Attention all boob owners

[extrapenguin]

Came across this news report earlier today: Wearing the wrong bra could put you at a greater risk of a knee injury, study suggests (note: cisnormative)
(PubMed link to study)

Tl;dr: people subconsciously change the way they move their torso to minimize boob flop, negatively affecting the way the lower body is used, increasing injury risk to e.g. knees.

You are also likely wearing the wrong size bra, as most places use incorrect fitting instructions that do not realize that elastic exists and will actively lie to you*. If you have a soft measuring tape, or a longish piece of string/belt/charger cord/whatnot + a regular measuring tape, you should use this online calculator on the UK setting. You can then manually convert to EU or FR sizes using a conversion table.** To get a JP size, convert to EU sizes and go one letter further down the alphabet.

If you're looking for a sports bra rec, I rec Shock Absorber. They do run an entire band size tight, so you'll have to go up one band size and correspondingly down one cup size (EU 70E -> 75D, 80I -> 85H, etc; UK 32DD -> 34D, 36G -> 38FF, etc; yes, UK sizing has no clue how the alphabet works lol).

* You're meant to start on the loosest hooks and, as the elastic stretches, move to the middle and then tightest hooks. If they sell you something that's too loose, you have to start on the tightest hooks for any form of comfort, and then buy a new bra 3× as often because there's no tighter set of hooks to go to.

** For some unhinged reason, the creator has decided to use a 2cm difference between cup sizes for EU, FR, and JP. There are maybe two bra brands ever that use a 2cm increment, so unless you're ordering from Comexim or KrisLine, you'll have to manually convert from UK size. Most brands use a 2.5cm difference. I have also heard rumors some French brands have a 3cm difference but idk.

Comments

[laireshi]

If you're looking for a sports bra rec, I rec Shock Absorber.
It works for a lot of my friends but not for me -- I like Panache Sport as the alternative.

[nnozomi]

Bookmarked, thank you! Appreciate the notes re JP sizes (and yup, I have learned that JP alphabet letters in bra sizes bear no resemblance to the US ones lol. It's not like people have entirely different-sized breasts on different continents.)

[china_shop]

Ha, that's fascinating. Thanks for the link!

(I used to wear Shock Absorbers. Currently trying out Freya Active, mostly because I hate bra shopping online; I like to get properly fitted -- and this is what they had in my size.)

[(Anonymous)]

Ughhhh do I have to start wearing bras again

(Small boobs, hard-to-find size, and I absolutely hate washing bras. And, like, I know some people just don't wash em, but... my boobs get sweaty and I do *not* like that.)

Thanks for the info about elastics! I think I've always used the tightest hooks.