For girls, underwear is essential all year-round. What's more, the bra is also very important. Moreover, the comfort of a bra also accounts for women's physical experience.

You may have tried "slow" sports yoga, sweaty boxing and MMA, and strength training and weightlifting as a girl who loves sports. We are constantly reminded to "wear sportswear" for these different sports, but the essential thing is women's sports bras.

You don't have to worry about physical uncomfortableness when exercising freely (or painfully) with a sports bra.

Why You Need a Sports Bra

The purpose of wearing a sports bra and a normal bra is different. A normal bra is more to protect the essential body. It only drags the chest horizontally to prevent the chest from sagging or expanding.

And sports bra is more used to resist gravity in the process of activities. Because in the process of exercise, whether it is the stable core of yoga, cat pose, up dog pose, or the amplitude swing during long-distance running, etc., the female chest will shake due to the uniqueness of its structure. I believe everyone feels this when they are in a physical education class. Running 800 meters or even standing long jump will cause the chest to shake back and forth in the normal bra.

For the support, the normal bra pays more attention to modifying the breast shape, gathering, and beauty, and it is more inclined to daily life needs. The main advantages of sports bras are strong support and fixation, which are highly matched with sports. Reducing the shaking of the chest can reduce the damage to the body to a certain extent and avoid the embarrassment of the body in public.

At the same time, sports bras should meet various needs, such as sports with a large amount of sweat and an extensive range of motion. Especially the collarbone, chest, and armpits are easy to accumulate sweat, so generally, pay attention to breathability and extensibility in selecting the fabric. At the same time, pay attention to the narrowness of the shoulder width and the fabric of the lower bust to ensure the stability and skin-friendliness of wearing.

Read also: What to Wear for Yoga? 

Can't Exercise While Wearing A Ordinary Bra?

The chest is more fluid (regardless of size) in the internal structure of the human body. According to the data, the chest shaking of girls shows a ∞ shape when running. Even if an A Cup girl runs without the protection of a sports bra, the chest shaking will reach 6 cm or more. If it is a more intense exercise than running, the vibration or pulling of the chest is more serious, which may damage the connective tissue of the chest, causing sagging of the chest, and severe damage to the chest shape. Even if there is no visible damage to the chest, it may be possible to cause chest pain or neck soreness due to insufficient support from the bra.

Keeping the chest upright is to rely on the skin and a particular ligament, the suspensory ligament. The skin itself has no support for the chest, and its role can be understood as shaping, so most of the internal support is the suspensory ligament. Like a rubber band used daily, if you leave it taut for a long time, the rubber band will lose its elasticity over time. In the same way, if you are in a state of high intensity of exercise for a long time, the shaking of the chest will keep the ligaments in a tense state, which will accelerate the damage of the suspensory ligament of the breast and cause the chest to sag. In severe cases, it can even damage the health of the chest and induce diseases such as breast cancer.

Therefore, we can understand sports bras as "greatly reducing the physical impact of chest shaking during exercise." Sports bras are designed to provide adequate support, wrapping, and fixation for the breasts and protect the female breasts at the most basic level during exercise to reduce the occurrence of breast sagging and external expansion.

Of course, let's think about it, is it vital to wear sports bras every time you exercise?

The physical injuries mentioned above are more likely to occur when wearing an ordinary bra during long-term, high-frequency, and high-intensity sports. If you don't exercise very intensely, don't exercise for a long time, or sometimes forget to wear sports bras because of personal factors and can only wear an ordinary bra, it will not cause much harm.

However, if it is a very systematic/routine exercise, and each exercise has a certain amount of intensity training, a sports bra is a necessary preparation.

Because of the strong support and strong fixation properties of standard sports bras, the compression and wrapping of the chest are relatively tight. However, although wearing a sports bra can improve chest support, it is not recommended to wear the "pressure-fixed" tight type of standard sports bra for a long time in a non-exercise state (although sometimes it is cool to wear a sports bra and a short coat.) If you wear sports bras in a non-exercise form for a long time, it will affect the blood circulation of the chest and cause unnecessary damage. So don't ignore physical health for beauty.

Read also: Tips for Your First Time at the Gym

How to Choose the Right Sports Bra

Having said so much, in fact, many people already know that they should wear sports bras when exercising. However, after searching for sports bras, the items that come into view are better than the other, and all have different styles. So how should you choose?

Sports Bras Matches the Scene

In the face of all kinds of sports bras, we should temporarily put aside the "love at first sight" and prioritize the actual practical scenario. As we have described many times before, the core function of sports bras is "strong support." So how do you choose the right type of sports bra support for you? That is "to make the most of it," considering the occasion to wear it.

Low-strength Support: Simple Fixed Style

Narrow shoulder straps and non-all-wrapping styles primarily represent low-strength support sports bras. It can be seen from the style that there is no apparent difference in the structure of low-strength support sports bras. Relying on a layer of elastic mesh fabric is easy to fix. Some also provide detachable padding, which is convenient for chest shape adjustment, and more operability in wrapping.

Suitable for sports-type: Sports bras with low-intensity support are ideal for conservative and slow low-intensity movements because of their low wrapping and restraint properties. They can be regarded as sports types without any bouncing movements. Exercises that require body extensions, such as yoga, Pilates, Barre, and light strength training, can try low-intensity support styles.

