Summary: Many users are curious about yoga pants vs leggings and ask on Quora or Reddit but never get a definitive answer between the two. If you’re willing to prepare for your first class at the gym, workout or yoga but don’t know what to look for in yoga pants vs leggings, you can take a few minutes to read the following to help you get a clear ideas of what you should really have.
Yoga Pants vs Leggings
Indeed, when you are out shopping or surfing online, not matter leggings, workout leggings, or yoga pants, they both seem the same to the eyes, but you should know a small secret when compare yoga pants and leggings. The secret is that there is a very thin line of difference between the two: leggings are basically used as comfort wear. It is wearable in all places, but leggings are not recommended for gymming, yoga, or other fitness purposes.
This is because leggings are made from a thinner material that can expose your inner body and distract you from your purpose. On the contrary, Yoga Pants were made for Yogis. With time its use increased. Yoga Pants were seen in gyms, playgrounds, and other fitness activity places. It was because of the thick and flexible material used to manufacture Yoga Pants.
What Are Yoga Pants?
As the name suggests, Yoga Pants were designed to keep Yogis as potential buyers in mind. It is manufactured with a thick and flexible material that helps provide more grip in stretching. Other than stretching, it is also comforting and sweat-absorbers. Yoga Pants can be seen everywhere nowadays. People can be seen wearing yoga pants while running, jogging, exercising, etc.
They feature quality sweat absorption and keep people fresh to enjoy the workout. Since it is so much in demand, many brands have started manufacturing Yoga Pants in various colors and designs. So one shouldn’t worry about styling also.
The Lululemon brand first manufactured yoga Pants, but looking at the growing trend, all the popular brands, such as Nike, Adidas, etc., have also started manufacturing Yoga Pants.
Types of Yoga Pants
- Tight-Fitting Yoga Pants: Tight-Fitting Yoga Pants will be tightly stuck to your body, compressing your body and providing you a grip while stretching. So it is recommended for the yogis whose Yoga schedule has more stretching activities.
- Loose-Fitting Yoga Pants: Unlike Tight-fitting Yoga Pants, loose-fitting yoga pants remain free from your body, giving you space to breathe. So loose-fitting Yoga Pants are suitable for women or girls who don’t find Tight-fitting Yoga Pants as comfortable.
- High-Waist Yoga Pants: High-waisted Yoga Pants are manufactured with a rigid waistband and placed higher than the lower back. It is fit for exercises or Yoga asanas where the lower back might get exposed or exercises that require bending.
- Wide-Waistband Yoga Pants: Wide-waistband Yoga Pants have a wide waistband. It is manufactured for people with wide buttocks. Generally, it is manufactured using a blend of two materials – Spandex and Nylon/Polyester. Thus making it comfortable around the waist.
- Yoga Capris: As the name suggests, Yoga Capris are 3/4th pants. Yoga Capris can be used as per the choice. But it is mainly helpful when it is hot in the summer, and people don’t like to burden themselves with too much cloth.
- Maternity Yoga Pants: Maternity Yoga Pants are for pregnant ladies. These pants are very flexible and stretchable, which makes pregnant ladies comfortable.
The Best Material for Yoga Pants
Yoga Pants are manufactured using a combination of several materials, such as polyester, spandex, nylon, Lycra, etc. There are various choices for buyers, polyamide interlock pants for winter, spandex for summer, and other seasons. Nowadays, brands have started manufacturing Yoga Pants using recycled or graphene fabrics in order to sustain our ecosystem or to empower the high-performance activities.
Pros of Yoga Pants
- Breathable – Yoga Pants allow the yogis to breathe easily during the asanas.
- Yoga Pants are stretchable, but it does not expose your inner body because of the thick material used.
- The thick waistband of Yoga Pants does not let the Yoga Pants slip downwards during the exercise involving bending or stretching.
- The thick material of Yoga Pants gives the body good support in stretching.
Cons of Yoga Pants
- Yoga Pants are costlier than leggings.
- Sometimes, wearing sweat-absorbing Yoga Pants can increase the chance of infections.
What Are Leggings?
Leggings were first manufactured as tights to be worn inside clothes to keep the body warm. But with time, leggings are used everywhere but are not tight as yoga pants. Leggings are manufactured with a thin cloth, which makes them a lousy choice for physical activities involving stretching. Still, it is comfortable, thus making them a primary choice for home wear.
Types of Leggings
- Cotton Leggings: Cotton leggings are most commonly available in the markets and are very popular because they are pretty comfortable and come in various colors and designs.
- Polyester Leggings: Polyester leggings are manufactured from a blend of polyester and some other fabric. Polyester leggings are mainly used as sportswear as it is stretchable and sweat-absorbent.
- Compression leggings: Compression leggings are tight leggings that compress the body and remain glued to the body, providing a solid hold for body movement.
- Nylon Leggings: Nylon leggings are highly popular because they run for a long time, thus making them efficient for people.
- Spandex Leggings: Spandex leggings do not allow breathability, thus making them a bad option for the ones who suffocate in clothes glued to the body. On the contrary, it is used by sportswomen because it is glued to the body and does not reduce their efficiency.
