What are the advantages of sports bra? How to choose a suitable sports bra? In this article, I would like to introduce 4 advantages of a sports bra and 4 tips to choose sports bra.
4 Advantages of Sports Bra
1. Advantages of Sports Bra: Reduce Shaking During Exercise and protect your bra
If you have ever worn an ordinary bra to exercise, you may already know how much discomfort is caused by too much shaking of the chest. For girls, there are enough things to pay attention to in sports. If your chest keeps shaking or it hurts, it’s really distracting!
Exercise will cause shaking of the chest. Shaking in a suitable sports bra is minimal. The shaking of the chest caused by high-intensity exercise can cause severe pain, especially if your chest is particularly sensitive. Sports bras have many unique designs to reduce shaking during exercise. As long as you wear a well-fitting, properly supported sports bra, you can reduce shaking and feel the support and security that the sports bra gives you.
2. Advantages of Sports Bra: Protect Your Fragile Breast Tissue
Studies have shown that breasts without support protection can move up to 15 cm when running, of which 50% belong to up and down movements, and 25% belong to left and right movements and back and forth movements. If things go on like this, it may induce chest pain and breast atrophy. It can be seen that female friends must not ignore the feelings of the breasts during strenuous exercise, and take protective measures, otherwise, the consequences will be very serious.
The female breast is a relatively special organ, which itself is mainly composed of connective tissue, fat, and soft tissues such as breast glands. However, it lacks bones, which are hard tissues that have a supporting role. Therefore, the reason why the breast can be fixed in front of the chest wall depends on the merits of the “suspension ligament of the breast”, which supports and fixes the breast.
During exercise, excessive chest movement will cause the breast to stretch and deform. At this time, the breast suspensory ligament is the most injured. Once the suspensory ligament of the breast is damaged for a long time, it may break and cause the sagging of the breast.
Compared with ordinary bras, sports bras can provide better protection for the breasts during exercise. The function of ordinary bras is mainly to reshape and enhance the appearance of the breasts, while the purpose of sports bras is to reduce the movement of female breasts as much as possible during exercise and reduce the impact of strenuous exercise on the breasts. Proper support and reducing the shaking of the chest can reduce the deformation of the chest.
3. Advantages of Sports Bra: Your Shoulder Strap Will Never Slip Back And Forth Again
Imagine that if you are flexing your fists in a boxing aerobic class and the straps of your bra keep slipping from your shoulders, would you want to take off the bra on the spot and throw it aside? Among all sports bra designs, the most convenient design is the non-slip shoulder strap.
Because the original intention of the shoulder strap design of sports bras is to let them stay there well and not move. For example, for cross-type shoulder straps or competition-style shoulder straps, you don’t have to worry about the shoulder straps sliding down your shoulders during any intensity activity. Even if you choose an ordinary shoulder strap design, as long as it is a fitted sports bra, the shoulder strap will not slip off your shoulders.
Although at some point, your daily bra may not slip off. But for high-intensity sports, we have additional requirements for sports bras. In addition to the shoulder strap structure, the shoulder strap may be thicker or have an additional padding design for the stability and comfort of the shoulder strap.
4. Advantages of Sports Bra: More Comfortable
If you usually choose a bra that fits, you should still feel comfortable wearing a bra. However, the requirements for comfort in sports activities are very, very high. As long as there is a little imperfection, it will often bring you unwanted consequences. For example, in yoga, Pilates, boxing aerobic or weight training, you will frequently bend your torso. You would prefer that your sports bra is without steel rims or elastic steel rims. In this situation, sports bras are much more comfortable than traditional bras.
Regardless of the steel rim, sports bras are softer and more skin-friendly than ordinary bras and absorb moisture and wick away sweat. If you need more support, there are also wide shoulder straps, wide bottoms, or full-cover designs to choose from. According to your needs, you can choose a more comfortable sports bra. In addition, because the sports bra is designed from the beginning to reduce shaking during exercise, your chest will not feel uncomfortable.
Tips To Choose Sports Bra
- 1. From a medical perspective, sports bras must meet the following two requirements.
It can limit the amplitude of the chest movement, no matter which direction it is in: the amplitude of the chest movement should be within 3 cm (up, down, left, right, front, back, etc.) to protect the breast suspensory ligament from damage. There should be good support and protection, and the weight of the breast should be supported by even tension, instead of simply squeezing the breast.
The chest should be supported naturally: during exercise, the breast should follow the chest to move together, thereby reducing the stretch caused by inertial impact.
- 2. From a sports perspective, sports bras should be comfortable and breathable.
Comfortable: bras worn during exercise should be comfortable
Breathable: Sweat can be discharged smoothly instead of being absorbed by the bra fabric, and the temperature between the skin and the fabric should be in the normal range
- 3. In terms of adaptability to other organs of the body, a sports bra should not hinder the free movement of the scapula and should allow the shoulders to rotate freely.
The wider shoulder straps should bear the weight of the chest: if you wear thinner straps, the weight of the chest will be concentrated on a small part of the shoulders, and red marks will appear on the shoulders.
- 4. From a design perspective, sports bras cannot have the three structures of traditional bras.
No steel rim: avoid damage to the breast suspensory ligament
The shoulder strap cannot have an adjustment function: on the one hand, it makes the support more even and effective; on the other hand, it prevents the plastic adjuster from abrading the skin
The seams must be flat: avoid rough seams from scratching the skin
A squeeze custom sports bra can hurt your chest. Wearing a daily bra during exercise can damage your chest;
Conclusion
Considering the advantages of a sports bra, in order to protect yourself, especially your fragile chest tissue, you must think about whether you have enough sports equipment before exercising. If your budget is only enough to buy one thing, a sports bra is definitely your only choice.
