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Sizing Up Your Sports Bra

Posted September 19, 2007 at 11:00 AM by Shannon Clark

Section: Her Fitness, Her Health, Injury & Rehab, Her News

You’re all geared up for your workout. Water bottle - check. Running shoes - check. Ipod - check.  Sports bra - check.  Everything seems set, but have you ever thought to question whether your sports bra is really giving you the support you need?

Far too many are going for looks rather than function when it comes to their workout clothes. Make no mistake about it, when you go the gym you want to look good; everyone does, so there is no need to feel like you are the only one.  But when you start sacrificing proper function for aesthetics, that’s when you may start to run into problems.

Take into consideration that when you are exercising, particularly if you are performing exercise that involves up and down movement such as running or skipping, your breasts may be moving a vertical distance of up to eight inches.  For some women, their breasts can weigh 20 pounds or upwards, so as you can probably imagine, there is a lot of weight being tossed around.  Without a good support system, not only will it be uncomfortable, but damage could actually be done.

In a recent study, various breast movements were looked at, from up-and-down to side-to-side and then in-and-out movement. While walking didn’t cause much concern, when the speed was picked up to a jog there was significantly more motion, particularly in the up-and-down direction, but both other patterns of movement were increased as well.

The good news is that most sports bras are designed to better handle up and down motion, however the side to side and in and out movements have been forgotten. This can result in a considerable amount of pain for some individuals and could potentially lead to an increase in sagging down the road. For overweight women, this risk intensifies considerably since their breasts are usually larger to begin with.

The encapsulated bras that are available today produce slightly better results, so if you know that you have this issue, you want to be using these.

Another option may be to layer sports bras, placing one on top of the other to further increase the support.

Regardless of your method, it is important to be aware of the movement that is taking place. If you can choose activities that result in less range of motion (using the elliptical trainer over the treadmill for example), that may be of some benefit.  For those who cannot substitute one exercise for another, simply try to reduce the total time spend doing the activity if possible. 

Also be sure to include plenty of chest strength training exercises in your workouts, as these will increase the muscles that lie underneath the beasts, which can also help to keep them uplifted so any sagging that does occur is not as noticeable later on in life.

For research and more information: msnbc

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Tags: apparel, athletic-apparel, athletic-bra, breast health, breast sagging, breasts, female athletes, fitness bra, fitness-apparel, jog bra, jogging bra, sports bra, women's-athletic-apparel, workout clothing

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