- Wool leggings: Wool leggings are in demand during the winter; thus, it is considered winter wear, but not all can afford them as it is costly.
- Faux Leather Leggings: Faux leggings are a product of luxury and fashion. They are very much like leather pants, but their shrinking property makes them uncomfortable. Thus, Faux leggings are a better choice.
The Best Material for Leggings
Leggings are made of different fabrics such as cotton, Nylon, polyester, spandex, etc. But the question arises, among all these, which is the best material for leggings?
All the fabrics have their own property. Thus, they all play different roles. So it depends on the users to decide which fabrics are best for their use, like cotton is suitable for summer, woolen for winter, spandex and polyester as activewear, and faux leather as fashion-wear.
But then let’s come to Nylon which can be justified as the best fabric for leggings as it is highly durable, stretchy, and comfortable. Thus, it fulfills all the criteria.
Pros of Leggings
- The use of thinner material makes it economical and affordable for the common masses.
- Leggings can be used as activewear, sportswear, or homeware.
- Leggings are easy to get. It is available almost everywhere.
Cons of Leggings
- Though leggings can be used as activewear, they cannot provide the satisfaction Yoga Pants provide due to their thick material.
When To Choose Yoga Pants Or Leggings?
We’ve known exactly the differences between yoga pants vs leggings from the above contents and their pros and cons, however, you may come up with this question: when should we choose yoga pants or leggings for different kinds of purposes?
This question is easy to answer:
If you are a fitness, workout or yoga freak, yoga pants are a better choice. The reason is that yoga pants are more comfortable for active yoga classes when you have to change poses quickly and need your yoga clothes to move with you, yoga pants with compression, in particular, are great for both men and women because they support joints, improve circulation and may even help muscles recover after a workout.
But if you want an economical option, or just for jogging, street walking or some exercise that doesn’t require big movements, then without any doubt, leggings are a better choice. Nowadays, there is even a new kind of leggings trending in the market, i.e., Activewear Leggings manufactured for fitness freaks. But again, it isn’t as cheap as regular leggings and not as satisfactory as Yoga Pants. So for the fitness, workout or yoga freak, it is best to opt for Yoga Pants though it is a bit expensive.
Tips For Choosing Right Yoga Pants
Nevertheless, there is no one pair of yoga pants that you can wear for the rest of your life. Sooner or later, you’ll have to say goodbye to your favorite pants and get a new one, but that doesn’t mean we have to put up with low-quality yoga pants: see through, sweat stagnation, waistband keeps rolling down, pants can’t be quickly recovered, non-breathable, scary?
Take it easy, we have listed 4 yoga pants selection factors that you must use as a reference to determine which is the right pair of yoga pants you need to buy.
Factor 1: Good Stretch and Elasticity
Yoga involves a lot of stretching, so having excellent stretch and elasticity will allow you to easily do each step and maximize the benefits of yoga.
Factor 2: High Breathability and Good Sweat Wicking Effect
Many women or girls hate the sticky feeling after sweating when exercising. Not only is it uncomfortable to cling to the legs, but it may also cause itchiness in the intimate areas due to the heat and humidity, which is really embarrassing and uncomfortable. Therefore, the breathability and sweat-wicking effect is a major key that cannot be ignored when selecting yoga pants, and it is even recommended to select the style with antibacterial design if you can, which will make the exercise more refreshing and comfortable.
Factor 3: Have a Certain Degree of Coverage
Regardless of what kind of sport you are engaged in, the coverage of your clothing is a detail that needs to be taken seriously. For yoga, the best principle is to fit snugly but not tightly, but pay special attention to the fit of the abdomen, groin, and knees to avoid accidentally shifting the pants during exercise and reducing the stretching effect.
Factor 4: Non-See Through or No Camel Toe
Yoga pants are usually very tight fitting in order to protect the body from injury when stretching. However, the most fearful part of the pants is the camel toe, which is the triangle of intimacy. Therefore, when choosing pants, it is recommended that you pay special attention to the styles with a stall design to reduce the appearance of sensitive areas.
Of course, in addition to being suitable to wear, you should also pay attention to choosing yoga pants that are thick enough so that you won’t be embarrassed when doing squat poses.
Fashionable and beautiful designs are also important factors for many women or girls when choosing yoga pants, and if you can have a pair of yoga pants that you can wear to work or out of the house, it will be even more time saving and convenient!
Conclusion
In this post, we’ve talked about all things about yoga pants vs leggings and simply put, yoga pants and leggings have a narrow line of difference when seen from the outside world. But if you dig deeper, you will find the gap between the two goes on widening. They both lie in different positions on several scales, such as flexibility, comfort, designs, and styling. Regarding colors and designs, leggings are far ahead of Yoga pants.
On the contrary, Yoga Pants are better in flexibility. Thus, it is better as activewear but isn’t affordable and cannot be used as regular home wear. For this case, leggings are again a better choice. So both of them are better choices depending upon the situations they are being used.