Is breast pain affecting your performance?
The team at University Centre Sparsholt are delighted to see research led by Jenny Burbage of the University of Portsmouth and Lorna Cameron from University Centre Sparsholt receive international coverage from the Fédération Équestre Internationale
The article features the new study that investigates the prevalence and impact of breast pain, bra issues and breast size on female riders. While research has been extensive on sports bras in runners, very little has been done around horse riding, as Cameron says it is often “not thought of as a sport.”
Breast pain is a major barrier to participation in riding and in fact, breast pain in female riders has been found to affect performance. The lack of education around proper support has led to many athletes riding in pain without awareness of the source of the issue – which is likely from their sport of choice.
Cameron said that they are conducting further research to measure how the breast moves when riding horses and what the actual impact of wearing a sports bra was on this movement. The pair has presented an abstract on whether sports bras would in fact reduce pain in female horse riders. Watch this space!
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