Tomima - Lingerie and Underwear Expert

All parts of our body bounce as we walk around and do everyday chores. But, when it comes to doing impact aerobic workout, we really want to contain the bounce of our breasts for comfort and well as to keep them from becoming pendulous and sagging. So, do we need to bind our breasts and prevent any movement, or can we let some breast movement occur?

I put this question to Dr. Joanna Scurr. Dr. Scurr is the lone researcher of breast bounce. Here were some of her comments.

First, we need to understand that breasts are kept in place by the Coopers Ligament - not muscles. Once the ligament becomes stretched, your breast sag, and there is no way to reverse the sagging. A sports bra, or most bras for that matter, support one’s breasts to reduce breast movement. Even testing of breast movement on an everyday bra, says Scurr, showed that it reduced breast movement by 49% compared to not wearing any bra at all.

Dr. Scurr’s research also found that breasts just don’t move up and down, but from side to side and in and out. All this movement, if not supported will contribute to sagging breasts. So, though it would be nice to have a sports bra that provides no breast movement, the truth is, as long as you have a sports bra that reduces your breast bounce enough so that the movement is less than your normal breast hang, you are protected and no further sag damage can occur.

At HerRoom, we offer the Bounce Test videos on all our high impact sports bras. Some clearly don’t provide enough support, but many also show some breast movement. What been learned here is that some movement is fine, but just make sure the movement is less in the 3 directions than your breasts normally move. This way, you won’t be stretching any of the breast’s ligaments or tendons during impact workouts.

Sports bras are really in a category all their own. You see them less in lingerie departments, and more in the active sportswear stores. This is because sports bras are all about performance. And that performance is their ability to reduce breast bounce. It’s a pretty standard occurrence that a sports bra will declare itself to be one of 3 support levels: light, medium or maximum in its breast support.

Maximum support sports bras are claiming their design will keep your breasts supported during high impact sports such as running, tennis, basketball, etc. This is all great, but do we really know if a bra claiming to be maximum support is doing its job? Before answering this question, let’s talk about breast bounce. The leading researcher in this field is Dr. Joanna Scurr — Professor in the Department of Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Portsmouth in the UK.

Dr. Scurr has done extensive research and testing in this field. Her findings are rather interesting. The first interesting point about breast bounce during running is that breasts move in 3 directions: up and down, side to side, and in and out. And, because of the alternating movement of our arms, the up and down and side to side movement looks like a sideways figure eight.

This movement happens both with and without a bra on. Testing 20 D cup women (ranging from 32D-36D), Dr. Scurr was able to measure the movement. Without wearing any bra, these women’s breasts had a total movement of 15.4 centimeters or a little over 6". That’s a lot of breast movement! Dr. Scurr than set out to find if this breast bounce was reduced significantly by wearing various bras. What she found is that breast movement reduced by 49% just by wearing an average everyday bra, and that wearing an encapsulated high impact sports bra reduced breast bounce movement by up to 73%.

Given this research, can one conclude that all maximum support sports bras will reduce your breast bounce by 73%? Well, HerRoom put all their 35 sports bras claiming to be maximum support to the test. With a 34D model running in place, a still video was shot of the model both in front and to the side. The results of "The Bounce Test" showed that the label of "maximum support" or "High Impact" on these bras did not guarantee a consistent reduction in breast bounce during high impact sports. The poor performers included:

	Champion Double Dry Seamless Sports Bra 2893
	Donna Karan Casual Active Underwire Sports Bra 35160
	Lily of France In Action Sport Underwire Bra 2111210
	Moving Comfort Sera Seamless Sports Bra 705360

Another point Dr. Scurr observed is that encapsulation style sports bras reduced breast bounce more than the traditional compression style sports bras. The Bounce Test proved this out, with the best performers being encapsulation, or a combination of encapsulation and compression. The best performers included:

	Enell Sport Bra 100
	Lunaire Coolmax Underwire Sports Bra 11111
	Anita Active Front Close Sports Bra 5523
	Goddess Sports Bra Soft Cup 5056
	Moving Comfort Melbourne Racerback Sports Bra 720960
	Panache PS Sports Bra 2001

For a more complete viewing of all the Bounce Test videos, visit HerRoom.com and click on the sport department.