Running Boobs
🔞 ALL INFORMATION CLICK HERE 👈🏻👈🏻👈🏻
Running Boobs
by The Editors of Fitbie.com Published: Apr 9, 2014
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
You think you know, but you have no idea.
Men. About 99 percent of them think that a woman who has a rather large chest has just gotta love it all day, all the time, period. How could she not?! It's so...Jessica Rabbit! Now, don't get me wrong, large tatas can be fab. Depending on how big they are, you can use 'em to fill out that perfect dress for your best friend's sister's wedding or, erm, you can do one of these zillion other fun things with your lady lumps .
But do you even have a clue what it's really like working out with big boobs ? Yeah, guess what, guys: It's not exactly a walk in the park. In case you didn't notice (spoiler alert: we know you did), there's a lot of stuff there to keep locked down. Wrapped up. In one place. Running with all that bouncing bounty? Just another hassle on days when a woman doesn't really feel at all like running in the first place.
Are you a big-breasted lady who can totally relate? Then laugh along with us as we explain what it's really like to work out with big boobs:
Stage 1:
The first second you consider working out, you immediately feel short of breath just thinking about strapping down those kahunas.
Stage 2:
Upon pondering the constant question—"Is it a two-sports-bras-at-once kind of day?”—you let out a major sigh.
Stage 3:
After going with two (it just feels safer, doesn't it?), you feel like some sort of sausage with your girls smooshed in a holding cell.
Stage 4:
While you're hoping you look strong and supported, like this…
Stage 5:
...You really just want to rip the thing off and break free from sports bra-induced uniboob.
Stage 6:
...And then they start bouncing.
Stage 7:
...And you feel like you might resemble this bird:
Stage 8:
...Until you get enough into your workout to forget the minor pain that comes along with toting two bowling balls around on your chest.
Stage 9:
Alas, another workout done, another victory. (Insert victory dance here.)
How To Run A Half-Marathon, Per Experts
A Running Coach’s Guide To Pronation
What Is Tempo Running? Running Coaches Explain
These Are The Best Nike Running Shoes
Under-Desk Treadmills Are A Multi-Tasker's Dream
Athletes Swear By These Trail Running Shoes
15 Expert-Recommended Shoes For Flat Feet
Sneakers Are 60% Off At Nordstrom's Spring Sale
Nordstrom Dropped 50% Off Bestselling Leggings
Nordstrom Just Took 50% Off Nike Sports Bras
25 Comfy White Sneakers You'll Wear Every Day
Women's Health may earn commission from the links on this page, but we only feature products we believe in.
©Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
A Cool Down Workout for Postrun Recovery
Des Linden’s Memoir Comes Out in April 2023
Experts Explain EPOC a.k.a. Postrun Calorie Burn
A High-Protein Diet May Affect Gut Health
The Maxroad’s Cush-to-Weight Ratio Is Hard to Beat
Sarah Lorge Butler
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
The Best Sports Bras With Pockets for Storage
Tested: The Best Maternity Sports Bras for Runners
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Wool Warrior: We Tested the Ibex Balance Sport Bra
Does the Knix Catalyst Truly Provide Max Support?
You Need This Comfy Aday Fast Forward Bra
The Ultra Run Bra: No Padded Cups? No Problem!
Tested: Tracksmith’s Allston Pocket Bra
Dare to Run Longer in the Dare Crossback Bra
The Runderbra Is Supportive and Cloud-Soft
The Shapeshifter Bra Is Your New Track Buddy
Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link.
How we test gear.
Strong support is key to happy miles.
Breasts: They don’t do anything to help your running. They just hitch a ride and get in the way—requiring their own special equipment and in some cases, causing discomfort.
In a 2013 study of female runners at the London Marathon , 32 percent said they experienced occasional pain in their breasts. Of those, 17 percent sometimes cut back on their training because of breast pain.
But the news is not all bad. Researchers continue to study breast motion during sports, bra technology is improving all the time, and evidence is growing that running is one of the best things you can do to protect yourself from breast cancer .
Here’s what scientists know—and what runners should, too—about taking care of your pair.
1. The body is not naturally kind to the breasts.
“Depending on the size, they can be very heavy,” says Andrea Cheville, M.D., physical medicine and rehabilitation researcher and director of the Cancer Rehabilitation Program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “The body doesn’t support them very well. There’s not much to keep them stable and immobilized.” Just your skin and a few ligaments.
Other parts of the body are luckier. “If you think of something like the abdominal fascia, it’s just incredibly strong,” Cheville says. “You can run and your insides don’t jiggle around, because we have a strong, fibrous envelope. But that’s not true of the breasts. They have essentially no support. And yet they have pain receptors. And when the limited support elements are stretched, that hurts.”
Michelle Norris, senior research associate in the department of sport and exercise science at the University of Portsmouth in the U.K., studies breast movement and tests breast support products in the lab.
To do so, she and her colleagues have women running on a treadmill bare breasted (bless those ladies), and then in low or high support bras. They use 3-D motion capture to look at the range of movement of the breasts.
“We have some very willing participants—and we owe them a lot,” Norris says.
