To not toot our private horn, nonetheless everyone knows an element or two concerning the good practice leggings proper right here at SELF—the reality is, we acknowledge a select few of them yearly all through our Activewear Awards. Whereas it might sound dramatic, we anticipate a high-quality pair of leggings might make the entire distinction in how your day goes. (In case you’ve ever tried lifting weights or having enjoyable with a vinyasa circulation whereas sporting leggings that slip down, pinch, or pull in the entire improper areas, you acknowledge this to be true.)
With that in ideas, we curated a list of good practice leggings for all types of actions, chosen from tons of pairs we’ve examined and had advisable to us by consultants by means of the years.
Our prime picks
- Most interesting Normal: Athleta Salutation Stash Tight
- Most interesting Funds: Outdated Navy Extreme-Waisted PowerSoft Leggings
- Most interesting for Yoga: Lululemon Align Extreme-Rise Pant
- Most interesting for Working: Tracksmith NDO Tights
- Most interesting for Health middle Workout routines: Reebok Lux Extreme-Rise Leggings
- Most interesting for Regularly Placed on: Spanx Booty Enhance Energetic 7/8 Leggings
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What to seek for when looking for practice leggings
In case you’re in a position to change your leggings assortment, listed under are only a few concepts we advise sustaining in ideas as you retailer.
Extreme-impact actions, like working, and gentler actions, like stretching, title for varied sorts of leggings. For the earlier, it is your determination a pair that’s thicker, further compressive, and sweatproof. Within the meantime, you’ll most certainly need softer, lighter-weight leggings for yoga, Pilates, and totally different lower-intensity workout routines.
Leggings can be found in a selection of lengths, from full-length (which suggests they go all one of the simplest ways to the underside of your ankle) to 7/8 (which hit spherical or just above the ankle) to capri (which usually stop on the middle of your calf). When uncertain, measure your inseam measurement—the hole out of your crotch to the spot in your leg or ankle the place you want the leggings to hit—and have your amount useful if you browse.
Any leggings must have amount of spandex, Lycra, elastane, or totally different stretchy supplies to ensure they match close to your physique with out proscribing your movement. Previous that, seek for pairs made with moisture-wicking, breathable, squat-proof, additional mushy, or cold-weather-ready provides. As talked about above, your go-to workout routines can also help you resolve which supplies will work best.
That’s further a personal need than the remaining, nonetheless it’s nonetheless important to check how extreme the waistband goes on a model new pair of leggings, notably if safety and help are key for you. Yow will uncover low-, medium-, and high-rise selections, nonetheless high-rise is the most common.
Don’t neglect nice-to-have elements like a drawstring, well-placed pockets, and breathable mesh panels. Counting on what you need, these add-ons can flip a powerful pair of leggings into an distinctive one.
FAQs about looking for practice leggings
Must I measurement up or down in leggings?
In case you’re between sizes, it is best to usually measurement down in leggings. Since they’re generally manufactured from stretchy supplies, they should broaden to suit your wants, they often are inclined to get looser over time, so starting with a tighter pair is often greater. (In any case, leggings are presupposed to be cosy—and in addition you don’t want them to be falling down as you are employed out.) That being said, if you’re considering a superb compressive pair of leggings, you might want to measurement up, as a result of the material will match tighter and can actually really feel too restrictive in a smaller measurement.
Why do my leggings roll down on the waist?
Leggings that are too large, have misplaced their elasticity, or are lower-rise may be further liable to roll down. So if this generally is a widespread problem for you, seek for sorts that are high-waisted, with a thick, compressive waistband and a drawstring.
Nonetheless, typically super-high-waisted sorts can roll right down to fulfill the indent of your pure waist. Ideally, the very best of your leggings’ waistband will hit you correct at your pure waist or solely barely above. Whilst you attempt them on, leap spherical, bend, and stretch in your leggings to confirm they’ll preserve put.
Retailer the proper practice leggings
Whether or not or not you’re a runner, a yoga fanatic, a hiker, a die-hard lounger, or all of the above, a beautiful new pair of leggings awaits you beneath.
Most interesting Normal: Athleta Salutation Stash Tight
- Terribly comfortable and versatile
- Breathable material
- Sturdy
- Subsequent to none—nearly good
Wherever your day takes you, you’ll be prepared in Athleta’s best-selling Salutation Stash Extreme Rise Legging. It’s one in all many mannequin’s hottest leggings for its splendidly deep pockets (that by some means don’t add a ton of bulk); giant, cozy waistband; and thick material.
Unimaginable sturdiness was another reason we named the Salutation Stash the Most interesting Leggings for Pretty Rather a lot One thing in our 2024 Activewear Awards—one amongst our judges was assured that these can ultimate for years of injury. “These are my each factor leggings,” they wrote. “I have been purchasing for the Stash from Athleta for years, they often preserve up. I educate barre, elevate weights, hike trails, and browse the aisles of Seller Joe’s in them at all times.”
