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Will Weight Lifting Help Breast Shape?

can you reshape your own breasts through weight lifting vs. getting plastic surgery?

Sort 16 expert answers by:
+1

Lifting weights will NOT create a breast lift!

When you are physically fit, your pectoralis major muscle hypertrophies (becomes larger and more well-defined). The overlying tissue, including your chest skin, fat and some of your breasts, may become slightly more prominent. However, the breast droops with age, time and having children because of loss of tone of collagen and elastin, suspensory ligaments that hold the breast, nipple and areola to the chest wall. There is nothing that can be done to prevent this natural droop to the... more
Karen M. Horton, MD
San Francisco Plastic Surgeon
+1

Weight lifting has nothing to do with breast shape.

The breasts sit over the pectoralis muscle but are not a part of it.  Weight liftinging has to effect on breast shape or size.  If the pectoralis gets bigger the chest might appear larger but the breast size does not change.
Vincent N. Zubowicz, MD
Atlanta Plastic Surgeon
+1

Will weight lifting give me a Breast Lift?

Hi there- Unfortunately, there is no exercise amount, technique, or level of intensity that will lift your breasts if they have lost a bit of their pep... The supporting tissues of the breast are independent of your chest muscles, and similarly, breast sagging has nothing to do with whether or not you are in shape. The best way to achieve your desired breast contour is to locate a surgeon certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery and visit them for a consultation. Here's some help fin more
Armando Soto, MD
Orlando Plastic Surgeon
+1

Shaping the breast without surgery

Exercise will improve on your muscle ton and muscle size. It has NO effect on the breast or the skin. If your breast is ptotic, droopy and the skin has lost its elasticity the only way to repair is surgery.
Samir Shureih, MD
Baltimore Plastic Surgeon
+1

Weight lifting will not improve breast shape

Weight lifting will not have any significant effect on the shape of the breasts. It will help make the pectoralis muscle more defined. Sorry to disappoint.  
Steven Wallach, MD
Manhattan Plastic Surgeon
+1

Weight lifting will shape your muscles, not your breast

Weight lifting will get you more pectoral muscles. This will not affect the shape of your breast that much. The breast is made of skin,fat and glandular tissues,only a surgical lift can address all these elements. Hope that helps!
Hisham Seify, MD, PhD
Los Angeles Plastic Surgeon
+1

Weight lifting cannot improve breast shape

I wish the answer was yes, but unfortunately it is not. The breast, which is on top of the pectoralis major muscle, but has no muscle itself, cannot be changed by weight lifting.  Only surgery can reshape and lift the breast. Good luck and keep on weight lifting! Your bones appreciate it.
Tracy Pfeifer, MD
Manhattan Plastic Surgeon
+1

Weight lifting is not Breast lifting

Unfortunately, weight lifting cannot reshape the breast. The breast is made up of glandular tissue and fat, while the muscle lies beneath it. While weight lifting will improve your muscle strength and tone, it will not contribute to reshaping the tissue that the breast is made of. Unfortunately, only Plastic Surgery can do this.
Adam David Lowenstein, MD
Santa Barbara Plastic Surgeon
+1

Can weight lifting improve breast shape? Probably not.

Breasts are under the skin but above the muscle. Exercising will improve your muscle tone, but will not effect the shape of the breasts.  It is not possible to lift breasts just by weight lifting. 
Elizabeth Lee, MD
Bay Area Plastic Surgeon
+1

Unfortunately, exercise will not change breast shape

I agree with the majority of the doctors repsonses. Exercise will affect the muscle underneath the breast but the breast , on top, will not be tightened or uplifted by exercise. The only way to tighten skin significantly on any part of the body is through surgical removal of excess skin. On the breasts, if there is minor sagging sometimes just an implant alone can restore volume and create enough lift that no further surgery is necessary.
Robert B. Pollack, MD
La Jolla Plastic Surgeon
+1

Weight lifting and breast changes

You can't improve the shape or size of the breasts by doing pectoralis muscle exercise. All you will be changing is the underlying platform from which the breasts are projected. If your breasts have lost tone and volume, no amount of exercise will reverse this trend. Surgery, either an augmentation with an implant, or a lift, or a combination of both an implant and lift will be necessary.
Richard P. Rand, MD, FACS
Seattle Plastic Surgeon
+1

Weight lifting will NOT help breast shape

The lower edge of Pectoralis Major muscle usually underlies the nipple in men and is a few fingers higher than the nipple in women. As you can see from body building magazines, as the volume of the Pectoralis major increases this relation does not change. BUT - very few serious female body builders have much fat volume and many rely on breast augmentation to maintain breast volume. Serious body building will NOT increase breast volume. As a matter of fact it may even deplete it. Exercise... more
Peter A. Aldea, MD
Memphis Plastic Surgeon
+1

Weight Lifting great, but does not replace surgery

Weight lifting is great to help build and define upper body tone. It will also aid you in losing total body fat, which may include reduction of fat within the breasts. However, weight lifting will not increase breast size, nor will it correct sagging breast skin.
Kevin Brenner, MD
Los Angeles Plastic Surgeon
+1

Weight lifting won't help breast shape

Hello, If by "breast shape" you are referring to droopy breasts, the answer is no. Exercise does not tighten the skin. So weight lifting won't really help improve "breast shape."
John P. Di Saia, MD
Orange Plastic Surgeon
+1

Cosmetic Breast Surgery is the Most Trusted Way to Improve Breast Shape

I suppose that some degree of breast shaping may be possible through weightlifting, and in fact a woman with strong pectoral muscles may be more likely to retain a "perky" breast shape. But I personally would not recommend weight lifting as a substitute to breast augmentation for a few reasons.First, the breasts are comprised of glandular and fatty tissue, not muscle. Extensive weightlifting combined with dieting actually can dramatically decrease the amount of fatty tissue in the... more
Mark P. Solomon, MD
Philadelphia Plastic Surgeon
+1

Weight lifting to correct breast shape.

Unfortunately, as a plastic surgeon, I am biased. I see the patients who have tried this and failed. So, in my opinion, it does not achieve sufficient or adequate correction of the breast shape. However, to be fair, I also don't see the patients who may have had a satsifactory outcome from this intervention.
Otto Joseph Placik, MD
Chicago Plastic Surgeon
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