Exercise with Breast Implants

    TAMPA, FL, August 15, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- If you are an active woman who takes pride in sculpting your figure, you're likely happy with much of what you've accomplished. Toned arms, tight abs, and firm thighs can all be achieved with a little hard work and discipline. What you might not be as happy with is your breasts. While most everywhere fat is the enemy to be eradicated, in your breasts fat performs the vital role of giving them volume and completing an attractive, feminine figure.

If this is how you feel, you might be considering breast implants, and you might be worrying that breast implants will affect your ability to maintain your exercise routine. The good news is that in most cases, breast implants will not interfere with your routine, although there may be some significant concerns if you are competing at the highest levels in some sports.

Things to Keep in Mind

To make sure breast implants do not interfere with your exercise routine, there are a few things you need to keep in mind before and after your breast augmentation.

First, make sure your breast implants are proportional. You want your breast implants to be a natural size for your frame. During your consultation with a plastic surgeon, your chest and natural breast footprint will be measured. Your surgeon will then make recommendations about the sizes of breast implants that you can safely get. Selecting breast implants at the middle to lower part of the range will help you keep up your exercise routine with a minimum of interference.

Take your time getting back to exercising. It's easy to get impatient when you are having to rest for a few days and then are only allowed small amounts of exercise during your recovery. However, if you listen to your surgeon's advice and take the full four to six weeks to work your way back to your full routine, you will reduce your risk of complications, some of which may require additional surgery.

Wear an appropriate sports bra. A sports bra not only protects your breasts from injury during exercise, it reduces the amount their independent motion takes away from your personal performance. If your breasts are held firmly to your chest, they will move with the rest of your body and not independently. You will likely want an encapsulated sports bra and consider one with an underwire after breast augmentation. Also, don't forget to replace it regularly, as the elastic can wear out

Competitive Athletics and Breast Implants

If your exercise routine goes beyond just keeping yourself fit and toned, you may have some additional concerns. When you're at the highest levels of competition, you need to be aware that breast implants may affect your competitiveness.

Running--Small proportionate implants will likely not affect your competitiveness, but even medium-sized implants may shave a few tenths of a second off a dash and more off long-distance running.

Tennis--Women with larger breasts sometimes find their backhand is affected.

Swimming--Breast implants are basically neutrally buoyant (they neither sink nor float in water), but they can increase your drag by 10% or more.

Boxing--Competitive women's boxing has banned competitors with breast implants. This may change in the future, as many women are campaigning to be allowed to compete.

Weight lifting--Submuscular placement of breast implants can impact the maximum weight you can lift over your head. In addition, the stress of weight lifting may place additional stress on breast implants and may increase the risk of rupture.

Speaking of submuscular placement of breast implants, it's important to note that they can sometimes look unusual during exercise. Up to 17% of patients reported moderate to severe distortion of submuscular breast implants. That number increased to 19% when exercising and up to 24% when weight lifting.

If you are considering breast implants, it's important that you talk to your plastic surgeon about these concerns before getting surgery.

To talk to a board certified plastic surgeon in the Tampa area, please visit the website of the Clinique of Plastic Surgery today at www.cliniqueps.com.

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