Sizes: XXS to 3XL | Lengths: Petite, frequent, and tall | Provides: Nylon, Lycra, recycled polyester, elastane, polyester (counting on the color)
Most interesting Funds: Outdated Navy Extreme-Waisted PowerSoft Leggings
- Good value
- Final for high-sweat actions
- Gained’t current sweat
- Some reviewers bear in mind the fabric might probably be thicker
These Outdated Navy leggings had been our readers’ select for this 12 months’s Activewear Awards—and wow, did they’ve masses to say: “I even have 25 pairs, they often’re the one bottoms I’ll do races in. The side pockets are so good, I don’t even must placed on working belts all through my teaching runs to keep up my phone, gum, and keys useful,” one outlined.
One different reader shouted out their value degree, sturdiness, compression diploma, and, perhaps most importantly, sweat resistance: “I placed on them for my prolonged runs on the treadmill, they often don’t current sweat stains.”
Sizes: XS to 4X | Lengths: Petite, frequent, and tall | Provides: Polyester, spandex
Most interesting for Yoga: Lululemon Align Extreme-Rise Pant
- Terribly mushy and stretchy
- Massive collection of color selections
Arguably the most-loved Lulu bottoms all through the board, the Aligns belong throughout the dictionary beneath “yoga leggings.” Further mushy and non-constricting, they’re designed to essentially really feel like a second pores and pores and skin that strikes with you as you stretch, bend, and circulation.
“It actually doesn’t actually really feel comparable to you’re sporting pants, they often certainly not set off chafing,” wrote one 2024 Activewear Awards select. Whereas they’re principally wonderful for yoga, our judges and one SoulCycle instructor moreover advisable the Align leggings for indoor biking and simply sporting spherical the house.
Sizes: 0 to twenty | Lengths: 23, 25, 28, and 31 inches | Provides: Nylon, Lycra elastane
Most interesting for Working: Tracksmith NDO Tights
- Quite a lot of pockets
- Adjustable match
- Reflective particulars
- Moisture-wicking
- Not large compressive
- Costly
Every distance runner is conscious of that pockets are each factor, and this pair packs lots. With two big, envelope-style pockets and a third, zippered one in the back of the waistband, you obtained’t ought to placed on a working belt on longer loops.
These high-waisted leggings are constructed from a double-sided material that’ll protect you warmth on chilly mornings or evenings—plus, they’ve a drawstring, so you might alter the match (which suggests they’ll nonetheless actually really feel good after the post-gel bloat). Zippers on the ankles moreover make them easy to get off everytime you’re sweaty.
Sizes: XS to L | Lengths: Frequent | Provides: Lycra, polyester, nylon, polyamide, elastane Lycra, polyurethane
Most interesting for Health middle Workout routines: Reebok Lux Extreme-Rise Leggings
- Comparatively moderately priced for the usual
- Compressive, supportive match and actually really feel
- Further high-rise waistband
- Some might uncover the compression too sturdy
In case you’re in the hunt for workhorse leggings that’ll maintain with you through HIIT classes, lifting durations, and cardio workout routines, you need a pair of supportive, ultra-high-waisted Reebok Luxes, which obtained a 2023 Activewear Award for his or her reliability and adaptability.
“Usually full-length leggings look ‘bunchy’ on the ankles, nonetheless these had been good,” one SELF tester wrote. “The extreme waistband is awfully comfortable and flattering. They’re utterly squat-proof as properly. I felt very assured, and I was able to full all workout routines with out having to pull them up or alter them the least bit (even all through a sweaty vinyasa yoga class).”
Sizes: XXS to XL | Lengths: Fast, frequent | Provides: Nylon, elastane
Most interesting for Regularly Placed on: Spanx Booty Enhance Energetic 7/8 Leggings
- Thick and just a bit compressive
- Sweat-resistant
- Cozy, flattering match
- Would possibly run small, in accordance with reviewers
A two-time Activewear Award winner in 2021 and 2022, Spanx’s Booty Enhance Energetic leggings are about as reliable as leggings get (and win bonus elements for his or her extraordinarily flattering match). “These are perfection,” wrote one tester, who wears a measurement 2X. “They did not switch. The leggings are high-waist and cover my entire tummy as a plus-size lady. The place have these leggings been all my life?”
One different SELF tester raved about their versatility: “I would placed on these leggings to the office and no one would know that they are for workout routines.” They match like a glove and look good even after hours of injury, making the Booty Enhance Energetic our prime select for all-day placed on (no contest!).
