Women's Locker Room

I haven't worn the TYR Aquashift, Donna, so I don't know how its sizes compare to ordinary TYR sizes. But some of y'all wear your tech suits comparatively bigger than I wear mine. I practice in a Speedo Endurance 36 or a TYR polyester 34. I do open-water races, where long-term comfort is more critical, in a 34. I am about 5'8" and I weigh about 145. My highneck long-leg FSI is a 27L and it fit me OK when I was 8-10 lbs heavier. Thanks to $25 and ebay, I have a 26L in the highneck also, which I am pretty sure I will be able to wear 1 month from today. If I can't, or if I pop an unacceptably large hole in it, I also have a 27L in the "recordbreaker" that I am sure I can wear. I have also worn a TYR Fusion with "recordbreaker" back and knee-length legs in a 30 and it is downright comfortable. I could go smaller in that style and fabric no problem. I think the pelvis is the limiting factor. You should get the smallest size that you can work over your hipbones; and yes, working the thing over your hips and butt is pretty difficult. But the rest of you can sort of mash in there.

I haven't worn the TYR Aquashift, Donna, so I don't know how its sizes compare to ordinary TYR sizes. But some of y'all wear your tech suits comparatively bigger than I wear mine. I practice in a Speedo Endurance 36 or a TYR polyester 34. I do open-water races, where long-term comfort is more critical, in a 34. I am about 5'8" and I weigh about 145. My highneck long-leg FSI is a 27L and it fit me OK when I was 8-10 lbs heavier. Thanks to $25 and ebay, I have a 26L in the highneck also, which I am pretty sure I will be able to wear 1 month from today. If I can't, or if I pop an unacceptably large hole in it, I also have a 27L in the "recordbreaker" that I am sure I can wear. I have also worn a TYR Fusion with "recordbreaker" back and knee-length legs in a 30 and it is downright comfortable. I could go smaller in that style and fabric no problem. I think the pelvis is the limiting factor. You should get the smallest size that you can work over your hipbones; and yes, working the thing over your hips and butt is pretty difficult. But the rest of you can sort of mash in there. I think I should have ordered a smaller size in the Pro ... damn. My daughter is 5'3" and 115 or so and she can mash herself into a 24 in the Pro even with breaststroker thighs. I think you are supposed to order a smaller size for the Pro than the FS IIs, although I do recall Rich Abrahams saying on another thread that he bought his Pro up a size ... The Pro rips very easily though. Fingernails don't work. And it's pretty hard getting a suit on using just the pads of your fingers. I'm going to use some of those plastic gloves I use for gardening the next time I try to wrench my body into a new Pro. Also, I heard through the grapevine that the Pros last about 5 minutes? Can this really be right?! Oh, anyone out there making costume changes between events to ensure a dry suit?

Last August at Nationals I tried to get the 29 Speedo over my hips and couldn't do it, that is when the girl recommended I try the Tyr suit. Back then I was 178-180 and now I am in the 158-160 range at 5'9". This is the lowest I have been since my senior year of high school so I feel great. I kind of like having this problem of having to buy a new suit, but then again my wallet does not agree but it will! I guess the next thing to ask is fullbody or kneeskin? So far I have only used the kneeskin and I swim mostly distance free, now some sprints since learning to sprint with the kids team this year and some IM's. Any comments welcome and appreciated.

My daughter is 5'3" and 115 or so and she can mash herself into a 24 in the Pro even with breaststroker thighs. I think you are supposed to order a smaller size for the Pro than the FS IIs, although I do recall Rich Abrahams saying on another thread that he bought his Pro up a size ... I haven't worn a Pro (or an FSII) but I think the Pro sizing chart suggests that you should get one size-number lower in Pro than in FSII. It's so dumb. Some of the other manufacturers, by contrast (like FINIS and Arena) warn you that they have already done the downsizing for you and you better order the same size as your training suit or the seams will suddenly fail and the suit will fly off in all directions like a stripper video on fast-forward and you are absolutely not going to get a refund if that happens. I bought the 27L because I asked a teammate who is a little smaller than I am (maybe 5'7" and 135?) what size she wore and she said the smallest she had ever worn was a 26. Oh, anyone out there making costume changes between events to ensure a dry suit? Yes. Even at meets where I'm just wearing ordinary torso-only suits I change between events so that I don't get cold.

