GEAR LOVE: HELP FINDING RUNNING & FITNESS APPAREL FOR MOTHERS-TO-BE

Freshly fallen snow. Taken by PKSenagore January 2,2021. All rights reserved.

AN ARTICLE SURFACED IN THE online magazine runnersworld.com with a topic I cannot recall ever seeing before. Ever. “Maternal Running Gear Is Virtually Nonexistent. We Dug up Some of the Best Options” is a both a realistic appraisal of available gear and a statement about the sad lack of industry attention paid to expectant mothers.
 
Considering more recent media and advertising efforts to portray a broader range of body sizes to more accurately represent persons who are enthusiastic about fitness activities, it’s unbelievable that there hasn’t been a rush by companies to make and sell comfortable clothes for all body types. Especially for women. After all, women require extra upper body support and that extra piece of clothing, a sports bra, that most men don’t need. We naturally must buy more gear.
 
I’m not pregnant and don’t have an genuine belly ‘bump’. But I do appreciate a wide and comfortable yet supportive waistband on a sport bottom. It would be a relatively simple entry into this market for a company to make early pregnancy tights, shorts, pants for women in the first, second, and early third trimester. Items that would accommodate a small to medium bump at least.
 
Surely there are enough people in the developed world, in which obesity is said to be reaching epidemic proportions, that are waist-challenged and who need clothes with a customizable mid-section fit. After all, we need those types of garments if we are to commit to and persevere with physical fitness programs that contribute to improved health.
 
Possibly it’s not necessary to label such clothes as “maternity”; word might spread if key descriptors like “expandable, wide, supportive” were used in product write-ups.
 
The passion of previously pregnant author Heather Mayer Irvine is evident her writing, especially about personal experiences and the processes she employed to have clothing items evaluated by other women.
 
If you are not personally in need of maternity fitness wear, consider passing this  article on to a running mother-to-be, or one that loves to exercise,  who hopes to continue doing so as long as is healthy and safe.
 
RUN & MOVE HAPPY!
 
https://www.runnersworld.com/gear/a28414759/best-maternity-workout-clothes/
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