Transcript

PRESENTER

Professor Joanna Wakefield-Scurr is leading the latest research. She’s going to use motion capture technology to show me exactly what’s happening to our breasts when we exercise.

JOANNA WAKEFIELD-SCURR

What this is showing is how the breast moves in three dimensions. Forwards and backwards. It moves side to side. And then this is how much the breast moves up and down.

PRESENTER

So if you’re working out at home and you’re doing things like star jumps, then you would expect all three types of movements, but it will vary according to which exercise you’re doing.

JOANNA WAKEFIELD-SCURR

Absolutely. And because star jumps really cause a lot of breast movement to occur because your arms are up in the air whilst your body is moving, and then you’ve got the impact on the ground as well. So star jumps are particularly nasty.

[LAUGHTER]

PRESENTER

Perfect excuse to not do star jumps.

In an everyday bra in slow motion, it’s easy to see the problem. Our skin can naturally stretch by around 60% before risk of damage. But Joanna’s team have measured stretching up to 93% on the breasts of women exercising without support. This amount of movement can also damage the ligaments that hold up the breast.

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