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B-BB-BOUNCE: Running and Sports Bras why Invest???
Time and time again we see woman hitting the pavement with bras that offer zero support. When they start moving they are lucky that they don’t lose an eye as there is so much action going on under the top....so why do they invest in other things and not in supporting the girls when they run or even walk 🤷♀️
Unlike other muscles in the body, once the supportive tissues in the breasts stretch, they cannot revert back to their original position. However avoiding irreversible sagging is easier than it sounds.
Norris and her colleagues have found that breasts move in a figure eight pattern. Not just up and down—that vertical movement is what most runners think of—but side to side and forward and backward as well. “[Breast is] just a mass of tissue, not a muscle,” Norris says. “It is not rigid structure. It can move in all three dimensions when we run.” And it does.
When you add all that movement in three planes together, Norris says, breasts—unsupported—move about 15 centimeters during running. (Different labs report different numbers, depending on the cup size of the cohort they’re testing.) About 50 percent of the movement is in the vertical, and then 25 percent is side to side movement, and the other 25 percent is anterior-posterior motion.
Portsmouth University’s Research Group in Breast Health (RGBH) calculated that the breasts can move 15cm during a run.
“According to the NHS website, research suggests 70% of women are wearing the wrong bra size. What’s more, as the breasts are composed of fat and fibrous tissues, as you eat better and exercise more, your breasts may decrease in size, meaning your sports bra might not be supporting them as well as it once did. Your sports bra also loses it's support overtime, with experts recommending you change it after 30-40 washes.....
Comfort and support are foremost but also Is Breathability.
To keep you cool when you start sweating, most sports bras are made from blends of moisture-wicking fabrics. Materials like nylon, spandex, and polyester fare better than standard cotton, which gets heavy and takes a while to dry. Plus, many brands have even implemented ionized and UPF fabrics for odor control and UV-ray sun protection. Outside of fabrics, keep an eye out for bras with mesh panels or keyhole cutouts. These features do a great job at ventilating sweat to keep you cool and comfortable. At MUMMACTIV we get specific fabric that is moisture wicking, breathable, quick dry, 4 way stretch and is a nylon/spandex combo making them a great choice.
Did you also know that in a 2014 study showed running beats walking for breast cancer survival rates....(An interesting finding) Vigorous exercise was better than moderate exercise for the women in the study. Breastfeeding also reduces her risk of breast cancer by 4.3% for every 12 months a woman breastfed.The study compared mothers who breastfed to those who didn't. (Study conducted by the Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer)
All the more reason to hit the road—with a good bra, of course.