Running bras have come a long way since 1977, when Lisa Lindahl and Polly Smith stitched together a pair of jockstraps to create the original Jogbra. Current models aren’t just comfortable and supportive; they’re performance-enhancing. Studies have found that more supportive bras reduce oxygen consumption—a proxy for how much energy you’re burning at a given running pace—by 7 percent, perhaps by enabling subtle changes in your running stride.
But they’re not perfect. Surveys find that less than half of women choose to wear a sports bra during physical activity. The most common complaints are that the shoulder straps slip or chafe, and that the bands are so tight around the ribcage that they’re uncomfortable and restrict breathing. It’s this last concern that resonated with Shalaya Kipp, a former Olympic steeplechase runner and—conveniently—an exercise scientist at the University of British Columbia specializing in respiratory physiology. (She recently moved to a new position at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.)
In Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Kipp and her UBC colleagues share the results of…
