Renounce the Bounce! Holiday Sports Bra Review and Giveaway--Heart and Core

Sorry dudes, you may have little interest in hearing about the features, performance, and clever engineering of a new line of sports bras and tank tops from Heart &Core.

On the other hand…this post is all about large breasted women and their undergarments!

So here ya go:  a totally gratuitous image of female boobage NOT encased in a supportive brassiere from the Heart & Core Catalog.

You're welcome.

Also, if you're a guy, you could try to win a bra or top for your wife or girlfriend or mom or, well, for yourself if you are the owner of particularly jiggly moobs. We won't judge.

For gals, especially those who are C cups or larger, or who have post-surgical medical needs, you’ll have the chance to tame those tatas and enjoy exercising even more in the coming year. And it'snot just for U.S. residents. International folks are eligible too; we'll have 2 winners one of whom is NOT from the U.S. for a change!


About Heart & Core:

The company was started by two sisters, Jen and Lara. What was their motivation? "We took our mom out shopping, who has battled breast cancer on/off for the last 10 years, and found the selection for sports bras for larger chested women was very limited." In addition to the supportive sports bras, the company is also launching a post surgical line for women having breast, lung and heart surgery.

These gals are really nice, passionate about their product, and I got to meet one of them, Lara. She came to my house, supplied me with a free bra, and was not the least big judgmental about my not having a clue what size I wear.

This personal meeting was a bit of a risk though. I do honest reviews and Lara was extremely likeable. Which meant I had to hope like hell I actually liked the bra, too. Suppose the execution sucked and I couldn’t recommend it? Yikes! That would have been… awkward.


Fortunately for all concerned, I love my new bra. Whew!!

What’s So Great About Heart & Core technology?

1. The bras are very supportive.

I usually wear two sports bras because I hate to bounce; this one does as good a job on its own.

Why is it so supportive? Well, to swipe copy from their website, 'cause I'm lazy:

• They're designed to lift, encapsulates and compresses—for your bra to really work you need all three.
• Molded cups smooth and lift for perfect shaping and are seamless to prevent irritation.
• Boosts, supports and shapes with no uncomfortable underwire.
• Classic pullover style with racerback.
• Padded, adjustable straps, with rounded edges for additional comfort.
• Front panels wrap around and VELCRO® in place to customize fit of band.

But the most awesome feature of the "plus" line, and the reason I'm sold is:

2. The "Plus" line opens completely at the side allowing an easy escape!

This makes it the first supportive racerback bra I've ever encountered that I can get back out of without suffering posttraumatic stress.

This may not be a big deal to everyone, but I have never been able to buy anything but old fashioned  tank tops because I can't wear racerback bras underneath.

Has anyone else ever innocently gone shopping and tried a racerback bra on and then been trapped in a dressing room for 15 minutes trying to extricate yourself? My eventual escape, I am embarrassed to report, was accompanied by the telltale sound of ripping fabric, which I pretended not to hear as I was in no mood to fess up and pay for a bra engineered to be unremovable.

I don't know what my problem is, and maybe I'm the only one who sufffers from this curious inability to remove a racerback bra. In which case, thanks Heart and Core for designing a bra just for me!

The Quibble Part

Yeah, with any honest review there are gonna be a few.

1.  Velcro closures require careful lining up or you can end up with irritated skin.  I'm wondering if future versions might have a bit more of a non-velcro safety zone for those of us who are a bit klutzy in putting the bra on. The lining up process, for me, seems to require a mirror and a little more time than I'd normally spend putting on a bra.

2.  The price reflects the fancy engineering.  The bras run $60-65 bucks. This is not out of line at all for super-supportive bras for the C cup and higher gal, but if you don't need super-support you could probably find cheaper alternatives.

3.  Size availability: they range from 34–42; C–DD but I believe they are working on more sizes.

Overall, I'm very very happy with my new racerback bra!

Oh, and they have cute workout tops too and you could choose one of 'em if you win!

Wanna Win a Sports Bra or Workout Top of Your Own? TWO WINNERS!


Just leave a comment on this review by Wednesday January 2, 2013, and check back by Monday January 7th.

Note you don’t have to be a U.S. resident to enter. In fact, Heart & Core is ponying up 2 samples so that we can have one U.S. winner and one international winner.  So if you are not from the U.S., be sure to mention that in your comment and you'll have more chance to win. Unless Cranky Fitness becomes an overnight international web sensation and tons of new non US readers arrive to comment, but I ain't holding my breath.

Anyone else struggle to find a good sports bra?


Gratuitous boobage photo: Free Digital Images