Monday, July 28, 2014

Why you need a sports bra

by CHARLOTTE HARDING, femail.co.uk

You may have spent a fortune on gym membership and invested in a great new kit.

But it's more than likely that you're missing the most vital piece of exercise equipment of all - a sports bra.
Despite the current boom in the leisure industry, three quarters of women in Britain wear the wrong type of bra for working out.

You may wonder what all the fuss is about. But the facts speak for themselves.

Breasts are mostly composed of fatty tissue and are supported mainly by skin and fragile ligaments called Coopers' ligaments. Because these are not elastic, during repetitive or high impact sport the breasts bounce and pull on the ligaments, forcing them to stretch. Once these ligaments have stretched they stay this way. The result is every woman's nightmare - sagging breasts.

Going without the correct support can also cause breast pain and upper back and shoulder problems.
Running without any bra at all causes the average woman's breasts to move up and down by 8.5cm. Wearing an ordinary bra reduces this by 32 per cent. A sports bra reduces this by at least another 20 per cent.
A survey from Herriot-Watt University last year showed that even breasts sized 34A need extra support during sport.

'British women are in serious danger of permanently damaging and stretching their breast ligaments,' said a spokesman from CCR a body sizing and research specialist company. 'Long term problems are likely to occur if a correctly fitting, supportive sports bra is not worn.

Here is the femail.co.uk guide to choosing and fitting the right sports bra

Sports bras were only invented in 1977 when two women invented a joggers bra by sewing two jockstraps together. Now there are several companies producing increasingly sophisticated models.

There are two basic types: those which compress the breasts flat against the chest - which look like crop tops - and those which hold the breasts in the same way as a normal bra. As a general rule, compression-style bras offer enough support for women with breasts sized 32 -34A doing all forms of exercise and 34-36B for low-impact sports. For everyone else, the second type of bra is more suitable.
Some sports bras also come in different impact levels. As a rule, if you are taking part in lower impact sports such as yoga and pilates a bra with a lower impact level should suffice, but if you are practising higher impact sports such as aerobics, horse riding, jogging or squash you will probably need one of the higher impact bras.

How to find the right sized bra:

More than 80 per cent of British women wear the wrong sized bra.

Shadi Maleki, a bra fitter from Selfridges department store in London, offers this simple guide to finding the right fit.

To find the right back size:

Measure your bust just underneath your breasts all around your body in inches. If the measurement is even deduct four inches from this figure. If the measure is uneven deduct five inches. This is your back size.

To find the right cup size:

Measure your breasts at their widest point - the nipple - taking the measuring tape all around your back. Now deduct your final back measurement from this measurement. If the difference is five inches you are an A cup. For every inch in addition to this add an extra cup size.