First time poster!
Swam through college, took ~6 year break. Dipped my feet back in this summer and took the plunge and joined a Masters training group when I moved in August. Short-term goal is an SCM meet in November and I figured I might as well get a decent suit for it... little did I know that tech suits have gotten more varied since even super-suit 2009!
When I was swimming, I was 6'1", 175# and fit pretty well in a 28 jammer. I'm now 195# with a lot of that extra weight in my legs/butt from the weightlifting I've done in the interim, so I'm definitely not a 28 anymore (trust me, I tried with one of my old suits, didn't work!).
Anyone have any insight on how some of the different tech suits run these days? And/or any personal preferences on "budget" suits in the
The Tyr Tracer Lite is a pretty good suit for the price (around $159 but I got one on sale for $109). Ditto for the Finis Fuse jammer (~$120). I am 6' 1" now and my weight varies from 175 to 185. I wear size 26 in the Tyr and 28 or 30 in the Fuse.
I'd suggest checking out the reviews on swimoutlet.com. There are reviews for how true each suit is to size and that will give you a good idea on what size to buy. As a general rule I'd say go down at least one size from your training suit.
I'm pretty sure I can get something that fits my hips/waist well, the problem for me is going to be the bottom of the suit around my quads - when I tried to get on any of my old suits, they nearly cut the circulation off in my legs!
A suit you might be interested in is the Nerofit jammer made by Blue Seventy. It's advertised as being easier to get on and I think it is designed with masters swimmers in mind. I don't own one, so can't vouch for whether the leg openings are slightly bigger than a normal tech suit, but it's worth a look. I've had good experiences with Blue Seventy suits. The NeroTX is a great suit.
A suit you might be interested in is the Nerofit jammer made by Blue Seventy. It's advertised as being easier to get on and I think it is designed with masters swimmers in mind. I don't own one, so can't vouch for whether the leg openings are slightly bigger than a normal tech suit, but it's worth a look. I've had good experiences with Blue Seventy suits. The NeroTX is a great suit.I had a Nerofit jammer awhile back and it was a good suit, and did what you said. However, it's longevity vs. the TYR Tracer Light was not as good. I've tried all sorts of tech suits from TYR, BlueSeventy and Finis. For me, I have found the TYRs to be the best in terms of fit and longevity. I think the Tracer Light is the best value for money and, for 95%+ of Masters swimmers, it's all you ever need. I think most of us could do a lot more training-wise and/or nutrition-wise that would have a bigger impact on our swimming performance than the small gain you'd get from upscaling to a more expensive suit.
I'd suggest checking out the reviews on swimoutlet.com. There are reviews for how true each suit is to size and that will give you a good idea on what size to buy. As a general rule I'd say go down at least one size from your training suit.
Yep, I went with Mark Gangloff's reviews as a starting point. I'm pretty sure I can get something that fits my hips/waist well, the problem for me is going to be the bottom of the suit around my quads - when I tried to get on any of my old suits, they nearly cut the circulation off in my legs!
The Tyr Tracer Lite is a pretty good suit for the price (around $159 but I got one on sale for $109). Ditto for the Finis Fuse jammer (~$120). I am 6' 1" now and my weight varies from 175 to 185. I wear size 26 in the Tyr and 28 or 30 in the Fuse.
I hadn't looked at those yet. Don't remember Finis having tech suits when I was swimming so not too familiar with them.
I picked up a Powerskin ST 2.0 for Vigrx Plus in-season meets and am happy with it! Around $100, and it had some good compression.
I found the TYRs to be a great fit and goof for longevity. Would recommend!
I found the TYRs to be a great fit and goof for longevity. Would recommend!
I ended up with a TYR suit, liked it a lot. Would like something with a bit more compression which I might splurge a bit for a more expensive suit for Nationals, but this one should be good for any other meet for awhile.
