Why is breast support important?

Breast Support is important! The body isn’t very kind to boobs. They are heavier than you think (even small ones) and don’t have any muscles to support them! The female breast is basically a blob made mostly of fat, glands and milk ducts. There’s no muscle or bone and just a small structure of connective tissue helps to keep its shape. And the only thing really holding breasts in place? Skin. Just skin. And since skin is elastic, it can’t provide enough support against breast movement, particularly during exercise.

If you are not in a brilliantly fitting sports bra that is designed for the type of activity you are doing, then your breasts are slowing you down. It doesn’t even matter what type of exercise you do – if you row, or kayak, play golf, go to the gym, hike mountains, chase after kids. If you are moving, your breasts are moving. And unless you have them in a brilliant sports bra, that breast movement is going to be hampering your performance of that activity in some way (and the list of ways it can, is pretty substantial!).

When breasts move during exercise, they don’t just bounce up and down (which accounts for 50% of the movement during running), but they also move side to side (which accounts for about 25% of the movement) and forward and back (accounting for the other 25% of the movement. Overall this can boobs can move as much as 14cm, and even an A cup will move by 4cm! The side to side movement is actually transferred to the ground reaction forces during running, and these types of changes in our running mechanics have been associated with an increased risk of injury.