Exercising While Top Heavy

I have found certain things are out of the question. For example, running while top heavy is not a good idea for me. It is painful to my breasts and back and I get comments. This would be a problem if I was a neanderthal who had to outrun a vicious sabertooth tiger, but I'm not so I am free to find other ways of exercise.

I found a great rowing machine on sale at amazon dot com and I have used it maybe 3 times the last two weeks. That's not that much, but if you consider that it's hitting over a hundred degrees in the Central Valley you'll understand why. Plus, I've been grieving over my cousin, but I can't just lie in bed all day and cry. I have to channel my emotions into something else. Like rowing.

Rowing is an excellent exercise if you're top heavy. There's no bouncing, no leaping, no jumping jacks. You just sit on a sliding seat, set the arm handles to the hardest level, and push off the foot rests for 20 to 30 minutes. I can feel the burn in my butt and thighs. Rowing is also good for strengthening the back muscles which will help to alleviate any back pain caused from large breasts. According to the internet, it's the second best all over exercise to do, second only to swimming. It also helps posture, which top heavy women often have a problem with. Myself, I often hunch over or lean to one side or the other and put my weight on my arms when sitting. Not good. Sometimes I just plop my chest onto the table when I'm using my laptop so that they can stop bothering me. I think I may need a chiropractor or a good masseuse.

Another thing to do is yoga. I took a yoga class my first year at the University, when I was thin, and I loved it. Due to my weight gain and sudden growth of breasts into a 36H cup (or 38DDD, depending on what bra I'm wearing), I can't do some of the trickier poses I used to do like that pose where you put your legs over your head until your feet touch the floor. Or anything that requires me to lift my upper torso. I still do some poses though, just to keep my body stretchy. I do sun salute and various other sitting poses where I look like a pretzel.

Sit-ups are out of the question. Each breast is like a weight that I have to lift every time I do a sit-up. I'm not being lazy. It hurts, especially my neck muscles, which get strained from all the tension. Then my back starts to get sore. Doing 100 is like crazy painful and I've never made it that high in one exercise session. There was this contraption at the community college I used to go to: a board with two arms rests. You step up and hang there, putting your weight on your arms, and you lift  your legs up. That was nice. I used that thing every class period. It not only toned my flabby tummy but it also made my arms a lot stronger.

Ellipticals are good, too. It's more like skiing than running. The University gym has a bunch except I hated the locker room experience and everybody else was thin or buff and I felt so out of place in my overweight frame that I quit going and went back to lifting a 10 pound weight at home. I'll give it a go next semester since I guess I'm being silly about feeling so out of place.

I've heard pilates is really, really amazing for everybody, regardless of size, but I haven't tried it yet. It looks like I'd need to buy a good DVD, invest in a mat and a giant inflatable ball, and find a place to exercise with lots of space (my room is little). So, maybe I'll try that later on. Another thing I'd like to try is resistance training but my mother banned any more exercise equipment after I spent about 2 hours in the living room trying to figure out how to put the rower together. My family complained about the giant pieces of rower they had to step over to get to the kitchen. I finally got it together and dragged it outside, but my mother was all, "was a rower something you HAD to have?" and "No more exercise equipment!"

What I really need is a good sports bra. But in my size that's pricey, around 40 bucks or even more! There's this woman who went on British television arguing that bra manufacturers should stop charging more for larger size bras. I agree. If you charged 30 bucks for a size 2 pair of pants and 40 bucks for a size 5, people would be howling. It's only because bustier women tend to be a little heavier (there are exceptions) that people feel it's right to overcharge them. It's fat discrimination. Not fair! People like to argue that it's because you use more fabric but it's not. Look at some of the 34AA bras out there. Sure, they're little, but they're always stuffed with expensive padding and dolled up in shiny fabric, lace, and other types of bling that isn't used on full figure bras. Full figure bras don't get the same flashy treatment, which should actually make them cheaper since manufacturers don't have to pay for all that padding, print designs, lace, and more padding. It's like they know we have no choice but to wear a bra since we're well-endowed and they feel free to charge whatever they feel like. A flat chested person can run around with no bra if she chooses and the manufacturers know this so they cater to them with pretty designs and padded cups. A busty woman is frowned upon if she steps out in public with no bra. The last time I went out bra-less (my ill-fitting bra had left a red welt on my torso and it hurt to wear it so I went without a bra) I was hooted at, leered at, and some jerk yelled, "Nice tits." I felt pissed off, powerless, and very conspicuous. As soon as that cut disappeared I wriggled back into a bra. Manufacturers know that large chested women have little alternative than to shell out a wad of cash. Considering that there are plenty of heavy busted women nowadays and not that many 30AA cups, you'd think the profits they make in a year would justify lowering the price just a little bit. But no, I have to shop at expensive places for custom bras. Or "specialty bras" as they're humorously called. What's so special about them? There's like a trillion overweight, large busted women running around and it's totally normal now. Why am I being segregated from department stores and fashion outlets? Anyways, I'm done griping.

I got 4 cute bras in the mail today through Cacique. 38DDD bras. They fit alright. Mostly, I like that they're not matronly or minimizing or plain. What is the deal with minimizing bras? It's like saying, "Sorry, you don't fit the acceptable range of boobs, please flatten those out so they don't distract my boyfriend." Plunge bras are way better than any minimizing bra. They're much more flattering. Especially if you're overweight like me and want to move attention away from your plump figure, a plunge bra with a low cut blouse works nicely. By the time men realize I'm fat they're already hooked! I was very insecure, being an older student at 28, going to the University my first semester with very slender and pretty sorority girls, so I started wearing cleavage-revealing tops. It might not have made me fit in with the thin sorority girls, but it didn't hurt my grades, either!