Wearing a bra that is too tight affects breathing and energy.

Áo ngực thể thao quá chật khiến nữ giới thở nông hơn và thở thêm vài hơi mỗi phút - Ảnh: Unitru — Sports bras that are too tight make women breathe more shallowly and take a few more breaths per minute - Photo: Unitru

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia. They monitored the respiratory and lung function of professional athletes on a treadmill, while asking them to tighten, loosen or leave their bras at their normal level, then observed the changes.

Tight bras damage lungs

Research shows that wearing a tight sports bra makes women breathe more shallowly and take a few more breaths per minute. Conversely, when the bra straps are loosened, they consume less oxygen at a given speed.

Experts recommend that runners wear a sports bra that offers moderate support, but is not too tight around the rib cage.

“People ask which sports bra should they wear? I tell them to wear the one that fits,” says Shalaya Kipp, lead author of the study and now a postdoctoral fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

The authors hypothesize that when a bra is too tight around the rib cage, respiratory or lung function may be compromised. The reduced lung function makes breathing more difficult, which is especially important when exercising or doing everyday physical activities.

To measure, researchers passed a tube up the participants’ nose and down their esophagus. While running on a treadmill, they were asked to adjust the tightness of their shirts.

Researchers found that runners could breathe more deeply and run more efficiently when their bras were looser, which affected both performance and comfort during exercise.

Choose your shirt as carefully as you choose your shoes.

Research shows that loosening your shirt improves running efficiency by 1.3%. That may not seem like much, but for a three-hour marathon runner, a 2% improvement in efficiency translates to a 3-minute increase—enough to make the difference between winning and losing.

Olympic distance runner Kim Conley, who was not involved in the study, admits she never paid attention to how tight sports bras were and how much breathing she experienced while wearing them.

“For a professional runner, that's important, especially as qualifying standards get tougher. Everyone is looking for that 1% performance increase,” she says.

Boston resident Laura Hernandez is training for her first marathon this year. For the 25-year-old, choosing the right workout bra is as important as choosing the right pair of sneakers.

Shalaya Kipp, the study's lead author, advises girls to try on sports bras like they would running shoes. Breathe, move, and feel.