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….