Alignmed/Opedix Posture Shirt
March 5, 2011
You may remember I reviewed the Opedix tights last season and was mucho stoked for the good results I got. Opedix saw the review and approached me to try out a few more of their products, including the Posture shirt. As per usual with gear tests, a long process of sizing occurred involving sending shirts back and forth and squeezing my freshly showered torso into various sizes so that I wouldn’t dirty up the shirts that had to go back. Finally we identified the correct sizing scheme, and I was ready to go.
Then I found I have an IT band injury which has caused my knee woes during running. So, most workouts ceased for a good while. So the shirt sat, still in its plastic wrap.
I am almost ready to go running again, but not today. Still, in a flash of brilliance I found a way to test the shirt – an unorthodox way, one might say, for a gear blogger who focuses on the outdoor sports like skiing, running, climbing, and biking.
Yes, it’s time to admit that I live a double life. I am indeed a hard-running, distance-cycling, big-line skiing backcountry badass, but I’m also a prissy, tall-boot wearing, fancy-tight-pants-with-leather-seat-sporting equestrian. I have horses.
My original sporting life was focused on horses. I rode hunter/jumpers as a Young Rider and then switched to dressage. If you don’t know what dressage is, it’s basically a type of training that enhances a horse’s natural movements and ends up being, in a practical sense, a cross between ballet and bodybuilding for the animal. Think of a Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mr. Olympia-era Schwarzenegger love child. Those are some strong horses.
I quit riding for about 9 years while I honed my ski/bike/run/climb skills. Last November I was compelled to purchase another horse, as some of you know. So that’s the backstory. Now, the double life is in full swing.
One of the things I have ALWAYS struggled with while riding is posture. I slouch, I slump, I get lazy, I look down, I just have a hard time with the whole shoulders-back, look-elegant thing. I blame a long line of coaches who never bothered to correct it. Let this be a lesson to you all – if you are paying for your own, or your childrens’ riding lessons, you better be damn sure the coach happily sending you the huge bill every month is actually paying attention to the riding, or your burgeoning Robert Dover will be stuck the rest of his life struggling to hold his shoulders back.
So today, when deciding what snappy little riding outfit to wear, my eye happened upon the Posture Shirt and a cunning plan was born.
I’m a size six, regularly, and I usually go with a small in tops, but the small posture shirt was too much of an exercise in contortionism to get on and off so I settled on a medium. The medium is nicely snug but not tight at all; in fact, at first I thought I had a bit of extra room at the shoulders because there was a little bit of puckering along my traps. However, after wearing the shirt for a bit, the puckering went away and the shirt fit fine. I like that, although it’s a short-sleeve shirt, the designers avoided the temptation to give the shirt those wretched, unflattering cap sleeves. OK, so cap sleeves CAN be cute, but on a shirt designed to be skin-tight? No, no, and NO.
These sleeves, thankfully, are 3/4 bicep length and not super tight. No bulgies! Which is nice, because it was so warm in Durango today that I ended up wearing this shirt with no overshirt while riding. Trust me, you can’t hide stuff in an Opedix product – there’s just no room.
True to my experience with the tights, the benefit of this shirt is noticeable. I didn’t have to tax my rhomboids to keep my shoulders back, and the stabby shoulder pain I awoke with faded as the day went on. I felt as if my ride was one of the more successful ones of the week, in large part because I didn’t slouch and didn’t have to pour tons of energy into my posture. I wore the shirt for most of the day to see if it had the same effect as the pants as far as recovery goes; I don’t have any scientific data at this point but I can say that I was really regretful to have to take it off, because I enjoyed the sensation of being able to relax my shoulders instead of forcing them to behave.
I’d wear an Opedix shirt every day but for one thing – the length and the accompanying “anchor” hem. I understand that this is one of the features of the shirt and is meant to be functional; the long length and the snug hem are meant to hold the shirt in place. When riding a horse, this actually worked all right and didn’t bother me, but when running, I’m not sure that the hem wouldn’t work it’s way up around the waist anyway. I guess I’ll have to report back on that when I can actually run; however I did notice that it bothered me more on the shirts that were sized a bit too small.
When I got home from riding horses, I hopped on my MTB to take Geardog out for a spin. I wondered how the shirt would work on the MTB; after all, the bike posture pretty much promotes slouching. I didn’t notice anything in particular on the bike but the shirt wasn’t too binding or restricting. It was probably pretty helpful; MTB riding promotes chest muscle tightness and having a little counterpressure can’t be a bad thing.
Just like I said in my Opedix running tights review, I think there is something to this technology. I love the way the support relaxes my tight muscles and gives me a little extra help where I need it. I’m sure it will become a regular part of my prissy-ass riding kit, and most likely a part of my regular day to day clothing as well. The Posture Shirt is not exactly a fashion piece, but it’s easy enough to wear under regular clothes and if you’re working out, there’s no issue. I really can’t wait to try it for running; the snazzy ninja look is all the rage and I am really looking forward to trying the effects of the tights and the shirt at the same time.
Sizing seems to be the biggest issue here. I’d say a size up is safe. If you usually wear a small, go with medium, etc. This might be a comfort issue specific to non-tight-clothes-loving me, but I think it’s a pretty solid recommendation and allows for comfort while still providing the compression effects. I love this stuff. I wish there was some other product they could make – oh I know – gloves! I have a bad hand and would like some supportive gloves. How about it?
