Female breasts and exercises – truths and myths

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2012-12-18

In this article, I will talk about how strength exercises influence or do not influence the size and shape of women's breasts. My coaching practice and questions from my readers indicate that many girls have their heads filled with all sorts of nonsense about breasts. I will try to guide you to the right path, using my authority, knowledge of physiology, and coaching experience.

1. Exercises can increase breast size

Unfortunately, that is not the case. Women's breasts consist of glandular tissue and fat. The pectoral muscles lie beneath. By training the breasts, you train the pectoral muscles. This has nothing to do with either glandular tissue or fat.

There are two natural ways to increase breast size. The first is to increase the amount of fat in the body. That is – gain weight. The second is to increase the size of the glandular tissue. And what needs to be done for that? Correct – get pregnant. So, choose the lesser of two evils ))

But all is not so bad. If you do a good job training your pectoral muscles (enough to increase their size), you can SLIGHTLY increase your breast size and SLIGHTLY lift them. However, your breasts will not undergo drastic changes. More details can be found in the article Exercises for chest muscles for women.

2. Strength exercises dry out the breasts

This opposing opinion is also unfounded. Many girls believe that if they train their pectoral muscles, the fat from their breasts will disappear, and they will shrink. As you understood from the first point: to reduce breast size, one must lose weight in general. Exercises that train specific muscles never reduce fat only in that area. More details can be found in the article 8 myths about weight loss.

If anyone has noticed, almost all fitness models have silicone breasts. Why? They have a very low body fat percentage, around 8% to 10%. Whereas women's normal body fat percentage should be 18% to 20%. The lower your body fat is, the smaller your breasts are. At 8%, they are practically nonexistent. Silicone is essential here )

3. Nursing mothers should not train their breasts

There is a belief that exercises on the pectoral muscles during this period can lead to a decrease in milk supply. Well, that's like saying: "Men should not do ab exercises! Otherwise, they won't produce sperm!" Skeletal muscles and your internal organs are entirely different tissues.

To be precise, the reality is quite the opposite. There is a risk that milk production may actually increase. Training muscles enhances blood flow to the organs that are in close proximity to those muscles. Increased blood circulation accelerates metabolic processes. This means those organs start working faster. Hence, the conclusion is that the rate of milk production may increase.

Conclusions

1. Exercises for the chest muscles train the chest muscles. Nothing more, nothing less. And a woman’s breast is an internal organ that is connected to the pectoral muscles only by their close proximity.

2. Breast size primarily depends on the amount of fat in the body and the amount of glandular tissue. It has nothing to do with muscles.

3. The shape of the breasts depends on the shape of the glands themselves and the elasticity of the skin. The more elastic the skin, the higher the breasts are.

I hope, dear women, that I haven’t upset you too much with this article ) And may you have beautiful breasts!