Filling up your gym bag for a workout, you grab the essentials: sneakers, water bottle, headphones, clothes, towel and corset. Wait, a corset? Yes that’s right, a corset. Many women are now adding corsets to their daily workout regimen.
Waist training, the official name for this new workout craze, gained popularity earlier this year thanks to promotion by numerous celebrities. The Kardashians, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Jenni “JWoww” Farley, and Jessica Alba are just a few celebrities who promote the new workout fad with waist training selfies on instagram.
The idea behind the fad is wearing a corset while completing your daily workout will help “train” your waist to shrink permanently. Ultimately, the goal for many women who now partake in this trend is to achieve that classic hourglass figure.
Right now you’re probably thinking to yourself “Is this real life? Are women ACTUALLY wearing corsets while working out in hopes of permanently shrinking their waist?” The answer is yes, unfortunately women everywhere are beginning to fall victim to this potentially dangerous fitness trend.
Corsets contain metal rods that lie vertically against your waist and ribcage and cinch in the back, pulling your waist in tight to give it an hourglass shape. Wearing a corset can restrict breathing and cause serious discomfort especially if worn while working out. Experts say while wearing the corset will provide one with temporary results it is by no means a permanent solution to get in shape.
The average cost for a corset from a reputable brand to waist train can be more than $100! That’s no small chunk of change especially for a college girl on a budget.
If you wear a corset under your clothes for a special occasion to give your figure that wow factor and boost your confidence then do you girl! However, wearing a corset religiously especially while working out to try and shrink your waist is a tad crazy if you ask me. Who says that your natural waist isn’t already beautiful?
“In terms of actually trying to ‘reshape’ your body and reposition the extra weight on you, there are no supporting evidence that it does that,” says Tabitha Daley, a senior at Indiana University of Pennsylvania majoring in nutrition and dietetics.
The age-old solution to this failed workout trend and many others is simple: diet and exercise. Take the money you would use for a waist trainer and invest in healthier food options and exercise moderately at your college’s gym.
I admit I am no health or fitness expert. I am simply a college girl that enjoys working out regularly and staying in shape. But it is clear to see after online research there is no feasible proof that waist training is safe or effective.
Women should love their bodies and not be held to a standard of having the “perfect” hourglass figure. If one wishes to make a change in their physical appearance to boost their self-confidence, diet and exercise is the way to go. Not cinching ones waist in with metal rods in hopes it reshapes and shrinks. Waist training is unsafe, expensive and holds no evidence that it actually works long term, and with that I say “no” to this fitness trend.