find something new that was most like my favorites from way back. Several months ago I bought this pack of three from Amazon, size SM. These are sold for wear either for use as underwear or as exercise wear or both.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PNT3G9G...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Having just spent yesterday in the Star MED of old, and enjoying myself immensely, I pulled out recently purchased black one with the red stitching for today, size SM. Aside from the stitching color difference the pair I have on today look, fit and feel very similar to my beloved Star shorts from years back. Size wise, in comparison to the Stars—I would say the SM in this brand is like something between a SM and MED in the old Star shorts. I am comfortable wearing these outdoors with other people, and occasionally another guy will say to me that I look great in my compression shorts, as actually happened to me a few days ago. Well I guess I do look i good for a guy in his 70s wearing just a black compression tee, black compression shorts with contrast stitching and white Adidas shoes with the three black slashes. But having a rower’s chest and a bike rider’s thighs surely helps in this regard.

I am a big believer in the idea that the right clothing can make or break a situation where a guy wants to keep up a regular exercise routine, and for me part of the fun of rowing and stationary bike riding is being able to hang out so much in the compression gear. The fact that being in the Lycra tends to make me perennially horny all day long does not hurt either. I love feeling horny in my gear, but you know that already….

[sebbie]

Old fashioned Compression shorts

What makes me so fond of the look, fit and feel of compression gear that I am delighted to be able to wear it practically every day, and how did I get so hooked on doing this? I guess others might say that as adult males go, I am remarkably free of vices—I don’t smoke, drink, take drugs or have sex with a partner of either sex. Yet despite all of this I seem almost amazingly and remarkably cheerful and upbeat.

Still, I do have things I like to do, mainly things I really enjoy doing to, with and by myself. And many of these things are directly related to the gear I own. I have a massive collection of compression gear, that is alongside my equally massive collections of swim briefs, thong, straps and skinny jeans. But how did I get to where I am anyway?

Yesterday I was digging around in my dresser drawers and found what I believe to be the first pair of compression shorts I ever purchased, also from the board in the athletic equipment section at Walmart, but predating the Star ones I was wearing and telling you about the other day. These shorts were made by a company called Bollinger. The whole design I think was based on the idea that guys were going to wear these for compression and support under a looser-fitting pair of cotton shorts. They came only in two colors, black or white, and I course I had to have one of each. The white pair is around here somewhere but I have not located that yet.

I have been telling you about some of the recent compression shorts I have gotten and my fondness for the TSLA brand of gear, shorts, shirts and tights. More recently I have talked about the STAR brand of shorts that I bought a long time ago from Walmart and how neat they fit and look on me.

But the Bollingers are in a different category from any of these. The first issue I had was that the cloth kept its snug stretch over the years but the seams ripped in various laces and a few years back I had to do some work on the sewing machine to close some of the open seams… This restitch work can be seen as I used a white not black thread but the repairs do not detract from the overall look.

As you know, Lycra polyester swim briefs gradually disintegrate as the Lycra stretch comes apart due to contact with chemicals in the water and simply by age, and few stretch swim briefs that are 25 years old would even be wearable and be completely stretched out if not totally falling apart.

Not the Bollingers. They are made of what still is a heavy duty stretch-fabric, a fabric that does not fall apart as the shorts age. This is a very different fabric from the currently available compression gear—a fabric that to this day compresses more than anything I can buy nowadays. Fresh out of the package, no doubt I pulled these on and said “WOW” I LIKE these a lot.
,
I was a smaller guy when I bought these—no 9000 miles on a bike under my belt nor thousands of hours on my stationary rowers. And of course I had to buy size SM---way back when I was always very fond of a snug fit.

Another interesting part about this is that these have a shorter inseam than current compression shorts. My thighs are bigger but my waist if anything is smaller. Can I even get into these? The answer of course is YES and they look great and feel great. That super heavy duty compression fabric feels great on my body.

The inseam is maybe 6 ½ inches as opposed to 9 or 10 inches that is commonplace nowadays. The whole look was to see maybe 3 inches at mid thigh dangling below your loose fitting and even shorter cotton shorts. But keep in mind that the loose fitting shorts like the NBA players wear were much shorter in those days, and it used to be that basketball players wore shorts with maybe only a 3-inch inseam, so in athletic activity everyone knew who had compression gear on and who did not. Wearing compression gear was purportedly tied to athletic performance and a reduction in pulled and strained muscles and other injuries. I also expect that Bollinger figured most guys would want to wear an old school jock under these with or without a cup, for multiple layers of protection.

So I pulled these on this morning and they look and feel great. They are quite a bit shorter than my other compression shorts but what the heck. As I tugged them into place I got to thinking that when I got these might have been my first experience in wearing compression shorts and I immediately was hooked on the look, the fit and the feel. When I did this I probably already had been rowing for some time and lifting weights too, and it suddenly dawned on me that these shorts were perfect for that activity, also recognizing that keeping myself feeling horny was also the key to making my workouts from being burdensome.

All in all a great experiment on my part and I understand even more of the story as to why my collection of compression gear has grown so large, After all, compared with most guys, I live a very conservative life and never get myself into a dangerous situation at all.

In the intervening years, wearing compression gear and engaging in athletics of various kinds and the combination of the two have become extremely popular with guys everywhere. In introducing young aspiring athletes to the wonders of compression gear early on, the Bollinger company was an early leader in all of this, and in so doing, these shorts were quite a start. I was hooked on them, just like that!