BY Sports bras are hard. When you’re an aspiring sportsperson looking for a good sports bra, you would assume that bras are a plenty, but then you realise that there’s so much variety that it would make your head spin.
When you have a larger cup size than normal, it may be harder to find sports bras that can hold up their end of the bargain, especially if you’re looking for a precise sizing for high-impact sports. I can relate because this is a legit problem of mine.
Do You Measure Up?
“Damn thee and your tiny, miniscule sizing!” I would often mutter as I watched shoppers with smaller cup sizes venture towards the rack in Cotton ON, cooing at the fashionable bras and outfits that were probably created and made for the instagrammable social influencer (hashtag am I an Influenza yet?). Most clothes I could fit and buy. But a proper, honest to goodness sports bra that was good for running? Hard. Past workouts had me double-strapping down in order to get the support I needed to workout.
So, when Triumph invited RUN SG to give their new sports bra collection a shot, I went to the event hoping that maybe, just maybe, this would work. The idea was that participants would test out the support, look and feel of the bra while bouncing on the trampolines provided by BOUNCE Singapore, the country’s biggest trampoline amusement park.
Pre-event, I was measured at one of Triumph’s outlets and a bra was picked out, tried on and fitted on me. As my cup was still slightly larger than normal, and even edged out over the sizes that were offered at the shop, I was prepared to be disappointed.
To my surprise, the retail assistant laughed and told me that while my cup was a little larger, there was still a possibility that the size could match. Since breasts aren’t always perfectly sized, and retail sizing of bras differ between companies, they always advise customers to try the bras out in the store to see if it would work for them. So summarily, with their help, I managed to get a bra that fitted most of the requirements I was looking for, and left.
Can I Bounce?
On event day, I reached BOUNCE Singapore at Cathay Cineleisure and was instantly wowed and scared of the facilities. When you haven’t been on a trampoline since you were 10, what was once a childish and fun activity when you were a fun- loving child is now a potential death trap for someone in their mid-twenties. What if I fell? What if I hurt myself? What if I fell AND hurt myself?!
Thoughts like this ran through my head when I got dressed and joined the rest of the girls. As a pre-workout activity, the organisers went through a briefing of what they would be expecting, as well as a talk on the Tri-action Bra that Triumph was now premiering.
The Triaction Bra as presented by Triumph is a new line of bras that are on-trend, extremely supportive, comfortable and with no bulk, and still able to fit for every shape. The bras help to control bounce as certified by credible and famed research group in Breast Health in the University of Portsmouth.
Each of the bras are good for multi-sport and suited for high impact activities. More focus was infused on the line, with a 3D powertech process which fuses multiple layers for all-round anti-bounce compression, extreme support and soft comfort. Fabric used for the bras have quick dry properties and perforated cups for increased breathability. More focus has been placed on the straps and the underband for extra support. It’s really an interesting piece of technology, and it’s all fashioned into a small garment that not many people would feel necessary.
After warming up, we started out on the free play trampolines, each of the participants finding a square of trampoline to work on and get a feel of the bouncy surface. Our first activity was to keep bouncing for five straight minutes, alongside the instructors, in order to set a record for most amount of people bouncing in the same place at the same time.
Yes I Can
Here’s the thing about bouncing when you’re a little overweight like me. You worry about everything. You worry about whether gravity will hurt you by making you lose your balance and fall down. You worry if your top flops around and show off your belly, making everyone judge you for your choices. You worry about whether there is unsightly skin or flesh popping in places you do not wish for people to look at.
But the bra held up well. Thanks to the underwire, I had more support than I ever had for my chest. The cutting of the bra I chose meant that it reduced the possibility of spillage. The straps and underband were close, but not cutting, and I could feel how steady the straps were. I was strapped in securely and I had more support than my usual bras.
“This is amazing!” I thought as the instructor took us through exercises while bouncing, like jumping up to touch your toes in mid-air before going down. “I am sky! I am flight! I am invincible and I will never feel hurt again!”
And that’s when I fell down and lose my balance.
Well that was humbling.
We set the record, of course, and took a break before we headed to the 45-minute cardio session.
On paper, the workouts were nothing special, they can probably be done anywhere in the park, and for a runner, they were a piece of cake. However, it gets even more tiring when you have to include a stretchy, non-stable surface, bouncing, and fear. Within minutes, I was trembling, and I was not the only one.
“Come on, you can do it!” shouted an instructor as I and the jumper next to me fell down while we were trying to quick jog on the spot from the normal pace of bouncing while feeling like we were falling into stretchy space. “All the way, all the way!”
This was what we did. We bounced, we fell, we did lunges and star-jumps, we tried to touch our toes while we flew in the air and some of us (me) gritted our teeth trying to get through to the end of the exercise. By the time, we finished our burpees while on a trampoline, we were all dying and many of us were flopping on the ground like fish.
But my Triaction bra held up. It was the support I wanted and needed, even more than Kanye supporting Kanye.
We finished up the session trying out the food bar and refreshments, downing shots of juice flavoured Spirulina and eating our acai bowls and powerballs. It was a sweet treat for us after a hard workout, and I congratulated myself for managing to hold on for the whole workout.
So, I felt the aches later and I’ll admit it was great taking off the bra when I got home. But for an overweight person like me, the Triaction bra got me off my anxiety about modesty and my weight for a short period of time. Thanks to the bra, I flew.
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