“WHY don’t more women do sport?” was the teasing headline that caught my eye this week. The answer? They just need more support.

The story came from research at the University of Portsmouth, where Dr Joanna Scurr has been analysing how breasts move during the stress of exercise. Apparently they move in three dimensions, meaning that even bras sold specifically for sports use aren’t sufficiently tethering.

You rarely see big-bosomed women in sport. A glorious embonpoint is a big disadvantage for the otherwise athletically gifted. Indeed, when you know that Dr Scurr’s previous research has revealed that for every mile a woman runs, her breasts bounce 135 metres, you can understand why successful sportswomen seem to be universally flat-chested.

But the serious point is that breast bounce really is an impediment to women’s health. It’s not just the embarrassment of your breasts meeting you coming back as you attempt a triple salchow on the ice. Breasts can weigh 300g each (more than a packet of butter), and prolonged wobble strains the delicate Cooper’s ligament that supports the breast. This causes breast pain to about 60 per cent of women when they exercise, providing a real disincentive to strenuous activity.

As a result, women may give up sport, not just depriving their country of potential sporting heroines, but more importantly, giving up the exercise they need for good health. But it could be the threat of sag that puts them off more. Once Cooper’s ligament has been stretched permanently, droop becomes irreversible. In fact, the breast is still perfectly healthy once it has gone south, but the problem is cultural.

In Western cultures, sagging breasts are almost universally regarded as unattractive, things you see in old copies of National Geographic while waiting for the dentist. Their undesirability is also a symptom of our obsession with youth; in those who have lived, had children, and breast-fed them all, Cooper’s ligament is overwhelmed. Pertness is all.

If we really want to change many women’s reluctance to exercise, a change in prevailing views of beauty would be nice. But in the real world, let’s be grateful that “encapsulated” or moulded bras help to contain the problem, and that Dr Scurr is working with manufacturers on types that can prevent breast movement in three dimensions. Tame those bosoms with suitable bras before taking up a regular exercise regimen and you’ll be pert and healthy. Definitely something to put a bounce in your step.

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