In the lab, 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.
Regardless, that’s about six inches of motion with every stride.
(R)UNWIND WITH RW: The perfect way to recharge your running life? Register for one of our 2017 Runner’s World Women’s Getaways !
With all that movement, female runners need support.
Shop carefully, the experts urge. Try on a lot of different bras. Get the best fit possible. Look for a specialty running store with a knowledgeable female salesperson. Buy a high support bra for running.
Some women prefer compression, others prefer encapsulation models. Doesn’t matter. The best bra is the one that you’re happy to wear.
“We’re all about bra fit here,” Norris says. “It is one of the most important facets for any woman in sport. We always say that it should be one that fits you extremely well and one you’re comfortable with.”
If you get one that hooks in the back, you should be able to wear it on its loosest fastening. As it goes through the wash and becomes looser, you can go to the tighter fastenings.
4. Your pace does not affect the motion.
Here’s what surprised Norris, a runner herself, from the research in her lab: It doesn’t matter what speed you’re going, your breasts move the same amount. “I would have thought that the faster I run, the more my breasts might move. That’s not actually the way it goes,” she says. “If you’re running at 10 kilometers per hour (about 10:00 pace), they’re actually moving at their maximal displacement. If you’re running at 14 kilometers per hour (about 7:00 pace), they’re not going to move any more than that. ”
The lesson for runners: Don’t think if you’re going for a long, slow run, you can use a bra that is less supportive. You need a high support bra all the time.
Athletes new to a running program often notice a curious reduction in breast size. What’s happening?
Running in essence doesn’t shrink your breasts, Norris says. But the breasts are composed of fat and fibrous tissues. “So if a person is training and eating well and they’re reducing their overall body fat, it’s reasonable to think they could also decrease their breast size because they’re decreasing fat in their breasts,” she says. “It works more like decreasing their overall body fat instead of spot reduction.”
There are different kinds of breast pain—most of which are easily explained. But you shouldn’t ignore it. “Breast pain is pain,” Cheville says.
A lot of breast pain during exercise is from inadequate support—your bra falling down on the job. (See No. 4.) And, Cheville says, for large-breasted women, adequate support can be tough to find.
Many women are extra sensitive in their breasts in the days leading up to menstruation. It’s highly variable from person to person. If the pain is severe enough, you might want to pick a workout with less impact. “Recognize that this too will pass, and while you’re tender, take it easy,” Cheville says.
If you want to power through, it’s fine to use an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory. And watch the salt intake, which can lead you to retain water during the perimenstrual time, adding to the swelling in your breasts, she says.
Any unusual pain, see a doctor. “A small breasted woman who has new onset pain, that’s harder to explain and more concerning,” Cheville says. “She should probably see a clinician.”
7. Discomfort can kill your motivation.
Recent research out of the Portsmouth lab has shown that breast comfort affects a woman’s willingness to run. It can be hard enough to get motivated to drag yourself out the door for a few miles. Without being conscious of it, you could be letting your breasts sabotage your workout plans. Says Norris: “If you pick up the wrong bra, you’re not going to go.”
8. Breast cancer strikes in runners less frequently than in sedentary women.
Recent studies have established a clear link between exercise and reduced rates of breast cancer, Cheville says.
“Primary prevention means it keeps you from getting it in the first place,” she says. “Secondary prevention means it keeps it from coming back. For breast cancer, there’s pretty solid evidence for both primary and secondary prevention with exercise.”
A 2014 study showed running beats walking for breast cancer survival rates . Vigorous exercise was better than moderate exercise for the women in the study.
All the more reason to hit the road—with a good bra, of course.
A Cool Down Workout for Postrun Recovery
Des Linden’s Memoir Comes Out in April 2023
Experts Explain EPOC a.k.a. Postrun Calorie Burn
A High-Protein Diet May Affect Gut Health
The Maxroad’s Cush-to-Weight Ratio Is Hard to Beat
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
K Aleisha Fetters
K Aleisha Fetters is a Chicago-based strength and conditioning specialist, contributing to publications including Time, Runner’s World, VICE, U.S.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
When to Start Exercising Postpartum
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Gaining Inspiration From Mothers at Worlds
10 Weird Things About Running Postpartum
Tested: The Best Maternity Sports Bras for Runners
The Best Jogging Strollers to Cover More Miles
Running Has—and Hasn’t—Prepared Me for Pregnancy
What Runners Should Know About Missing Periods
Why Ab Separation Happens Postpartum
The Best Maternity Activewear for Runners
Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link.
How we test gear.
Log your miles in comfort with these simple tricks and bra-fit guidelines.
As if running weren’t challenging enough, large breasts can make it a full-on contact sport.
Thumping against your chest, weighing you down, and threatening to give you back pain, large breasts can be more than just annoying on the run, they can also be painful and detrimental to your performance, says sports physiotherapist Deirdre McGhee, Ph.D., a researcher with Breast Research Australia at the University of Wollongong.
Here, we explore the top three complaints of large-breasted runners everywhere—as well as how to ease the pain with some simple tricks and bra-fit guidelines.
