Best Workout Underwear for Women of 2026

A mid-rise pair under high-rise leggings is a small daily annoyance: the waistband slides until it's folded under itself somewhere around the hip, and you spend the session hitching it back up. This thong sits high enough to meet the leggings' waistband instead of fighting it, and once it's on it stays on, with no rolling and no digging at the sides.

The gusset is the detail that makes it more than a shape fix. It's cotton-lined rather than the same slick knit all the way through, which is why this is the pair we trust for a hot class rather than just a weights session. The stretch moves with you without going baggy, and the rise gives a little smoothing under leggings without any control-panel feel.

The waistband edge is defined rather than laser-cut, so under tissue-thin light-colored leggings you can see where it sits; under anything mid-weight it vanishes, which is most of what we wear. Some colorways have a white gusset that shows if your leggings slip, a small thing we noticed and then stopped noticing. Neither has kept us from reaching for them on yoga days.

Every other pair in this guide is a nylon-spandex knit; this is the one we reach for when the session is going to be a wet one. The moisture-wicking claim on the pack holds up in a hot room, because the fabric pulls dampness off rather than holding it against you, and this is the only pair here we finished a hard class in without that clammy band at the waist.

The cut is the other half of the case. It's a proper brief with full seat coverage and a mid rise that sits below a legging waistband, so nothing creases or rides where you'd notice it halfway through a squat. The fabric feels closer to cotton than to the slicker seamless knits here, which makes these the easiest pair in the set to wear all day, not just for the workout.

What you pay for that is real: it's the most expensive pair per wear in this guide, more than the slick thongs and more than the shorts cut. If sweat is your main complaint about workout underwear, the trade still makes sense, and the colors have come through our washes without fading. If you only want something invisible under leggings and you run cool, the cheaper thongs do that job.

Thigh rub is what sends most people looking for a shorts cut, and this is the most affordable way to solve it in this guide. The legs are long enough to sit between your thighs rather than ride up into the crease, and the whole thing is smooth enough to disappear under leggings, a dress, or a pair of loose shorts on a hot day.

The waistband is wide and flat, which is the part that earns these a place in a travel bag: it doesn't dig when you've been sitting for a few hours, and the leg opening lies flat rather than banded, so it doesn't cut a line across the thigh in fitted clothes. The fabric is soft and cool when you put it on, though it holds warmth more than the thin thongs here once you're properly moving.

The legs are also the part to watch. The knit has less recovery than the thongs, so the hems can creep up on a fast walk or a long stride, and they're the first spot to fray after a few months of washing. Cold water, a mesh bag, and a clothesline instead of a dryer will get you a lot more wear out of them, and honestly that advice applies to every pair on this page.

This is the cheapest six-pack in the guide, and it doesn't feel like it in the hand. The knit is silky and thin, smooth enough that it vanishes under leggings, and the colors have come through our washes without fading, which is not something we assumed at this end of the price range.

Where they earn their place is the no-show performance. The bikini leg line sits below the widest part of the thigh, so it doesn't cut across the seat in fitted leggings, and the gusset is cotton-lined rather than the same slick synthetic all the way through. For yoga, barre, and long days in leggings, that's the entire job, and these do it without a waistband you can feel.

The seams loosen before the fabric does. A few months in, some pairs start to look tired at the edges even though the knit itself is intact, so wash them cold and keep them out of the dryer. We keep the newest pairs for leggings days and demote the older ones to sleepwear, which is a reasonable life cycle for underwear at this price.

This is the only pair in the guide with a proper fiber spec on the label, 95% nylon and 5% spandex, plus a moisture-wicking claim and a tagless waistband, and the difference shows up in how it behaves. The knit has more snap than the cheap seamless styles here, so it holds its shape through a session and dries instead of sitting damp against you.

Seamless is doing some work in the name, though. The leg openings have a snug, defined edge rather than a bonded one, which is great for staying put and less great under tissue-thin, light-colored leggings where you can see where the leg band ends. Under anything with a bit of weight or a darker color, they're invisible, and the snugness through the thigh is the same property that stops them shifting.

The real question is whether they earn their place in a drawer of cheaper pairs. For a gym hipster that behaves like athletic wear rather than lingerie, yes: the fabric is the most predictable here, and it's the pair we pack for a run that turns into a long day. Wash cold, skip the dryer, and the seams will hold their own for longer than they otherwise would.

Cheeky is the compromise cut: more fabric than a thong, less than a brief, and enough coverage at the back that you're not thinking about it halfway through a class. This high-waisted version does that job well, and the rise is doing as much work as the cut, sitting above a legging waistband rather than folding under it.

The fabric is the nicest thing about them, smooth and slightly buttery, with a thicker hand than the slickest knits here. That weight is why they read as underwear rather than shapewear, and why they're genuinely seamless under jeans and dresses. We wore them under both and forgot about them, which is the highest compliment this category gets.

The gusset is cotton, which matters more than it sounds on a cut this high, because the panel sits where you want a natural fiber rather than another layer of synthetic. Back coverage stays put when you're moving between poses, and the higher rise adds a little smoothing without a compression feel.

Our read is that the rise makes them feel closer to a brief than the cheeky name implies, and that extra coverage is exactly why they've stayed in the drawer for yoga days rather than only under jeans. If you want a smaller cut than this, look at the thongs; if you want less fabric than a brief but more than a thong, this is the shape.

Per pair, this is the priciest underwear here by a distance, and the pack itself is small. What you're paying for is the fit the brand is known for: a thin, flat-bonded thong that lies smoothly against the skin, with a strap narrow enough that you stop registering it after the first hour.

Under leggings they're excellent. The knit is thin enough that nothing shows through light colors, and the waistband lies flat instead of rolling, which are the two reasons anyone buys a no-show thong in the first place. They stayed put through a session without a single tug, and the thong strap didn't chafe at the point where cheaper versions usually do.

The fabric is the compromise. It's a soft synthetic rather than the cotton some shoppers expect from a lingerie label, and it's thin enough that these feel more like the nice pair in the drawer than a five-times-a-week training pair. Treated that way, they hold their shape and their color, and the smoothness is the reason we keep a pair in rotation at all.

The honest read: they're the best-behaved no-show thong in this set and the least forgiving of rough handling. If you want that specific fit and you'll air-dry them, they earn the money, and if you want a pair that can go in with the towels, the voenxe pack does the same job for a fraction of the per-pair cost.