Sizes: XS to 3XL | Lengths: 25 inches | Provides: Nylon, elastane
Most interesting Compression Leggings: SuperFit Hero SuperHold Pocket 7/8 Leggings
- Terribly supportive
- Thick, opaque material
- Intensive measurement fluctuate
- Generally tend to attract lint and pet hair, in accordance with reviewers
At this degree, it’s an odd 12 months when SuperFit Hero’s extraordinarily compressive, squat-test-passing SuperHold pocket leggings don’t win an Activewear Award (their earliest look was in 2019). All by means of the years, they’ve wowed our testers with their terribly protected match, inclusive measurement fluctuate, and common good look (an influencer who examined a pair in 2022 said the SuperHolds had been their go-to leggings for on-camera work).
“The leggings positively did each factor they’d been alleged to do,” one 2023 tester wrote. “That they had been supportive, comfortable, cute, and helped me preserve dry after I used to be really sweaty. I notably appreciated how the waistband stayed in place, and common I didn’t have to manage one thing all through my workout routines.”
Sizes: L to 7X | Lengths: 29 inches | Provides: Polyester, spandex
Most interesting for Lounging: Previous Yoga Spacedye Caught In The Midi Extreme Waisted Legging
- Very mushy
- Tons of color selections
- No exterior seam
- Materials has four-way stretch that strikes with you
- Inseam may be too transient on some people
If you’ve gotten an prolonged day of nothing deliberate, a supremely cozy pair of leggings makes for a incredible uniform. People who come to ideas for us are merely Previous Yoga’s super-soft, clear Spacedye tights.
“These leggings positively lived as a lot as my expectations,” wrote one 2023 Activewear Awards tester. “I found myself reaching for them many instances, since they’d been so comfortable, cute, and I didn’t ought to fiddle with them whereas educating or working in direction of yoga.” In 2024, we moreover gave a nod to the Out of Pocket mannequin of these leggings, which are merely as cuddly nonetheless perform two drop-in side pockets too.
Sizes: XXS to 4X | Lengths: 24 inches | Provides: Polyester, elastane
Most interesting for Chilly Local weather: Baleaf Fleece-Lined Winter Leggings
- Lined for warmth, however breathable
- Funds-friendly
- Quite a lot of colors to pick from
- Would possibly bunch on the ankles, in accordance with reviewers
In case you brave icy temps throughout the title of your train (or commute), you need a pair of Baleaf’s refreshingly moderately priced fleece-lined leggings. “The wind doesn’t pierce by means of them like various totally different leggings. They’re moreover sweat-wicking, in order that they’re good for determining,” Lindsey Quebedeaux, a observe and cross-country coach, runner, and walker from New Braunfels, Texas, beforehand knowledgeable SELF.
They’re accessible in various sorts: The one-pocket mannequin has a mid-rise waist; the three-pocket is high-rise; and the waterproof mannequin has an extra-high waist that must become helpful when it’s chilly and moist exterior.
Sizes: XS to 3XL | Lengths: 27-28 inches (counting on the dimensions) | Provides: Polyester, spandex
Most interesting for Mountaineering: Outside Evaluation Advert-Vantage Leggings
- Very sturdy
- Stretchy
- UPF 30 helps protect your pores and pores and skin from the photo voltaic’s rays
- Too lightweight for mountaineering in chilly local weather
- Restricted color selections
Hikers ask various their leggings: They have to be easy to maneuver in, nonetheless they may’t rip or snag when the trail will get robust. Few pairs strike a steadiness between stretchy and troublesome pretty similar to the Advert-Vantage from Outside Evaluation.
Made with mountaineering in ideas, they’re abrasion-resistant by means of the knees and hips and provide full fluctuate of motion. As our 2023 Activewear Awards tester put it, “I will switch at any angle in these they often preserve in place. I moreover actually really feel like they’re good for journey because of they’re sturdy, lightweight, and have some compression.”
Sizes: XS to XXL | Lengths: 25 inches | Provides: Nylon, Lycra
Most interesting Shade and Pattern Decisions: Sweaty Betty Vitality Train Leggings
- Huge assortment of sizes and types
- Has two pockets
- Sweat-wicking material
- Adjustable drawstring contained within the waistband
These are an all-around wonderful pair of leggings, and you will’t beat the alternatives when it comes to colors and patterns—there are 28(!) to pick from. These stretchy tights are good for nearly any train, with a giant side pocket, a once more zippered pocket, and an adjustable inside drawstring. Sweaty Betty is beloved for his or her vibrant patterns, so if you’re in the hunt for a really distinctive set, this mannequin is the one to purchase.