👍Advantages: The low-strength support bra is not bound by a large clothing area, so there is not much difference in comfort from ordinary bras. At the same time, the low-strength support style is also very convenient to put on and take off, especially when you take off your bra after sweating. There will be no embarrassment of "can't take it off."

🤏Disadvantages: However, the low-strength support style is not complete because of the incomplete wrapping. It is easy to have "accessory breast movement" when wearing a sports bra. But this is actually what happens in most sports bras during exercise, so don't worry too much.

Medium Strength Support: Pressure-Fixed Style

Most medium-strength support bras are pressure-fixed, and the style is mainly presented with wide shoulder straps and a large area of the back. The compression type fixed sports bra is the type used by most sports bras, which mainly rely on the elasticity of the fabric and use a partial compression design to achieve the purpose of fixing the chest.

This sports bra style will fully consider breast shape, structure, and the force on the shoulders and back in the tailoring and obtain good fixation through the support of the bra's design while still maintaining relative comfort. But pressure-fixed bras sometimes tighten your body.

Suitable for sports-type: The medium-strength support style is ideal for sports with a slightly faster rhythm (with a moderate amount of bouncing movements), such as running, spinning, strength training, tennis, badminton, and other sports that require flexible walking and coordination. In the process of fully experiencing sports, you don't have to worry about the damage caused by body shaking, which guarantees support and has a certain degree of comfort.

👍Advantages: Medium-strength support sports bras are suitable for more people and various sports. If you don't know which kind of sports suits you, then choose the medium-strength support (pressure fixed type) without thinking. Whether it is the experience of chest support or the comfort of bras, the overall experience is still good.

🤏Disadvantages: This type of pressure fixing style is complicated to put on and take off because it is wrapped in a large area and is tight. But now, many pressure-fixed styles have also expanded the type of "adding a front zipper or a rear buckle."

High Strength Support: Composite Structural Style

The high-strength support style is generally fixed by wrapping + pressure, which is similar to the general style of medium-strength support bras. A special steel bracket (non-metal) will be added to obtain better support and the strength of the fabric is greater. It is especially suitable for high-impact sports and high-intensity sports experiences for girls with big breasts.

Suitable for sports-type: The high-intensity support style is suitable for high-intensity movements with high frequency and large amplitude (repetitive bouncing movements). Such as marathons, high-intensity aerobics, basketball, football, boxing, and other powerful high-intensity sports.

👍Advantages: The high-strength support style is very suitable for girls with larger chests to perform high-intensity training, and can still meet the basic requirements for body protection and sports experience..

However, if most people exercise every day, there is no need to choose high-intensity support. Just like a computer, it is best to let it run full of performance according to its own needs and scenarios.

Size Ensures Wearing Comfort

After talking about the type of support strength of sports bras, let's consider the size considerations.

The first thing to say is that sports bras are usually tighter than regular bras. This is wrong. So don't hold the attitude of "I want it to be completely fixed, is the smaller, the better?"

The comfort of sports bras is even more so. Like ordinary bras, the one that suits you is the most comfortable. Otherwise, you will be exhausted from exercising, and make your fatigue and soaring because of the discomfort of bras, which is not cost-effective.

Under normal circumstances, the size of the sports bra should be the same as that of the ordinary bra. Do not deliberately choose a smaller size. And the elasticity of sports bras will also change with the wearing time, so it's not a big problem to wear them tight at the beginning (The premise is that you choose your daily wearing size).

Because most of the binding force of the sports bra is stuck on the lower bust, you must first ensure the comfort of the lower bust. Next, consider the cup size. Like when we buy ordinary bras, the size of sports bras better takes lower chest measurement as reference.

If you are very clear about your size, you can compare and buy according to the bra size charts of different brands. If you are unsure about your lower bust, you can refer to the measurement method below.

''Measure the rib cage below the chest. The ruler should be level with the ground and snug but not too tight. For accurate measurements, relax, exhale, and keep at least one arm hanging by your side, preferably both arms, naturally. When measuring, try to choose others to help.''

If you don't like the tightness, you can pay extra attention to whether the shoulder straps are adjustable when purchasing a sports bra. Sometimes adjustable shoulder straps can also relieve the compression discomfort caused by sports bra to a certain extent.

After talking about the bust measurement, let's consider the cup size. In most cases, girls (A/B cup) can choose low-intensity and medium-intensity support styles, which can meet exercise needs.

You can consider the medium and high-strength support style if you have a larger cup size (above C). If it is a pure pressure-fixed style, try to choose a chest all-wrapping style. If invisible cups are embedded, try to choose a better wrapping style. In short, the standard is to minimize the shaking injury caused by the movement process.

Cleaning Precautions

Due to the fabric of the sports bra, it is not recommended that you wash them with ordinary clothes and throw them into the washing machine for cleaning. The dirty sports bra is caused by pure sweating. Therefore, if you want to extend the service life of sports bras and ensure that the clothes are clean, you should wash them by hand in cold water, and choose an upside-down type when hanging to avoid affecting the tightness of the shoulder straps, and then put them in a ventilated place to dry naturally.

Finally, there is something to all the girls. The moment you put on the sports bra, you prove that you have the strength to "Show My Body." Don't care about other people's opinions. Your physical health is the most important thing.