Thanks Jolene Bennis Dimitroff of Yoga Tree in San Francisco for the following list of “25 Ways to Reuse Your ‘Old’ Yoga Mat”

1. Look for reuses www.freecycle.org or email info@jadeyoga.com
2. Use as a seat liner for the back seat in the car while taking your dog to the vet or groomer.
3. Place under an area rug for no-slip gripping.
4. Drop off your old mat at an animal rescue group. Most of these places need soft, durable mats, rugs, towels, & blankets to line crates.
5. Use an old mat in the garage or shop to keep from slipping on the workbench while using power tools on them.
6. Line kitchen shelves to prevent glasses from slipping and scratching.
7. Cut the mat into squares and use them as “bases” while playing baseball with the kids. Easy to carry and easy to clean!
8. Use to kneel on in the garden to protect your knees!
9. Use as kitchen drawer liners.
10. Cut it up to make a mouse pad.
11. Use it on the beach instead of a towel.
12. Use as grip pads to open jars.
13. Cut to size and use as foot pads for the bottom of furniture that is on a wood or ceramic floor. Glue on pieces with a non-toxic adhesive.
14. Place it under your sleeping bag as a sleeping pad while camping.
15. Make covers for sharp corners like in a parking garage or school.
16. No more messy packing peanuts! Old yoga mats get a new life as a protector of valuables while moving or shipping.
17. Make children’s toys: cut holes and create masks, hats, costumes and props; cut into shapes and letters for tub and pool toys.
18. Cut and put down in front of the kitty litter box to stop the litter.
19. Plug up drafty places, windows, doors, & under window air conditioners, and save energy!
20. Great for those hard bleachers when watching sporting events.
21. Makes a great liner under house plants, you can even cut it to fit each plant!
22. Donate to nursing homes so that residents do not slip while getting in and out of bed.
23. Place between your surfboard & car to protect both from abrasion.
24. Lay it over the dashboard and steering wheel to keep the sun out!
25. Keep in the car for those spur of the moment picnics, keeping groceries from sliding around in the trunk, or for a myriad of other uses limited only to your imagination!

The panty line, aka visible panty line or VPL, has become one of fashion’s biggest faux pas in recent years. Personally, I think we women should take back our asses and demand equal rights for panty lines, but that’s for another story.

For myself, I’m just trying to find underwear that fits, doesn’t ride up, and doesn’t leave me in pain at the end of the day. It would also be nice to avoid the dreaded panty line as well.

Ideally, I try to find workout pants that cascade off the ass like a beautiful tropical waterfall – that is, they don’t cling to the bottom of your ass cheeks – but sometimes I cave and buy something clingy. I got just a pair of those workout pants the other day. They are so soft, and have a semi-velvet feel to them. What can I tell you? Sometimes I’m weak.

Meanwhile, my current underwear collection has been looking like it had done a tour through Iraq. Finding the right kind of underwear can be a real chore, especially for working out. I found a blog post that discussed the various undergarment options, and I decided it was time to try some boy shorts on for size.

(Thongs, as I have written in an earlier post, are way too painful to wear in a yoga workout.)

Target’s website had some boy shorts listed with some terrific reviews. I hate going to Target (it’s such a madhouse in there), but I trundled down there anyway. The selection was pathetic. The vaunted boy shorts listed on the website were not there (and oops, I notice now they are listed as “out of stock” anyway).

The ones they did have were the more expensive ones, and these didn’t even seem like underwear so much as thick, sweat-inducing bike shorts. And the sizes seemed out of whack: A medium, which I normally would wear, appeared to be fit for a small girl. (I suppose they stretch, but still.) At $9.99 for a pair, that just seemed too much to pay for undies I might not even fit into.

Frustrated, I walked to Ross next door and plowed through their mess of a lingerie rack. I love Ross, but forget trying to find anything organized there. Somehow, I managed to find an assortment of boy shorts at prices averaging $2. The good news is, I got a bunch of different brands to try. The bad news is, if I find something I actually like I’ll never be able to find it again.

The Big Question: Do Boy Shorts Stop Panty Lines?

Boy shorts are a good solution if you are wearing loose workout pants that aren’t too tight in the leg.

Unfortunately, if you are wearing something clingy, boy shorts actually don’t solve the panty line problem. They just move the line down lower. Some brands were better than others at keeping the dreaded VPL at bay. Generally speaking, the higher up the leg is on the boy short, the less likely it is to make a difference. (Some boy shorts are practically briefs.)

Now, this may be due to my body shape. I am a skinny white woman with a big ass. If there isn’t a little bit of “leg” at the end of the boy short, it’s really not going to be much different from wearing regular undies.

Still, even with a line, boy shorts make the ass look better than regular briefs or bikinis. A line at the bottom of the ass is still better than a diagonal line crossing the expanse of the ass.

Shaping Briefs: Not Just for Granny

I would have never considered these before, because I never thought that I needed “control panties,” but I bought two longer “shaping” briefs at Ross. These are the length of bike shorts and offer “support” to keep your legs and butt looking thinner. Well, I have to say I was surprised at how amazingly comfortable these were. You still have the protection you need for your private parts, but you don’t feel any sort of line near your butt. That’s almost as good as going commando.

Longer “shaping” briefs, alas, won’t completely solve the line problem if your pants are tight down through the thighs. On my clingy pants, the shaping briefs gave me a funny line above the knee. But they may be the best bet for pantyline control (other than a thong) for pants that don’t cling so much down the leg. I suspect they’ll feel and look fabulous under jeans as well.

Final Verdict

My final verdict is that boy shorts or shaping briefs are both good solutions for basic panty line problems in standard, loose workout pants. If you are wearing tight leggings or clingy pants, then you’re either looking at a thong, a line, or commando.

Why on earth should anyone have to pay $100 for a pair of what are essentially workout pants?

And why do all expensive yoga pants these days use this clingy, stretchy material that is designed to fit tightly around the butt and leave nothing to the imagination?

I’m not just talking about tight in the way that spandex bike pants are tight. There is something about this new material that is so tight, and yet so gauzy, that it will literally stretch around every small butt dimple you have.

I watched in horror as a middle-aged woman was trying on a pair of bright pink yoga koolats (excuse me, these things are now called “gauchos”) at a yoga studio recently. Every single aspect of her somewhat sagging, dimply ass showed through these pants. And yet there were all these women around her cooing about how great she looked.

In a conversation about what sorts of underwear to wear with these clingy clothes, another yogini confessed to me that she just goes commando (no panties) in yoga class. Certainly, you have that option, wearing an uncomfortable thong, or showing off panty lines with these new yoga fashions.

Which is why I prefer to wear a basic pair of workout pants when I’m doing yoga. I don’t want every dimple in my ass showing, I don’t want to go commando, and I certainly do not like wearing thong underwear when I am moving my body in such a way that I could end up slicing myself in half with my razor thin undergarments. So underwear lines it is for me, and to hell with being fashionable on the mat.

The commando yogini and I came up with a new term to describe being comfortable but not fashionable. It is called “frumpterable.” Thus I choose to be happy, and frumpterable, in my yoga wear.