Ceejbot

One more sports bra review

Under Armour UA Strength 2 sports bra
Racerback, so you put it on by pulling it over your head. It’s always easier to put these on than to take them off again when they’re soaking wet with sweat and you’re exhausted, but this one didn’t trouble me. Achieves good support without major squashage, though there’s enough squashing to create the monobreast look. It does not squash enough to control jouncing if you’re face-down, for instance. Comfortable to wear. Recommended.

I’m pleased with the other UA workout gear I’ve tried recently, especially their hot-weather clothing.

Four sports bras and one shirt.

Trying to do serious fitness as a pudgy woman inevitably means annoyance as you try to find serious athletic gear for women larger than size 12. I don’t know about you, but I also don’t want pink workout clothes, or pale blue gear, or stuff with vaguely metaphysical yoga symbology on it. I want to sweat in this stuff, not go shopping at Whole Foods in it.

The solution there is to go mail order and not shop at REI. LL Bean makes some nice workout tights, for instance. The real problem, though, is finding a sports bra that works when you’re a D cup. Or as I like to put it, when you have womdigious hooters. There you have a serious technical requirement that the gear perform well enough to solve the jounce problem.

Here are five tops I’ve tried.

Glamourise Sport
An excellent range of exact sizes, so you can fit yourself as for an ordinary bra instead of picking XL and hoping it’ll work. Excellent support for gym workouts; some jouncing while running. No compression. Avoids the monobreast look. Fastens like a normal bra. Recommended.

Title Nine Frog Bra
Very tight and stretchy, which makes for some major compression and the monobreast look. However, it works. No jouncing, everything is contained. The one I’ve had for a decade has lost some elasticity, but obviously that’s great longevity. Recommended, especially for running.

Skins sleeveless top
Wear this over any lesser bra to provide the missing squash factor. Might even work on its own if you’re smaller. Downsides are the hideous expense ($90 just for this?) and the extra layer, which might be unwelcome if it’s hot. I liked this solution, though, and might seek out cheaper compression clothing brands.

Champion Action Shape sports bra
Complicated closure system with hooks and a snap over that. Moderate squashing. Works well enough that I wear it when my Frog bras are in the laundry, but it’s definitely a secondary choice.

Adidas ClimaCool racerback
No support whatsoever. I might have ordered it two sizes larger than I should have— if it were way tight it might do something. Or then again I might just pop out of it. Consider this only if you’re C or smaller. (I like my Adidas three-quarter tights a lot, though.)

First workout with the wacky shoes.

I wore the Vibram FiveFingers to the gym today. Today’s timed workout:

half-mile cycle
50 pushups (kneeling)
half-mile cycle
50 bent rows (60 lbs)
repeat all four

My time: 15:10. This is more than 4 minutes faster than the first time I did this workout.

Then my trainer had me do weighted squats (70lbs straight barbell), quad extensions, hamstring curls, then a whole lot of kettlebell stuff. In fact, I think we did all the kettlebell exercises I know in quick succession. I’m slowly getting better with moves like the clean and the snatch, though my shoulders have bruises still from the 20kg cleans I was attempting earlier. We concluded with kettlebell thrusters, which I think are the best (aka hardest) thrusters there are. You can’t have poor form or the kettlebells will punish you.

The Fivefingers shoes were great. I felt planted and at all times aware of where my feet were. My trainer said he could see every motion my feet made, every little flex they made while squatting, for instance. The soles were perfect for the gym floor, nice and sticky. I love them for working out in the gym and I’ll be wearing them a lot. I don’t yet know what it would be like to run in them.

Wacky toe-shoes are comfortable.

The previous post has a photo of my new shoes.

I’ve had them for less than a day, so I can’t give a long-term review. I can, however, say that they are a lot like walking around barefoot, only without the glass sticking into the soles of your feet part. There is very little shoe here— just a form-fitting rubbery sole. The uppers are stretchy fabric, very breathable. I’m not wearing socks, but I am thinking I might try socks with them.

I just walked about a half mile in them, to the coffee shop and back, and they were fine. I was aware I was walking on sidewalks and roads, and super-aware of the various textures of that concrete and asphalt. Walking on grass was fun, though not as fun as being barefoot on tickly grass is.

Seldom-used stabilizer muscles in my legs and feet are letting me know that they exist after that walk. I expect them to be all happy and awake after a week or so of kicking around near-barefoot. After letting my feet adjust I’ll try doing a real workout in them.

I had been feeling that my eccentricity quotient needed a boost, and these shoes are just the ticket for doing that. They’re also wonderfully Californian in their in-touch-with-the-environment marketing. (Never mind that they’re made in Massachusetts.)