Clothing

​I live my life in stretchy, comfortable clothes predominantly in leggings or yoga pants. On the rare occasion that I get "dressed up" in skinny jeans or other non stretchy clothing it makes me realise how restrictive general clothing is to movement and breathing. Most work clothes and general day to day clothing and shoes not only limit the WAYS we move but also affects HOW we move. Skinny jeans and other restrictive trousers affect our gait cycles and restricts our hip extension reducing glute engagement. They heavily restrict how we move our hips, pelvis and knees and you can forget about squatting down to pick something up off the floor, we have to change and adapt our movement patterns to fit in with the clothes we are wearing. If the waistband is restrictive around the abdomen, it squishes our abdominal organs, restricts motility and may increase intra-abdominal pressure which could lead to organ prolapse down below and hernias up above. The stuff we squish to get into the jeans has to go somewhere, it doesn't just get sucked in, it either gets pushed up or gets pushed down. I don't think there's anything wrong with the occasional wearing of skinny jeans but I would question how your clothing is restricting movement and breathing on a daily basis. Even things like socks and bras can lead to loss of localised movement in that area, if you've ever seen indentations in the skin after wearing them it means the skin, muscles and fascias are not able to move in an optimal way, bras cause even more havoc as they create a restriction around our rib cage, physically limiting its ability to expand in certain areas. I have some female clients that have such heavy indentations from decades of wearing tight, restrictive bras that the tissue doesn't move in that area at all. Take a moment to see how your clothes are restricting your movement, are you able to breathe fully into all parts of the lungs, are you able to side bend, bend over, squat to pick something up off the floor, are you able to get up and down off the floor? If not what ways do you have to adapt to do these things or do you avoid doing them all together?