Hugs for Your Jugs

There are so many different strap configurations in sports bras that it's almost impossible to categorise them all. From standard T and U backs to racerbacks, J hooks, cutout racerbacks, decorative multi straps, what should you choose? Is there a physical reason why these strap styles are so popular, or is it just fashion? In this post, I will be referring to all styles that connect or cross in the back as racerbacks, and standard U or T backed straps as standard straps.  This post was released early to my  lovely supporters on Ko-fi. To get early access to posts, or access to extended editions of posts, you can support me for just £2/$3 a month!   What the studies say Yes, there's research into sports bras! in fact, multiple research teams have pitted sports bras against each other to test which features are most effective, and unfortunately the results vary quite a bit. While some (Zhou et al., 2013) have found that bras with a "cross back panel" (like st...

I have a series of posts about the physics behind supportive bras . In the first post, I described that the band should make up most of the support system of a bra - but this doesn't mean the straps are not important. The best way to boil that post down is that the band provides support to the breasts but the straps maintain the shape of the cups by providing a key anchor point for the upper part of the cups. This post could be considered an additional part of that series, and for that reason an extended edition can be found on my Ko-fi . Don't worry, the main Bra Physics series hasn't been abandoned - I just wanted to get this one out first. The straps transmit a vertical tension force into your bra cup, and changing exactly where those forces travel can have major fit implications. This force transmission is very important in larger cup sizes where a bra is designed to be more supportive, so the ideas in this post will apply to a lesser degree for small or medium cup siz...

Do you feel unsupported by your bra? That it squashes your boobs down instead of lifting them up? Or maybe you feel that your bra is just a useless garment altogether, costing quite a bit of money considering it just doesn't really do anything? You may be wearing... a boob hat. Many people who wear bras know some of the signs of poor fit – most recognise that spillage out of a bra isn’t right, and the same goes for gapping. Some know that the gore should lie flat against the sternum, and that the band shouldn’t ride up (or ride down). Few know anything more detailed than that. So from this lack of detailed knowledge a phenomenon appears: the boob hat. The boob hat is something I describe as a bra that kinda looks like it fits to an inexperienced eye, but in reality it doesn’t. It simply sits/floats around the boobs, not containing or supporting them fully (if at all), potentially squishing them down, hence the name. So how can you avoid falling into this trap? Here are ...