Exercise or bust? Breasts and physical activity

A recent study made the news for seemingly showing that large breasts stop women exercising. Despite the limitations of the study, breasts can have a considerable impact on exercise habits, but this doesn’t need to be something that stops you

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Breasts can be an obstruction for women who want to exercise, but they needn’t prevent it altogether. Photograph: Alamy

 

Amy Reichelt

Monday 23 June 2014 16.31 BSTtheguardian.com

As a research scientist, I endeavour to make an impact on humankind’s understanding of the world, and in particular, the brain. My research aims to probe the intricacies of memory, determining how the brain controls behaviour. I have always hoped to make a difference and be remembered as “a person who really made an impact in the field of neuroscience”. So I was delighted to be asked by past postgraduate laboratory companion, Dean Burnett, to discuss what I appear to be most well remembered for in scientific circles: my boobs.

Now, boobs (I’m sorry, I can’t call them breasts as it conjures images of matronly middle-aged women, which I am not) are a topic close to my heart, physically and otherwise. When friends have complained about their lack of endowments I have often offered to donate some of mine. To put it bluntly, they are more than a handful and seem to have a mind of their own, particularly when presented with any opportunity to make themselves apparent.

As someone who has had to deal with their presence since my early teens (my first bra was not a darling Forever Friends crop top, it was a 34C sports bra from M&S), I have developed many boob-containment strategies. Safety pins, strategic use of scarves, multiway straps and avoidance of button-up blouses are all established techniques in my mission to prevent untimely escapes.

One thing I will not allow my boobs to do is hold me back when it comes to sporting activities. I am never going to be a lean, long-distance running type, and I will never attain the perfect “Plough” pose in yoga, as I would asphyxiate myself. But I love going to the gym (I feel that this is the time I have to mentionCrossfit, because people who do Crossfit just have to talk about it, it’s the opposite of Fight Club), enjoy kickboxing, and can be found running around my local park on a sunny weekend. So when I read that nearly one in five women say their breasts stop them from partaking in physical activity, I found it hard to believe.

In fact, participation in sports weren’t influenced by breast size, but just their mere presence. Boobs were ranked fourth as a barrier to exercise after lack of energy, time constraints and health reasons. These I feel are pretty valid excuses, as a demanding job sometimes leaves me exhausted and trapped in the lab. Boobs were ranked above other barriers including cost, access to facilities, not having the right clothing, not having any company while exercising, and feeling embarrassed about doing sport.

I’m not going to preach in the way that Gok Wan attempts to convince women to “embrace their bangers”, but surely blaming something that all women possess should not be a barrier to exercise? Exercise is great! Research has demonstrated that exercise improves not only your health and mood, but it also enhances cognitive abilities and increases memory.

I can support the notion that vigorous exercise can be painful in more ways than just muscle pain. Inadequate support, combined with excessive movement, is the most likely cause of sore and tender breasts after exercise. Your boobs’ built-in support is limited to skin and Cooper’s ligaments so excessive movement puts strain on these ligaments causing irreversible damage. Stretching these ligaments leads to sagging, nothing can naturally restore them to their former position.

But – science to the rescue! Research into the physical dynamics of boobs in motion has led to sports bras that contain and control movement as opposed to compressing them down into an immovable lump. Take it from me; although I will unashamedly sprint for the bus at the end of a long day at work, you wont catch me in the gym without my trusty shock absorber sports bra. As my F cups are outside of the “normal” size range, and my adventures in exercise tend to be vigorous in nature, I tend to settle for the more extreme levels of control. These bras may set you back £35-£40. However, I would like to point out that a surgical lift (mastopexy) would cost more than 100 times this amount.

All in all, I would say that blaming your boobs for preventing you undertaking exercise is no longer a valid excuse. I’m not going to run a mile in a pair of high heels or my regular lacy underwired bra. A supportive sports bra should be deemed as essential as a pair of trainers for women undertaking exercise.

Amy Reichelt is an Australian Research Council Fellow at the University of New South Wales. Her boobs are the only F’s she has ever received