Monica,
Love the article: Fitness Clothes Guide: Workout Bottoms

Sometimes our workout clothes really do interfere with our workouts and we don't even realize how uncomfortable they're making us. Thanks for the suggestions. No more fighting with the shorts for me!

Love it!

Thanks April! I have 10 years of stories about this but I think what it really comes down to which I probably should have mentioned in the article is that people's issues with workout clothes is a mask for much deeper issues like being watched or ridiculed or criticized, or judged, etc. Nobody wants to go to a boot camp or gym or yoga studio and feel worst about their body than they already do.

I had a client once who kept saying how she wanted to go to yoga for a year but wasn't sure what to wear. That one was fear of the unknown.

I've had other clients who were so embarrassed about their legs but they would not wear short and instead would pull their pants up over their knees when they got hot and then deal with the up and down the entire session. Fear of being ridiculed is a huge one for women.

I had one girl wear basketball shorts once and she laid down to do an exercise with her feet in the air she flashed me and her mom EVERYTHING. That was gross and her mom was mortified. They never came back after that. That's just being fearless and also gross!

There's also the oversize t-shirt over the tank ladies and the baseball cap and glasses chics (no big hair and no makeup is scary to them). The I don't match people are the worst. They'll cancel a session cuz they packed the wrong shorts.

But it's NEVER about the clothes and always about what's going on with their self esteem.

Wow that's deep...I never thought about it that way. Since I hardly take exercise classes at the gym, when I do I just wear my running top & shorts. However, for yoga classes I had to buy something more appropriate.

It's unfortunate Jeri but the workout is always the least of a client's concern. I used to get all stressed out about it and now it's just a comedy routine to me.

I shouldn't tell this story but it's too funny not to. A client who trained with me a while back used to walk around the yoga mat about 5 times (kind of like a dog walks in circles before laying down) and she would adjust her shirt and her pants over and over. It was very OCD and weird and also funny. She would finally lay on the floor and then we could get going with core work.

After a while she and I had a pretty good relationship so one day I said are you comfy now and then we both burst out laughing. She said I'm so OCD and I said nah, more like a doggie trying to get comfy on their sleep pillow. She had 4 dogs so she knew exactly what I meant and laughed.