Sizes: XXS to XXL | Lengths: ⅞, full-length | Provides: Polyamide, elastane
Most interesting Dimension Differ: Girlfriend Collective Luxe Legging
- Snug and compressive
- Has three pockets
- Moisture-wicking
- Massive collection of sizes
- Heavy material isn’t the proper for respectable workout routines
These high-waisted leggings are thick and compressive—good for anyone who likes their tights to essentially really feel like a sturdy hug. With a refined sheen, these would work equally properly for a well being membership day or a cute errands outfit. They’ve three small pockets (two on the doorway waistband and one on the once more) and are made with cozy, peach-fuzz-like material.
Sizes: XXS to 6XL | Lengths: 23.75 inches, 28.5 inches | Provides: Recycled plastic bottles (RPET), spandex
Most interesting for HIIT: Vuori Day-to-day Legging
- Preserve-put waistband
- Exceptionally comfortable
- Adjustable drawstring exterior the waistband
- 4-way stretch strikes with you
- No pockets
- Not large compressive
- 7/8 measurement may be too transient for tall people
In case you actually really feel like your tights certainly not preserve in place, it’s advisable to attempt Vuori’s Day-to-day Legging. One SELF creator swears by it for working, HIIT workout routines, or really any practice that’ll have you ever ever bouncing spherical.
“The large extreme, giant, segmented waistband and drawstring combo really helps them preserve put and by no means roll down, it does not matter what I’m doing. I certainly not have to pull these up and alter them all through workout routines, which makes me attain for them again and again,” she says. They’re decrease to a 7/8 measurement, in order that they’re good for anyone on the shorter side who hates when their full-length leggings bunch up. The thick material makes them wonderful for sweaty workout routines, and, per our creator, they’re extraordinarily mushy and flattering.
Sizes: XXS to XXL | Lengths: transient, frequent, prolonged | Provides: Polyester, elastane
Most interesting with Pockets: Nike Go Company-Assist Extreme-Waisted 7/8 Leggings
- Supportive, hold-you-in actually really feel
- Six pockets
- Further-wide waistband
- 7/8 measurement couldn’t work for tall individuals
In case you’ve purchased stuff to hold, these leggings have the area for storing you need. Nike’s Go tights have two angled side pockets alongside the thighs, three drop-in pockets alongside the once more waistband, and a zipper pocket on the thigh, so you might merely pack your phone, gels, headphone case, lip balm, keys, and enjoying playing cards. Compressive and supportive, with an extra-wide waistband, these will maintain with you as you run, squat, and hike.
Sizes: XS to XXL | Lengths: Frequent | Provides: Nylon, spandex
Most Stretchy: Gymshark Necessary Seamless 2.0 Leggings
- Comfortable
- Seamless throughout the waist
- Moisture-wicking material
- Quite a lot of colors to pick from
- Not compressive
- No pockets
Gymshark’s Necessary Seamless 2.0 leggings will switch with you all day prolonged, with a big, ribbed, seamless waistband and stretchy, protected material that’s shaded to contour your physique. Moisture-wicking nylon makes them a powerful select for sweaty conditioning durations too.
Sizes: XS to XXL | Lengths: Frequent | Provides: Nylon, elastane
Most interesting Splurge: LNDR Limitless Pocket ⅞ Legging
- Super lightweight
- Sweat-wicking material
- Has two waistband pockets
- Gentle compression
- Some reviewers say they’re not thick or opaque adequate
- Restricted measurement fluctuate
This pair from LNDR is good for anyone who doesn’t like cumbersome side pockets, nonetheless wishes further area for storing than a zippered once more pocket. The drop-in pockets on these are uniquely positioned extreme on the waistband, so you might merely cowl them with a shirt or tank.
These leggings are moreover very smoothing and lightweight, in order that they’ll actually really feel notably good in scorching settings. “These are my favorite leggings of all time,” wrote one LNDR purchaser. “They’re tight in all the appropriate areas and large comfortable.”
Sizes: XS to XL | Lengths: 8/8 (full-length), 7/8, 6/8 (capri) | Provides: Polyamide, elastane
How SELF exams and selects practice leggings
For SELF’s Activewear Awards, we faucet staffers, regularly exercisers, and consultants of all stripes (along with hikers, marathon runners, weight lifting trainers, and well being coaches) to verify dozens of leggings. They put their gear by means of the wringer, sweating, transferring, and dwelling of their apparel for weeks all by means of the testing interval, then use our official Activewear Searching for Info to seek out out which objects had been actually the proper. You can rest assured that the leggings that made the decrease had been road-tested to the fullest.
After we seek for solutions exterior of our yearly awards, we ask trusted well being consultants throughout the topic for his or her absolute favorites. Whereas a flashy new pair that they’re smitten by is on a regular basis of curiosity, we want to know which leggings they arrive once more to time after time—these are these we perform.
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