Sports bras are often categorized by impact level so that you can choose a bra to provide the support required for your level of movement or activity.

Sports bras are designed to support breasts for three impact levels:

• Low impact level
• Medium impact level
• High impact level
• Extreme impact level
  

Your sports bra requirement will be determined by the sport you are taking part in and also by the size of your breasts.

The higher the potential impact the more support you will require from your sports bra. For example, you will require more support for activities such as horse riding and netball than you would for walking or yoga.

A woman with larger breasts will need more support from a sports bra than a woman with smaller breasts who is doing the same activity. This is because larger breasts are more prone to vertical and lateral movement.

Sports Bras Impact level guide

Low impact sports bras – can be used for walking, hiking, yoga, pilates

Medium impact sports bras – good for low impact dancing, skiing and spinning classes

High impact sports bras – useful for horse riding, volley ball, netball, hockey and running

Extreme impact sports bras – as the name suggests these are for extremely high impact activities such as aerobics and martial arts. They are also popular for runnin, netball and hockey. Quite often people looking for high impact or extreme impact sports bras are looking for the same thing.