The pressure felt to lose weight and look fit is undeniable understandable, especially for women. None of it seems to come easily either, because who has the time and energy? Although more recently viewed on celebrities like the Kardashians and Snooki, the corset trend can also be found flipping through the pages of our history textbooks. In the Victorian era, women wore corsets to attain a more womanly, hourglass figure. However, they never referred to it as "training."
What is waist training? According to waisttrainers.net, "waist training is a process that involves wearing a latex waist trainer or a tight-laced corset to cinch in your waistline. It’s used to give women a more exaggerated hourglass figure with a really small waist but curvy hips. You won’t have to wear your waist trainer every hour of the day, but you will find that the more you do wear it the faster the results you will get. This also means even when you have cinched in your waist to the size you want you still may have to wear the trainer or corset for a few hours every few days to keep that appearance up." This means it doesn't actually lead to any permanent results unless you were to wear it almost every hour of every day.
When you wear one of the waist-training corsets, you are essentially pulling together your upper and lower back, and your stomach. That doesn't sound so awful. But what is really going on? Yes, your posture may improve for a few hours during the day. The pressure on your ribs is also pushing your lungs together and making it hard for them to fully inflate, so shortness of breath is another probable side effect. Your stomach may also appear smaller after just a few hours. However, your intestines are being condensed and pushed into places they aren't really meant to be, causing discomfort and numerous digestion and bowel problems. All in all, the visual benefits may not be permanent, but the physical side effects can most certainly turn into permanent health problems. So what do you lose by waist training? Weight? No. What do you gain? Muscle? No, but eventually you could find yourself with some health concerns.
This "fashion statement" is yet another way for women to be exposed to body shaming. In today's society, the way young women see themselves is seriously skewed. We don't need to advertise in favor of yet another unnatural "beauty tool" that people can become addicted to and obsess over. There is a reason we are born with a waist size that isn't drastically smaller than our ribs or hips, and that reason isn't so that we will feel insecure. We are born this way because anatomically, it makes sense. That's how our bodies function at their best, and that's how we should view them as their best -- when they are natural, no matter what shape or size.
If you talk to any doctor, I guarantee they will tell you that this method is not a healthy habit to adopt. If you talk to any professional trainer, I guarantee they will tell you that this method is not actually making you any stronger. So what's all of the craze about? You feel good when you put it on and go out, but what about when you come home and take it off? You shouldn't need some suffocating contraption to feel beautiful, and a truly healthy lifestyle starts when you decide you're willing to work for it. It isn't something you can gain overnight, and it isn't something you should want to gain overnight. You should be able to look in the mirror no matter what and say, "This is the only body I get, it's beautiful, and I am going to protect it."
