The Question of the Month:

What Is Your Response to the Controversy 

Over Proper Yoga Attire and Appropriate
 Age Guidelines for Yoga Pants?

These are 2 questions, relating to the same issue: 

1. Do yoga pants and tops create an immodest or a sexually suggestive climate, or are they comfortable for the practitioner and helpful to the teacher?

2. Are they only appropriate for the younger student? 

A yoga practice is a sensual experience, bringing the practitioner closer to full sensory (all 5) awareness, a gift of yoga. Hopefully, one knows the difference between sensual and sexual. Sorting that out, our yoga apparel design has been refined to provide comfort and freedom to move in every way the asanas command—reaching, bending, twisting, and lengthening in every direction as in splits on the floor and with inversions in the air. The materials used offer light, smooth, stretching textures that embrace the body, eliminating the need to fuss and fidget with extraneous fabric that clumps and bunches up during the practice. And yes, it makes viewing the kinetics and the dynamics of the body in motion more visible to the teacher, so muscular overuse and abuse can be more readily detected and corrected.

Pertaining to the propriety guidelines for the older and perhaps heavier practitioner, only our own aesthetics and comfort should be considered. People are well into their golden years and doing yoga, and if yoga pants are providing the necessary freedom of movement and comfort to practice, go for it! The secular population, regardless of age, rely on tights, stretch jeans, and stretch pants to complete their wardrobe, and I'm sure they don't wear them as well as a fit, toned, flexible yoga body, of any age.

Every month we answer your questions about yoga, as a student or as a teacher. Share your thoughts about this month's question in the comments or on our Facebook page. Send your questions to ytaeditor@gmail.com.