Corset training, likewise referred to as waist training, figure training and the even more familiar tight-lacing, is at its most basic a technique for body modification. The waist and torso are formed using the external pressure produced by the firmly laced corset. The waist and surrounding torso are very slowly minimized over a long period – months to years, as the body slowly adapts to the shape of the corset design. The wearer needs to feel comfy at all times and any pain is an indicator that the corset is too tightly laced. As a general guideline it ought to seem like you are being tightly hugged, not breathlessly squeezed! It is extremely important to slowly progress with your waist reduction, as sudden reductions can trigger aches and pains. Let me dispel the common preconception that corset training has to involve suffering on any level, putting on a corset needs to feel good! Almost to the point of you forgetting you’re wearing one.
Now, in terms of time scale; your waist reduction will be affected by your body type, to be precise by your fat mass and abdominal muscle strength. Both can extend the time frame it takes to get down to very small sizes (although initially fat is very easily compressed), but in general an inch a month is the standard up to around six inches, after which each extra inch can take an entire year to achieve. The corset likewise requires wearing for at least 12 hours a day, with the majority of devoted tight-lacers practicing a 23/7 policy, just taking their corsets off to bathe and only loosening them to sleep, (some wear an older, looser corset at night). It’s up to you to choose how far you take it, if your not enjoying it shorten the time you wear it until you are ready to take it up a notch.
Another common myth (or just wishful thinking) is that the corset design has the affect after just a few months of wear, of permanently changing your waist size. Regrettably the corset can’t do this, although it can be used as a dieting tool as it limits food intake and makes you feel full quicker (comparable to a gastric bypass or band) and worn for a number of years waist training will keep you thinner than you otherwise would have been had you never ever worn a corset. Even devoted corset trainers with years of waist training under their belts (bad pun) report that after only an hour unlaced, their waists have actually expanded to a degree. Because the soft tissues have only been displaced/compressed and not gotten rid of, everything starts to shift back into place. Corset training does nevertheless have a semi permanent effect on the shape of your rib cage, which sounds scarier than it is, I guarantee! The ribs are really pliable and will take on the conical shape of the corset in time. There is debate as to whether they stay in this new position or gradually go back to their regular shape when corset training is ceased totally, but it is possible to keep the rib shape with a few hours corset wear each day. When it comes to health concerns, no medical evidence has actually been discovered to prove that even the extreme tight-lacing of the Victorian period had unfavorable impact on health for those that practiced it – and I’ve looked for it. The internal organs move around to a large degree but still work perfectly, in reality they are put under higher pressure throughout a natural pregnancy and this might be why the female body suffers no ill effects from corset training.
