Is It Ok To Do Yoga Without A Bra? 3 Useful Tips To Choose A Sports Bra For Yoga — Yoga Kali – Fitness Tips

✅ Fact Checked

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It is OK to do yoga without a bra as long as you don’t feel any discomfort or pain and practice gentle and slow yoga styles. If, on the other hand, you have larger breasts and you’re a fan of fast-flowing and strenuous yoga styles, you will likely benefit from a yoga sports bra.

Not only will a good sports bra make your practice more comfortable and hassle-free but also it can potentially prevent the damage of breast connective tissue, thus saving your breasts from premature sagging and stretch marks.

1/2 Is it safe to exercise without a bra?

Sports bras are made to support your breasts and minimize their movement during exercise, thus increasing your overall comfort. However, not wearing a sports bra during exercise won’t necessarily lead to injury or structural changes to your breasts such as sagging.

Our breasts are mostly made of fat and connective tissue. The main reasons breasts lose their shape are related to genetics, natural aging such as the loss of collagen and the work of gravity as well as lifestyle.

While you probably shouldn’t be worried about your breasts sagging because of going braless during exercise, you also have to keep two factors in mind:

the type of exercise you’re doing – whether you’re simply stretching or doing a high-impact exercise such as running
the size of your breasts.

Experts agree that an occasional workout without a bra won’t likely do any harm to your breasts, especially if you’re not feeling any discomfort or pain during movement.

However, if you have larger breasts, continuous high-impact exercise such as jumping and running without a bra might lead to major muscular discomfort in your back, shoulders, and neck. This, in turn, can cause poor form during exercise, and cause muscle imbalances and injury.

What’s more, during high-intensity exercise the breasts are moving in “a figure of eight” – up and down and from side to side. Combined with the pull of gravity, such movement can strain the breast tissue and can potentially cause breast pain.

Is It Ok To Do Yoga Without A Bra? - "experts agree that an occasional workout without a bra won't likely do any harm to your breasts, especially if you're not feeling any discomfort or pain during movement."

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2/2 So how about yoga? Should I wear a bra to yoga?

Ultimately, whether to wear a sports bra to a yoga class or not is a matter of personal choice.

Most yoga styles, including strenuous cardio yoga or power yoga, aren’t as fast and high-impact as running. Thus, the risk of getting painful breasts from not wearing a sports bra to a yoga class is significantly lower.

That said, yoga involves lots of forward folds and twists. If you feel likely you have to literally tuck in your breasts or hold them to get into the pose, you’ll likely benefit from a supportive sports bra. It will not only increase your comfort during the asana class but also prevent unnecessary distractions.

If, on the other hand, you’re feeling zero discomfort when not wearing a sports bra for your yoga class and going braless doesn’t cause any sort of distractions during practice, you can absolutely skip a sports bra for yoga.

If you don’t like wearing a sports bra, but want a little bit of extra support for your breasts, there are a lot of yoga tops with a built-in shelf bra on the market.

Should I wear a bra to yoga? If you feel likely you have to literally tuck in your breasts or hold them to get into the pose, you'll likely benefit from a supportive sports bra.

What sports bra is best for yoga?

You might need a few different sports bras in your activewear wardrobe if you’re doing a variety of sports and exercise. When it comes to yoga, the best sports bra is the one that is comfortable and not too restricting, fits well, and moves with you.

Here are three easy tips on how to choose a yoga sports bra:

Go for a low to a medium-impact sports bra. I would suggest avoiding high-impact sports bras for yoga since they can be too constricting. Breathing is an essential part of the practice so you want to be able to expand your chest and breathe freely during a class. If you have a larger bust size, wider straps can offer extra support during a yoga practice.

Choose breathable and moisture-wicking fabrics. I love the touch of natural fabrics such as organic cotton against my skin. However, when it comes to exercising and yoga, I go for technical fabric (recycled nylon or polyester) that will make the sweat evaporate faster and more efficiently. This is especially important if you like to practice strenuous yoga styles such as Vinyasa, Power yoga, or Ashtanga. Technical fabric will also withstand more frequent washings and overall wear and tear so you could enjoy your sports bra for months to come. That said, if you mostly practice slow and gentle types of yoga, a stretchy and supportive sports bra made of organic cotton or Tencel will work fine too.

Choose medium to high coverage bras. Yoga involves a lot of twisting and folding and moving your body in all sorts of unexpected ways. Tiny sports bras with super narrow straps and low cuts can cause bra spillage at the most inconvenient moment, especially if you’re endowed with larger breasts.

Finding the right yoga sports bra might be a bit of a quest. But once you encounter it, you will never want to take it off and will likely wear your sports bra casually as a crop top.

Here are my top three favorite sports bras for doing yoga (and wearing casually):