Opedix R1 Running Tights
October 21, 2010
There’s a little backstory here. Of course there is! I’ll try to make it snappy, but if you ever read this site before, you know you’d probably better just settle in for the long haul.
I was handed these tights by someone at OR last year. Yes, yes, LAST YEAR and I’m only doing this now. You see, I must explain; hence the backstory. So someone handed me these; that happens sometimes as I’m chatting with clients (which feels like chatting with friends at this point). I tried them a few times, knowing that they are supposed to have some sort of beneficial effect. I wasn’t running much at that point, though, so I wore them for lifting and other gym-type activities. I know they are supposed to be tight, but they were really way too tight, and it made me self conscious. I was too mortified by the sausage casing look I got from these tights to use them too terribly much, though, and the weather was warm so I wanted to wear shorts rather than tights, and they just didn’t get worn much so they ended up in the Basket of Neglected Gear To Sort Out Later.
Fast forward one year. I have been trying to improve my endurance running this year, you know, take it to the next level, and all that athlete crap. But I have been stymied by difficulty recovering from runs, and by a knee that likes to freak out at about the 90 minute mark, decide it’s done, and it’s going to take its toys and go home. Its toys are attached to me, so I always end up limping back home at the end of my run, because I always have to push it til it hurts. That’s just who I am. So for the past few weeks, my runs have not been fun. My legs have felt tired and heavy, and I feel like I’m lumbering, thudthudthud down the trail rather than springing lightly along as is the ideal. I still wanted to run, but I wasn’t making any progress.
Meanwhile, I chanced upon Heidi Swift’s trip report from a solo bike tour she did last summer, and while reading through it, noticed a snippet about how she had a long day on the bike so she put on “recovery tights” and went to sleep (I can’t find this entry but I’ll link it if I do eventually track it down). I read this not too long before I was forced by an overflowing closet to clean out the Basket of Neglected Gear, and when I saw the Opedix tights, something happened. It wasn’t like a light went on, it was just kind of like a slow burning “hmmmmm….”
The “hmmmmm” resulted from many thoughts, one of which was that since I had last used the tights, I had switched from power/muscle developing workouts to mostly endurance workouts, and as a result I am quite a bit smaller than I was at this time last year. I’ve reduced my quads by quite a bit because they were really getting a tad out of control. Hmmmm, indeed. I tried on the tights again and, while still very bracing, they no longer fit like the backside of all of Kim Kardashian’s dresses. They were just comfortably snug.
So that night I slept in the Opedix tights.
The next morning I pretty much just hopped out of bed without the three gimpy “come on, legs” steps I’ve been used to taking lately while stumbling out of the covers. I was impressed by how good my legs felt and how I had no edema at all. Hmmmm again. As you know from my recent adventures with kinesiology tape, I’ve been trying to find some solutions to my achy legs, and due to the research I’ve been doing on taping, I understood the concept behind the R1 tights. They are basically a stretchy spandex with an exoskeleton of almost-non-stretchy fabric sewn over the top of it to add support. I could see how the exoskeleton would support proper knee tracking and help keep quad muscles aligned as they should be. If kinesiology tape is helpful in a similar configuration, maybe these tights would work! Or maybe they were bunk, a gimmick. Maybe my sprightly steps in the morning were just due to the placebo effect. I had to find out.
So off I went, wearing the Opedix, very excited that they a) made me look like a real runner, all serious and stuff, and b) daring to hope that they might help my leg woes. I set out to run a fast time on a fairly ambitious trail route, probably 75% climbing on moderate to steep grades. I mostly wanted to run fast through the woods, because it’s fun, and my recent thudthudthud type runs were bumming me out.
I was not disappointed. These tights made a big difference. Big. Huge. Vivian shopping for a dress for the polo match huge. The best feeling for me was the lateral support for my quads; I could really feel them able to finally relax and do their job instead of clinging for dear life to my IT band. I also liked the knee support. It feels a little weird, because the exoskeleton kind of puts a little pressure on the top of the kneecap, but it was a comforting pressure. I had a great run. I ran fast and far, and realized halfway through that I hadn’t thought once about my bum knee, which usually occupies my thoughts almost constantly on every run. It hadn’t twinged at all, and I was able to put it out of my mind.
I did feel a few little knee complaints on the way down, but in defense of the tights my knee is already inflamed, and the return from this route is very steep and unrelenting downhill, almost dangerous to try to run. I walked most of it just to be safe, and ran any flat parts. It was so fun to run fast and light again!
Interestingly, a day post-run, my legs are actually a little sore. Like hard-workout sore. That hasn’t happened in forever, and I think it’s because my pain issues have kept me from being able to really run hard. I finally got a good workout in, thanks to the Opedix tights. I am a believer.
I tell you all this because of five words: one hundred and ninety dollars. Yep. That’s how much you’re going to pony up to get your hands on these things. Would ANYONE pay $190 for a pair of tights without doing some research as to whether they really work? More importantly, would a gear reviewer who randomly gets handed $190 tights just for walking by at OR pay $190 for tights like this? I think I would.
My mind is currently boggling with all the ways Opedix can use this technology to help other body parts, like ankles and shoulders. They do have a posture shirt, but I don’t understand how I’d ever get it on or off, because the tights are a challenge enough. But if they have other stuff, I’ll definitely try it, and I highly recommend the R1 running tights for training and recovery. It’s a bit early in the game, I admit, but I feel as if they may have saved my running season. Thanks Opedix, and sorry it took me an entire freaking year to figure this out.