While I am on a roll with dispensing advice, Last August at Nationals I tried to get the 29 Speedo over my hips and couldn't do it, that is when the girl recommended I try the Tyr suit. Back then I was 178-180 and now I am in the 158-160 range at 5'9". This is the lowest I have been since my senior year of high school so I feel great. I kind of like having this problem of having to buy a new suit, but then again my wallet does not agree but it will! Shop ebay. There are lots of new-with-tags FSI and FSII suits available. (Used ones, too, if you are braver than I am.) At your current size, you might be able to wear a Speedo 29L or 30 even though you couldn't when you were 20lb larger. (Way to go!) But if you spent only $40 on it, and you have to set it aside until you lose 10lb more, big deal. Ebay sellers have fewer TYR and Nike suits although I have seen them. I guess the next thing to ask is fullbody or kneeskin? So far I have only used the kneeskin and I swim mostly distance free, now some sprints since learning to sprint with the kids team this year and some IM's. I would go for the long legs. I swim distance free and backstroke and I like the legs a lot. I feel as if the full-leg muscle compression helps me maintain a strong kick.

This isn't just a women's thing but...what about the couple (man in his 60s woman in her 30s) that decides it's a good idea to make out in the open swim area of the pool...WHILE 9-12 year olds are practicing and when there are water aerobics classes going on. Is there no shame? The worst part is the woman was rather BUSTY and about 5 inches of cleavage were hanging out (or should I say floating)...and she took joy in bouncing up and down and having her "honey" look (practically drooling) at her water balloons...Grrrrrrosssssssss...Get a room already! :hug:

We have a recent edition at my gym - 16-ish year old girl who struts out in a gold STRING bikini, trots gingerly to the hot tub, splashes around a minute, then leaves if there are nothing but me and old men in there. I didn't know that Xsport had a day care/dating service in the pool area

On another subject, I was recently told that suit spinners were terrible for your suits. Is that right? They don't seem to do anything to my endurance suits, but I was wondering. I have been told the same thing, by a friend who owns a swim store in Indianapolis. She said that the centrifugal force stretches the fibers in the suit. My gut feel is that if this is true, the spinners are probably harder on Lycra fibers than on polyester. Lycra is just so fragile once it's been exposed to chlorine. Oh, here's the web site for the suit spinners: http://www.suitmate.com/ Anna Lea

They should be a substantially smaller size than your practice suit. For example, I wear a 32 in endurance suits or a 30 in a splish. But my Pro is a 26 and my FS II is a 27. Now, you're probably taller than me, but still ... Most people buy them too big. The people at the swim stores recommend you get them as small as humanly impossible. It should take some time to get into them. If you're slipping it on in a couple minutes, it's way too big. Budget at least 10-15 minutes. Since Pros rip easily, maybe more. If once the suit is on, you can pull the straps up more than an inch or so, it's probably too big. Watching a woman get into her suit is just too hysterical. At my last meet, one woman went into the handicapped stall to sit on the floor because she did not want to subject anyone to the torture of watching her get into it. lol The thighs and hips are torture! On another subject, I was recently told that suit spinners were terrible for your suits. Is that right? They don't seem to do anything to my endurance suits, but I was wondering. You have not fully experienced the college championship meet until you've been witness to the post-warm ups lockerroom festivities. You go in there with technical suit in hand and a towel. Every shower stall is occupied and if your a modest folk and like privacy for this event (which is really what it is, its own separate event or extension of warm-ups) you will need to wait for a stall to become free. To the unexperienced observer the sounds permeating from the lockerrooms at this time might be quite questionable. I'd say the first day or two of wearing my technical suits it takes me a good 10-15 minutes to get into a bodyskin. After those first few times though idk if its my own lack of patience or the fact that thats how much the suit stretches out over only a few uses the time it takes to get into the contraption goes down to about half the time. I wear a 28 fastskin--i wear 28 and 30s for practicing but, I feel that for the technical suits the 28 is sufficiently tight as I have very large legs and I have a wider body shape (hips) lol than a lot of girls. I probably could have gotten a 26 this last time around, because I am only 5'3 and I had some extra material on the ankles.

Okay, I'm still trying to figure out if I should get a new, smaller tech. suit. I currently have a FSII, zipper back, ankle length, size 28. It takes me maybe 2 minutes tops to put it on. I'm 5'6", 130, big hips (37"), small waist (26), tiny chest (34). My polyester workout suits are 30-32, my lycra suits (for non-championship meets) are 26-28. Should I try a 26 in a FS? It sounds really small! Thanks for your input. And Donna, I highly recommend the ankle length over the knee skin. The knee skins seem far too tight on the bottom seam, especially if you're like me and don't have skinny thighs. A friend of mine, luckily a sprinter, couldn't keep hers on for very long at all without losing circulation. She said that she wouldn't get another knee-skin.