A few weeks ago Andi asked me if I'd be willing to try out a new sports bra and review it for a fit club post.
Um, YES! The quest for the perfect sports bra has been a top priority in my fitness journey since, well, since I needed a sports bra for the first time. I've been... blessed, you see. And after breastfeeding four kids and weight yo-yo'ing like an Olympic Sport, I've become very sensitive to possibly developing the dreaded "envelope boob syndrome". Especially with Air Force Guy gone so often, I don't want him to come home and exclaim in shock, "What happened THERE?" I have my answer ready - "Gravity!", but it's still something that I'm not ready to contend with.
Add in a sport that's fairly high impact and you can see how finding the perfect sports bra becomes a full on quest.
I have a few tricks that I use no matter what sports bra I'm using. First, I generally buy them a size too small. Yes, it pinches. Yes, it smooshes. No, it's not tremendously attractive. But envelope boobs aren't attractive, either.
But back to the bra I tried:
The KAOS RFI Sports Bra. This is actually the bra issued to women on active duty by the Army, so you know that it's built to withstand some intense situations. At 40$ a pop, it's slightly more expensive than other good quality sports bras (my days of buying the 10$ special at Wal Mart and finding adequate support were over LONG ago), but it's also probably the highest quality sports bra I've ever seen, and that includes the ones I've tried made by Under Armour (Air Force Guy is totally going to accuse me of heresy for that one). This bra will last light years longer than the cheaper versions.
And it's comfortable. It stretches and moves with you, and didn't create the dreaded "Uni-boob" issue for me.
I wore the bra (under a shirt, of course!) to my kickboxing class last week, and for most things it worked very well, I would venture to say that for women whose bra size has only one letter in it, it would probably be the perfect support system. However, when I attempted high impact activities like jumping rope or jumping jacks there was a lot more, *ahem*, movement than I was comfortable with. And the "sideways flop" that occurred when I kicked the heavy bag was a little uncomfortable. The bra comes in sizes XS to XXL, which covers sizes A to DD. I would DEFINITELY choose this bra for things like hiking, rock climbing, and full-contact sports like visiting Disney World. You could wear it for days at a stretch (not recommended if you value your friendships!) and not feel any chafing, poking, drag, or sagging. Plus, it's moisture wicking, so it also cuts down on the sweat funk. But I think I'm going to have to keep searching for something to wear during high impact activities.
Really, though, short of duct tape and possibly flying buttress reinforcements, probably not much is going to hold those girls in place during jump rope time anyway.
