Working out while pregnant is difficult enough, but now that I’ve essentially outgrown all my workout clothes, I need to locate some maternity workout wear stat. I don’t want to stretch out what I have–those pieces were expensive, not to mention it took me forever to find the right fit and comfort level for each one. Workout clothes in general are stretchy, but not THAT stretchy.
Turns out it’s more difficult than I thought to locate pregnancy workout gear, at least in actual stores. Online one can find pretty much anything one wants, as we all know, and there is no dearth of options on the web for purchasing workout clothes to fit my new curves. One issue with this method of buying clothes is that if I order something and it doesn’t fit, by the time I send it back and get a replacement item my girth may have increased exponentially. Yes, it’s true–pregnant woman can expand and completely change size in even as little time as a week. It happened to me. Last week, week 19, I was still wearing most of my normal clothes. As tradition would have it (among my friends and female relatives, anyway) the moment I hit day one of week 20 I popped. Now that I’m at 21 weeks I’ve REALLY popped. Luckily, it’s all in the one bump spot, so my low-rider stretch caprices still fit.
Don’t get me wrong–I love the bump, am totally in to the bump. I actually want to show off the bump. This cannot be done in my husband’s oversize race T-shirts (I outgrew mine last week). So where is a gal to go when she needs hot maternity workout wear fast? Old Navy does not seem to offer such items. Neither does Target. Neither, of course, is a store designed with the pregnant woman specifically in mind. Motherhood, a store that does cater only to the pregnant woman, however, does not seem to carry maternity workout wear either (although everything else they offer is GREAT and not expensive) at the store I’ve been to, but do have a small offering online. H&M has a maternity section, but I have my doubts that anything the offer made with spandex is designed for situps. I guess I’ll have to do some on-site recon work to confirm these doubts, which sounds about as tiring as walking a loop of the park these days.
Back to the online thing, there are probably literally hundreds of sites designed specifically to sell maternity workout wear to pregnant women. This is a boon to all of us, except for the aforementioned possible sizing issue, and for one more thing: the stuff they sell is NOT cheap. In fact, much of it seems more expensive than regular workout wear. Why, you ask? Well, mainly because women are willing to buy it, regardless of the fact that no one item will continue to serve them throughout their entire pregnancy nor afterwards. Regardless, I’m going to need SOMETHING to wear, even if it only fits for a few weeks as I simply can’t go prancing around the park in my husband’s sweatpants (which thankfully are still too big).
Should you decide to go the internet route, here is a link to an article about the lack of maternity workout wear that provides several online sites where such items may finally be found.
During my web-scouting adventure I also uncovered a great article on the web containing tips on how to dress for workouts while pregnant which is just as important if not more so than the clothes themselves.
Do you have any favorite maternity wear stores that offer workout clothes? If so, I’d love to hear about them!
Author by Jennifer Jordan
