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Support the Twins: Women’s Apparel

March 25, 2008 | in Gear | 6 Comments

Your feet aren't the only pair on your body that can take a beating during a run. Round out your running gear with a bra that can keep all three of you happy.

“I dedicate this one to the ladies...”
— David Lee Roth
First off, let me confess that I am not a woman. And while I’m familiar with boobs, I don’t know what it means to deal with them as a woman runner.

Luckily my wife does, and I’ve been able to glean some knowledge on what women are looking for when choosing the right bra. As we did for the men, we’ll lay out some preliminary options and then uncover what we think is the best of the bunch.

“That Would Be Horrible.”

First off, you ain’t running in a normal bra. Well, you might be, but you’re probably not liking it. My woman in the field shares the following insight:

There’s definitely not enough support, and the underwire is gonna poke you in weird ways. Ugh. And if you run in a demicup your boobs’ll fly out. That would be downright bad.

Yeah, that doesn’t sound so good.

So what are your options?

A Good Start

Any sporting goods store and most department stores will carry several different athletic bras. Moving Comfort’s Fiona bra was the first out of the gate for my wife.

I like the support band at the bottom. The adjustable velcro straps are also a decent feature.

Unfortunately, this guy fell apart in the wash. Sure, you could probably hand wash it, but who wants to do that?

We can do better.

The Under Armour Compression bra was a bit of a step up—more support than the Moving Comfort bra. This one, however, you need to pull over your head; I’m told this is a bad thing. And a critical issue both the Moving Comfort and Under Armour bra share:

The Dreaded Uniboob

Yep, these bras pushes the girls together into one continuous cylinder of mammary. Probably not what ladies are looking for.

So what is the right choice?

image

A Gift From the Gods

In yet another trip to MetroSport, my wife came upon the Nike Revolution. This thing is magical. It looks and feels like some futuristic gadget built by NASA—moisture-wicking fabric, lots of configuration options, etc—but my wife says it’s the goods.

It’s got the perfect support, no uniboob and no nipple chafe.

.

Nipple chafe....*shudder* If you’ve run long enough distances you know that your bra—or for guys, even your shirt—is going to take a layer of skin off that particularly sensitive area. And man that’s no bueno. But the Nike Revolution takes care of business, and keeps your business in order.

Anyone have any good finds not covered here? Leave a comment! Let us know whatcha got.

Photo courtesy of BareNecessities.com.

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Comments

Love the way you covered this topic!  And I’ve found a new bra to try - the Nike Revolution.  I posted some other running bras to try in a recent post at kdays.com - http://www.kdays.com/2008/02/20/the-support-you-need-choosing-the-right-running-bra/ : The Support you Need - Choosing the Right Running Bra.

Can’t wait for the music!  Keep up the good work :)

Kerrin | May 22, 2008

Thanks Kerrin! And glad to meet another fellow runner! My wife loves the Nike Revolution, but I’ll make sure she checks out your post on the subject, too!

John | May 22, 2008

Thanks for the research--I’m in the market for a new bra and will have to check out the “revolution.”

(I also combine with a leotard which really helps with bouncing).

Warning: I once wrote a blog post on running bras and now I often get googlers looking for “bouncing breasts.” They must be so disappointed when they arrive!

Crabby McSlacker | June 23, 2008

@Crabby LOL! So far I haven’t had similar visitors. I don’t think “uniboob” is in quite the same keyword search set as “bouncing breasts”

John | June 23, 2008

I’ve also found that Victoria’s Secret sports bras work extremely well.  You pull them over your head, but there are two adjustible hooks on either side so it’s not very difficult to pull it on and off.  They also give you a very decent amount of cleavage for the ladies who like to look pretty while running ;D.

Megan | September 10, 2008

@Megan
There’s absolutely nothin’ wrong with looking good on a run. For sure.
Runner’s World has a nice breakdown on bras in this month’s (September 2008) issue. Interestingly, none of the ones discussed in the post or comments were addressed. Options are a good thing.

John | September 14, 2008

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