The Great Sports Bra Robbery

Every woman knows if you're going to exercise you need a good sports bra. Whether you have the lion's share in the chest department or you're pretty much flat chested, it's really important to have a sports bra that supports your delicate breast tissue.

There are so many to choose from, all with their own pros and cons but one big con they all have in common is the price.

Take, for example, the Shock Absorber Run Bra - widely acknowledged as the best support bra for high impact sports like running. At around £37 you'd want it to be! I mean, that's a lot of money for something you can't exercise without.

It's the same whatever brand you go for - Nike, Playtex, Berlei - all tend to come in at £25 - £40. You can save a bit by going for a 'bra top' style, but that doesn't work for my 34Es which need a bit more discipline than a stretchy lycra crop-top can offer. You'll also find that sometimes the price goes up as the cup size does within each style of bra, which seems a little unfair!

There are much more important things to spend £40 on than a sports bra - like school shoes - which has made me feel like buying a new sports bra is simply a luxury I can't afford. It shouldn't feel like a luxury product, it's an essential piece of kit! My only sports bra is 5 years old and pretty much useless now. I've been putting off getting a new one for ages, having to cope with sore boobs and shoulders every time I work out, even resorting to wearing it over a normal bra to try and get more support out of it. [I have bought a new one now, but only because my husband made me]

I'm not suggesting we do away with sports bra's and start strapping ourselves in with gaffer tape (actually, would that work?!) but, with all the pressure on women to get active shouldn't the big sportswear and underwear brands be making changes? I think they should be making it easier for us to get out there and get active, not harder.

How to Achieve Your Goals

If you haven't joined my fitness linky yet, why not?! I'm asking you all to set three fitness goals to achieve between 12th November and Christmas Day. Just writing them down will help, but you do need to think about how you're going to get there too.

Step 1
Turn your goals from wafty, lofty aims into smart objectives. Each one should be

Specific - Don't just say you'll be better at something, pick a distance you want to run, a weight you want to lift, a number of times to attend a class.

Measureable - Make sure you can give yourself a tick at the end by choosing something you can measure. Plan your routes so you know the distance you've covered or activate that GPS. Keep a diary to log everything you do and then, in six weeks time you'll know you've succeeded.
 
Achievable - There's no point saying you want to bench 500 kg or run 2000 miles - that's just silly and not at all possible.

Realistic - Similar to the point above, don't aim to run 100 miles in 6 weeks if you're a beginner. Equally, don't under-estimate yourself - if you're already running 10 miles a week aim a little higher.

Timebound - Luckily for you I've set the timescale on this, so you know how long you have to get where you want to be!


Step 2
Make a plan. How will you achieve all this? Are you going to gradually increase your weekly activity or log as much time as possible straight away? Write what you're going to do over the next 6 weeks on a calendar and you should find it easy to keep on track.


Step 3
Support each other. Encourage friends to join in, make new fit friends on twitter and facebook. When you're feeling un-motivated they'll help you, when you're raring to go inspire others. Support is the key to success in this!

So, good luck everyone, let's get ready to rock the winter fitness.
 

Rrrrrraaaawwwwrrrrr!

Fitness Link-up

Find yourself in a winter phunk? Yeah, me too. Set yourself 3 fitness goals and stick to them. Post a link below to a blog post / tweet / facebook status listing them and we'll work through it together.

My goals - between 12th November - 24th December I will

1. Run 35 miles
2. Cycle 150 miles
3. Bench 30kg

Lat Pulldown

Your lattimus dorsi are the muscles running down either side of your back. Keeping them strong helps posture and core strength as well as your overall upper body strength. Using a cable machine to do lat pull downs is a great way to work these muscles for a beginner as you can start with a small weight. If you're already pretty strong you can work your lats with pull-ups.

I'm pretty new to the whole upper body workout thing so I'm using my multi-gym (bargain from Cashies) to build up my strength. For this exercise, as with most, I do a pyramid - starting at a low weight with 30 reps, I then increase the weight and go down to 20 reps, increase the weight again for 10 reps then go back down.

• Start by sitting facing the machine and grasp the bar overhand (palms away from you) - a wide grip works the whole lat muscle whilst a close grip focuses more on the lower lat and biceps.
• Lean back at about a 30° angle and pull the bar down to chest level. Focus on squeezing with your back muscles and not your arms, try to keep elbows directly under your hands.
• Slowly raise the bar maintaining control and tension at all times.
• Repeat, repeat, repeat!

To stretch afterwards first cross your arms around yourself to grasp the opposite shoulder and hug tightly to feel a stretch across the whole of your upper back. Next stand with feet shoulder width apart and bend at the waist keeping your back straight. Reach forwards to feel a stretch down the whole of the back and hold for 10.

Upper Body Weights

I'm trying to increase my upper body strength at the moment, but I'm a bit clueless about weights. Luckily my lovely Mr Bunn is here to help me and has designed an upper body workout for me! I do this once a week (although I feel like i should be doing it more often). Matthew tells me not to focus on the weight or the fact that I am lifting way less than the people I follow on fitocracy. He wants me to focus on reps. Lots of reps makes pretty arms and builds up strength without ending up properly muscly. I tend to do pyramids - so I start with lots of reps at a low weight, then increase weight and decrease reps, then back down again.

