The wonders of an underwire bra

[insearchofme]

Due to travel and catching a wicked cold I had not strength trained in over two weeks. Yesterday morning I went back to the gym and had a good workout, nothing too bad since I knew the layoff would affect me.

When I awoke this morning i had a serious case of "DOMS", Delayed Onset Muscle Sorness. I expected it and just decide to deal with it, not OTC pain releivers. After I put on my bra I noticed that while i was sore other places I wasn't sore in my pecs. I though wow this is good. To see if it really made a difference I took off my bra for a while and the soreness returned. I put it back on again and i can truthfully say that while the rest of my body is sore my pecs are not.

I always liked underwire bras but now even more so!

[Daphne Renee]

well good for you.. i rarely workout.. I know I should but I am glad the bra helped you out. Maybe that can be your excuse for wearing it more often. My muscles were sore. :)

[Renee W]

Just a word of caution....

I too once thought I had a case of the DOMS, following a good workout splitting wood for several hours. Soreness across the pecs, went away after a lot of pain killers, soaking in the whirlpool and then a nap. Funny thing is, it returned 4 days later while driving to work, so I went to the hospital. Turns out I was having a heart attack and tests showed it was not my first! 6 hours later they were placing a stent in an artery and doing angio on a few others.

[Nikki A.]

I took a tumble last week & bruised my ribs. I've been wearing a briefer during the day and a long line bra when I get home to keep the ribs from barking, especially since I'm getting over a cold thats now in the mucous and cough stage.
I wish I could wear the bra during the day, but it would just be too noticable.

[Laura912]

At one time, bruised and broken ribs were splinted with a tight bandage around the chest. Unfortunately all that did was prevent good full inspirations, so people with colds, lots of mucous etc tended more to pneumonia because they did not get up the mucous. Colds, however, tend to be upper airway so this is probably not a problem but be aware of the possibility. An underwire is not a problem, but the long line, if tight enough, could be.
Laura

[giuseppina]

That's plausible Laura, but it wasn't the reason I was given when I cracked some ribs. I asked if somebody hand done a study about that and found no benefit, and I was told it did more harm than good if the bandaging was too tight. The danger with the tight bandaging was increasing the severity of the fracture. The other problem is the bandaging causes skin irritation before it does anything to help the fracture heal.

My doctor's prescription was stay quiet and no raking, shovelling or heavy lifting. If you do too much you'll pay for it in spades with pain the next day as previous healing is re-fractured. If you have fractured ribs, wearing a bra or any other elastic garment might not be the best idea unless you need it for support of real breasts.

[sissystephanie]

I have been wearing underwire bras for many years. And I wear a bra all day every day! No one has ever said anything about it, and I don't think anyone has ever noticed that I was wearing one. And the OP is right, the underwire bras do help when you workout! I workout 3 days a week on strength training, and the other 4 days on cardio, so I know how the bra helps. Just for your further information, I started wearing a bra when I was 9 years old, on a doctors orders. I was a 36 B at the time and he thought that if I wore a bra I would not have sagging breasts. Of course I did not wear a bra during my time in military service, but otherwise I have worn one ever since. That is 70 years of wearing a bra. I doubt if many other CD's can say that!