Tomima's Blog – Lingerie & Underwear Expert

 

Did you know there is a woman scientist studying the science of breast bounce?  Her name is Dr. Joanna Scurr at the University of Portmouth in the UK.  I had the pleasure of meeting Joanna earlier this year when she and I shared a podcast on sports bras and breast bounce. My part of the podcast was sharing the fact that HerRoom.com provides a Bounce Test video on every sports bra that is branded as high impact.  From viewing the videos, several on the market are not doing the job.  Joanna shared that during high impact, our breasts move in a figure 8 movement up and down (as much as 8.25"), side to side, and also move in and out.  Her research showed that no matter what your breast size, wearing a good sports bra in the correct size will reduce or reduce breast pain and diminish the strain on the Coopers ligaments, which help keep your breasts from sagging.

Recently, Dr. Scurr and her breast biomechanics research team have discovered through many interviews with women that embarrassment and/or ignorance are the key reasons for women choosing the wrong type of bra support.

Over a three year study, Scurr confirmed that women tend to purchase bras where the band is too large, and the cup size is too small.  This has been the consensus of almost all the bra manufacturers I have spoken with as well.  Wearing the wrong size during aerobic activity reduces a woman’s breast support and increases her breast discomfort due to excessive movement.  Thus women’s breasts will stretch and sag if not in the proper size sports bra.  Adding to this incorrect sizing are women’s false perceptions about what breast size they want to be.  Rather than finding the right size, women stick with a size that they feel is socially acceptable.  This, of course, is absolute nonsense because no one knows what bra size you are wearing, and the right size will probably make you look thinner and more youthful.

Another interesting point made by Scurr is that women experience breast pain more during acceleration and deceleration of the breasts.  So, once a woman is in the zone running for example, consistent breast movement is not as painful as when she starting to run or beginning to slow down.  I absolutely agree with this finding because I personally feel more breast pain when doing aerobic activity that is not a consistent repetitive movement.

Women also seem to have some built-in predjudices when it comes to selecting bras for sports activity.  Joanna’s team found that many of their interviewees have a stong preference for a certain style of sports bra, and would not consider buying a different style if it deviated from what they thought represented a supportive sports bra.  Specifically, many women feel that a sports bra must be one that pulls on over their head and not have a back or front closure.  If the sports bra resembles the look of an everyday bra, most women feel its not truly a sports bra.  Of course, this is absolutely false.  There are many sports bras with openings that provide fabulous support during high impact activity.  Just look at the Bounce Test to see this point.

Perhaps the UK is really ahead of the US in this area. Last year, a British Medical Association Conference made a recommendation that a free bra fitting be offered during a physical exam.  It is felt that if women are properly fitted, there would be a decrease in the number of unnecessary breast reductions.

 

 

 
Find Sports Bras at HerRoom in these departments:
Sport Underwear

Posted by Jan at 10:05am
Tags: breast bounce, Sports Bras
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This year, an estimated 182,460 women will hear their doctors say, "You have breast cancer." More than 40,000 women will die from the disease.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network of survivors and activists, the only organization fighting to cure breast cancer at every stage. To date, they have invested $1 billion in research, education and health services and expect to invest an additional $2 billion over the next decade.

Their promise: To save lives and end breast cancer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all and energizing science to find the cures.

There are many ways to support the Susan G. Komen For the Cure mission. You can find events in your area on their website.

For Breast Cancer Awareness month, Wacoal is supporting Susan G. Komen For the Cure by donating $2.00 of every purchase of one of their Wacoal Awareness Bras during the month of October. You can find the Wacoal Awareness Bras on HerRoom.

Posted by Jan at 12:10pm
Tags: breast cancer, komen for the cure, susan g komen
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First, a little history about the brand Moving Comfort.  It’s a neat little story.  Back in the 1970’s, believe it or not, there were no running shorts on the market for women.  That’s right, women had to wear men’s running shorts if they wanted to run and be comfortable.  A little company called Moving Comfort was born in Bothell, Washington (just north of Seattle) and made the first women’s running shorts. Eventually, they were purchased by Russell Corporation out of Atlanta that also owns brands such as Russell Athletic, Spalding, Bike, and Jerzees.  Last year, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, (The Warren Buffett Investment Group) acquired Russell.  One of Berkshire Hathaway’s initiatives was to update the internal computer systems of Russell.  And, for some reason, they felt it also necessary to change the style numbers on 8 of Moving Comfort’s Sports Bras.

While making the style number changes, Moving Comfort took the opportunity to also make a few design changes to some of these styles as well.

The Moving Comfort Dori Sports Bra used to be style 722760.  Its style number has changed to 300057.  Also changed was the back design on this bra.  The original design had no opening on the bra.  You basically, had to wiggle into it.  The new design includes a hook and eye closure along with a peek-a-boo opening in the back to make it much easier to get on and off.

 

 

The zipper front Grace Sports Bra went from style 725720 to 300060.  Moving Comfort took this opportunity to change out the zipper and replace it with a new zipper design that is stronger with a lock down feature.  This is a great move.  If you read the reviews on the old design, there were several complaints that the zipper would either not stay up, or would come zipping down during a work out.

 

 

 

Style 723160 called the Maia Sports Bra also received a new style number – 350011.  The Maia will now have a lower center front cut at the neck and adjustable straps where there were none previously.

 

 

It’s always confusing to the customer when a company does something like this.  Armed with a style number, a customer walks into stores looking for an exact match.  When they don’t find it, but are told a different number is the same bra, they can’t help but wonder if it really is the same style.

Here is a comprehensive list of the old and new style numbers for the Moving Comfort Sports Bras along with a notation of any style changes that have taken place:

 

Old Style #	New Style #	Changes
722760	300057	New Hook and eye in back
771860	350010
723160	350011	Lower center front, adjustable straps
728460	350006
705360	300067
725720	300060	New stronger locking zipper
771660	350003

 

 

Posted by Tomima at 4:44pm
Tags: moving comfort, Sports Bras
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