So, here's what I did on a recent session...

Review: TLC Sport

I was recently sent a couple of items from ladies sportswear brand TLC Sport. Currently celebrating its 20th year, TLC Sport has a huge range of clothing all designed and made here in the UK. One of my favourite things is how personal everything is - this is a family run business which really puts the customer first. For example, you can request plus-size items at no extra charge. Now that's service!

Sport Pursuit Pop-Up Sales

I'm guessing that, seeing as you're here on Running Bunn, you're into sports. As such, it would be safe to assume you like sports clothing and equipment. Me too! That's why I was so excited when I found out about Sport Pursuit. It's sort of like Brand Alley - pop-up sales where you get big brand stuff at tiny prices.

I was gutted to have missed the Shock Absorber sale, totally need a new sports bra, but there's some great other stuff on there too. You need to join in order to see the sales, but it's free so don't panic. Also, if you get friends to join you receive money off your orders.

So sign up to Sport Pursuit and bag yourself some bargains like these!

Buddying Up

Image Credit

Motivating yourself to exercise is all very well and good, but there will be some days when you don't feel like it and you will struggle to convince yourself that getting active is more important than watching Torchwood. That's where buddies come in.

30 Day Shred

I've heard about the 30 Day Shred before, and I've heard it's pretty tough. Jillian Michaels (the one who makes fat Americans exercise until they're sick on The Biggest Loser) uses her 3-2-1 technique to get the best workout from the shortest time. That's strength-cardio-abs. 3-2-1. Easy.

Vegan Breakfast Smoothie

I'm not a big fan of eating in the mornings so a smoothie is the perfect option. This is my current favourite...

Fat definitely doesn't mean fit

This. This annoys me. The most shared story on the BBC News website right now is that fat people can be fit. Well that's just excellent. Cue hoards of overweight heart-attacks-in-waiting crying "See! We told you!" through bites of doughnuts and KFC. Fat people will see fit and read healthy, and this is why...

Girls and Rugby

My husband plays rugby. It's violent, muddy and tough. You have to be incredibly fit and incredibly strong to do well. So you might think I'm crazy when I tell you I've just signed up my five year old daughter to the local team.

Magazine Wishes

I'm not a big reader of magazines, mainly because I'm not really fashion savvy like some people. Every now and then I fancy reading something light, entertaining and inspiring. My feet drag me towards the magazine rack and that's where the disappointment rears its head.

On yer bike...!

Running the 3 miles to work each morning is just not feasible - I'd get there for sure, but I'd smell pretty bad for the whole day. So I've started cycling. 3 miles there, 3 miles back. That's SIX MILES every day. Being a cheapskate I refuse to buy myself a bike so am using one I found in my parents' garage, one originally bought for me when I was 14. Half a life ago.

It's a bit too small for me, and only has 10 gears but for me, it's perfect. It turns out cycling is way easier than running! I go 3 miles in no time! I can get up half an hour later than if I was getting the bus to work, I'm saving money, reducing my carbon footprint (do people still care about that?!) and getting regular exercise too.

That's not to say it's actually easy, oh no. By Saturday night, after six days straight of biking I was cream crackered. I have no idea how I can fit a run into my week at the moment. Legs of jelly don't cope well walking across the garden let alone a run!

So, whilst my body learns to cope with a whole new form of exercise the running has been moved to the back burner. I'll be concentrating on core and arm strength when I can and, hopefully, next time I run I'll have found some extra speed from the extra leg muscles I'm accumulating!

Focus On: Side Stitch

A lot of novice runners give up quickly thanks to little niggles. Here, I address those problems and solve them so you can get out there and run! Or at least you'll have answers for all those lazy buggers who come up with excuses not to run with you.

Side Stitch

Focus On: Back Pain

A lot of novice runners give up quickly thanks to little niggles. Here, I address those problems and solve them so you can get out there and run! Or at least you'll have answers for all those lazy buggers who come up with excuses not to run with you.

Back Pain

Focus On: Headaches

A lot of novice runners give up quickly thanks to little niggles. Here, I address those problems and solve them so you can get out there and run! Or at least you'll have answers for all those lazy buggers who come up with excuses not to run with you.

 Headaches

Focus On: Shin Splints

A lot of novice runners give up quickly thanks to little niggles. Here, I address those problems and solve them so you can get out there and run! Or at least you'll have answers for all those lazy buggers who come up with excuses not to run with you.

Shin Pain

Focus On: Runner's Knee

A lot of novice runners give up quickly thanks to little niggles. Here, I address those problems and solve them so you can get out there and run! Or at least you'll have answers for all those lazy buggers who come up with excuses not to run with you.

Runner's Knee

Review: Zombies, Run!

Coming to the end of a short, intense run I'm flagging. I'm thinking about slowing down, perhaps even walking for a bit. Then comes Sam's voice in my headphones. There's an unusually fast zombie right behind me, she's gaining on me, I've got to run!