A pair of D-cup boobs weigh in at 15 to 23 pounds. That’s more than enough to pull your trunk forward, force you into a hunched-over running posture, decrease your stride’s efficiency, and up your risk of injury, McGhee says.
If you haven’t noticed, pretty much the only thing keeping your breasts up during a run is your bra’s shoulder straps, which take a lot of weight. When straps are thin, the pressure can be so great they not only leave dents in your shoulders but hit the brachial plexus nerve group, causing numbness in the pinky fingers.
While you can’t reduce your breasts’ weight without a breast reduction, you can improve your body’s ability to remain erect, says Janet Hamilton, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and exercise physiologist at Running Strong in Atlanta.
Upper and lower back exercises (think: pull-down and row variations) can help prevent the back fatigue and poor posture that can set in with longer running durations, Hamilton says. Strengthening your core, which includes your lower and middle back, can help stabilize your spine, adds Victoria Barnaby, an athlete with the Greater Boston Track Club and a CoachUp running coach. Focus on functional core strengthening exercises that work multiple muscles through several planes of motion, she says. Examples include the forearm plank with alternating leg raises, prone plank on a stability ball, Superman, bird-dog, side plank, and abdominal twists.
How much your boobs bounce depends almost entirely on breast size and elasticity of the skin covering your breasts, McGhee says. However, skin tends to lose its elasticity with age and “excessive breast bouncing.” So, the more your breasts bounce, the more they will bounce during future runs.
How much do breasts bounce? Measuring the bounce of both bare and bra-covered breasts during treadmill workouts, McGhee found the average 38D moves about five inches from top to bottom during running. Smaller breasts bounce about three inches, which can still be uncomfortable. And breasts don't just bounce in an up and down motion; some larger breasts bounce in figure-eight shapes.
While they can’t completely eliminate bouncing, high-support sports bras can cut the range of motion in half (approximately), McGhee says. The goal is for the breasts to move in unison with your torso and not bounce independently of one another.
“Finding a sports bra that fits properly to your bust is the first step to prevent chafing," Barnaby says. The less your bra moves during your run, the less it will rub. However, the larger your breasts, the more difficult it can become to prevent any movement. She suggests using anti-chafing balms and creams on sensitive areas such as under your armpits.
If your running bra still rubs you raw, apply a thin strip of first-aid tape across the areas where you tend to chafe before starting your run, Hamilton says. Since tape can be an irritant, it’s best to try it during a short run before heading out on a five- or 10-miler, she says.
Wearing a sports bra that’s built with sweat-wicking materials can prevent skin irritations, which can develop into full-blown chafing, McGhee says. Bonus: You’ll have less breast sweat pooling as well.
When first purchasing a sports bra, look for bras with high-support elements such as molded cups, underwires, padded straps, and multiple hooks. McGhee recommends trying on as many bras as possible to find which ones keep the girls in place—without sacrificing too much comfort. “If a bra is not comfortable to wear walking and stretching, then don't even think about hitting the road with it,” Barnaby says.
When trying on sports bras, though, don’t just go by the feel. McGhee recommends looking for these markers:
The band: It should be made of wide elastic material so it can support your breasts without causing back bulges or riding up when you lift your arms. You should fasten the bra on the loosest hook so, as it ages and becomes looser, you can tighten the fit.
The shoulder straps : They should be wide and padded so they don’t dig into your shoulders.
The cups: To limit movement, the cups must completely cover your breasts (without leaving any creases or gaps). Keep in mind your running bra cup size may be different from what you wear under your little black dress.
The underwire: It should sit on your ribs so it doesn't dig into your breasts or the tissue under your armpits.
The front band: The center of the bra should sit on your breastbone, squarely between your breasts.
Oiselle Bae Best support for up to C-cups $52 | Oiselle Buy Now
Shock Absorber Ultimate Fly Best support for D-cups and larger $80 | Amazon Buy Now
Brooks Hot Shot Best support for A-to C-cups $38 | Amazon Buy Now
Asics Breathable Performance Supportive up to a D-cup $34 | Asics Buy Now
Meanwhile, if you’ve long since outgrown DD bras, you may need to look for a “crop top” compression bra for some double-bra layering, McGhee says.
She recommends first putting on a high-support bra with structured cups and an underwire and then layering it with a compression bra that will help hold everything in place. Again, with the compression bra, you’ll need to find a middle ground between “My breasts are all over the place” and “I feel like an encased sausage.”
Barnaby recommends taking home a few different styles to wear on test runs. If you’re concerned about the cost of buying some bras that will potentially not pan out, ask a sales rep if you can return bras after one or two wears for a full refund or store credit.
After a few runs, chances are you'll figure out the brands and styles that work best for your unique shape, Barnaby says. Once you find your can’t-run-without bra, write down its silhouette and style number. It’s the key to being able to buy online—or finding a similar bra should the brand discontinue the style. Either way, it’ll simplify the contain-the-girls process for future runs.
If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device.
An error occurred while retrieving sharing information. Please try again later.
0:00 / 0:36 • Watch full video Live
Asian Women Sucking Black Cock
Brooke Tyler Tits
Anal Porno Vk