10.18.07
Why So Much Sag?
Gravity is an immutable law of physics. Many people seek plastic surgery services secondary to the constant pull of gravity. There’s a new study released describing the affect that gravity has on breasts, especially during exercise. There are many factors that contribute to breast shape including skin envelope, patient weight, previous pregnancy, etc. However, once substantial stretch is applied (many factors can contribute including weight gain, pregnancy, implants) the connective tissue (Cooper’s Ligaments) and skin can be permanently disrupted resulting in “sag”.
While brassieres have evolved throughout history from body-binding corsets to cleavage-enhancing “miracle” bras, only recently have researchers injected a dose of science into the design of undergarments that go beyond just improving appearance.
“It is only recently that bra design has turned to science,” said Joanna Scurr, a biomechanics professor at the University of Portsmouth in England. “There was no research. It’s like designing a car or kitchen equipment without first thinking ‘what is the purpose of this?’”
Scurr will presented her research at an annual meeting for the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences in Bath.
Methods (How was the experiment conducted?)
Scurr recruited 70 women, including students and faculty from the University of Portsmouth, with bra sizes ranging from A-cup to extra-large (DD, E, FF, G, H, HH, J and JJ were included).
Each woman walked, jogged and ran while wearing different bra types. During the exercise, Scurr took biomechanical measurements, including the amount of breast movement in three directions: up-and-down, side-to-side and in-and-out.
Findings
During walking exercise, the women’s breasts moved relatively the same amount in all directions. When study participants ran or jogged, their breasts moved proportionally more in some directions than others: More than 50 percent of the total movement was in the up-down direction, 22 percent side-to-side and 27 percent in-and-out.
The overall pattern of the movement resembled a figure-8.
Typically, bras are designed to minimize up-and-down motion and not the other two dimensions of breast movement found in Scurr’s study.
For all cup sizes, the so-called encapsulation bras in which each cup is separately molded provided the most support, beating out the compression bras, which limit only the up-and-down motion. The encapsulation bras limit some of the movement in the other directions as well.
Breast motion reduction with sports bras showed similar results regardless of the cup size. In A-cup women, wearing a sports bra reduced overall breast movement by 53 percent, compared with a 55-percent reduction for G-cup women.
Discussion
While the suspensory system of the breast has received a great deal of attention it is not clear that better bras will prove more protective. It is also not clear that better bras, even if they do prevent damage to the portions of the breast that provide support, will prevent sagging through other causes. It does provide a basis for interesting future research.
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