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How to Waist Train: Comparing Corset Training Methods

In previous articles, I’ve talked quite a bit about waist training, but I’ve never actually focused on the different methods at length. Just as there is more than one path to physical fitness or other physical goals, there are also different methods of waist training. This article will outline the two most popular waist training methods, and their pros/ cons as I tried them for myself.

(Always check with your doctor before wearing corsets for any reason, and should you decide to take up waist training, remember to have your health monitored throughout your journey.) 

 

Romantasy “Roller Coaster Method”: 

My front-lacing Bezerk cincher - from my very first Youtube video.
In 2010, I went from wearing corsets occasionally to actually waist training. I started with the Roller Coaster Method.

In my very first waist training video, I mentioned that this is the method I started with. The “roller coaster” method was developed by Ann Grogan, president of Romantasy Exquisite Corsetry and waist training advisor for nearly 25 years.

Grogan outlines her roller coaster method of waist training in her manual, Corset Magic (you can watch my overview of the book here) but for those who need more guidance, she also offers personalized waist training plans and full 3-month waist training programs.

The roller coaster method can be a bit strict – it relies on you maintaining a specific waist reduction, for a certain duration of time, for a certain number of days. For instance, let’s say that your natural waist is 30” and you’re wearing the corset at 28 inches (a 2-inch reduction over the corset). You would start just by wearing your corset for a couple of hours each day, until your corset is seasoned.

  • Once you are ready, you can increase your wear by another couple of hours per day (so you’re wearing the corset for 4 hours each day instead of only 2) for several days or a week. Once you feel comfortable with that, you can once again increase your wear for several more hours per day – being mindful to always remain at 28 inches and slowly building up your tolerance for longer durations of time.
  • Once you’re able to wear your corset for over 8 hours or all day at that 28 inch measurement, you can tighten your corset just a little bit, but also drop your hours back down so you’re cinched in tighter, but wearing the corset for a shorter duration of time.
  • Just like before, over the course of days and weeks, you can slowly build up your tolerance for longer hours at that restriction. When you’re ready, tighten your corset just a tiny bit more but then drop your hours down again. Grogan has a sample outline of this method on her website on this page, for you to view freely.

This method of waist training requires you to watch the clock carefully, and to also monitor your reduction daily or multiple times a day, using a tape measure over the corset. If you need a really concrete instructional guide for waist training and you enjoy structure and discipline, you will probably appreciate the Roller Coaster method.

 

Contour Corsets “Cycle Method”: 

My Contour Corset was very close to being perfect - it just needed perhaps 1.5 - 2" more length in the underbust, and tweaking around the hips.
After a few hiatuses, I reached my waist training goal of 20″ in 2013 by using the Cycle Method.

This waist training method was first outlined by Fran Blanche, owner of Contour Corsets. The cycle method is less strict and scheduled compared to the roller coaster method, and is described as more intuitive and ‘zen’ by those who use it.

It takes into consideration the fact that your body is not always stable; it’s in a constant state of flux – your natural waist measurement can change by several inches over the course of a day just from water retention, what you eat, your menstrual cycle (if you have one), your stress levels and more. And these factors can all affect how much you’re able to comfortably lace down on a given day or even a given time of day. Because of this, it may feel more intuitive to lace down more on days and times that you’re able to tolerate this greater restriction, and lace down less on days and times that you need more space.

In other words, if the corset feels too loose, tighten it. If the corset feels too tight, loosen it. And some people may find that they need to loosen or tighten the corset many times throughout the day – there is nothing inherently wrong with this.

Fran says that with consistent wear (even when cycling your pressures), a waist trainer may find that over a long period of time, their ‘average’ waist measurement will reduce, even if it may not feel like it by having to vary the measurements slightly every day.

Here, the exact number of your waist to the half-inch is not as important as your overall comfort level – but the cycle method also somewhat implies that the trainer is wearing the corset for longer hours each day compared to the roller coaster method (which tends to aim for a duration of 2-8 hours a day).

 

How many hours a day is best when it comes to waist training?

This answer is different for everybody. Some people are able to see quick results in a corset with fewer hours put in, and some people have slower results even when wearing their corset all day. Of course, when we’re talking about “results”, not all of us waist train for the same reasons or have the same goals.

But many experienced waist trainers will agree that the length of time that you wear a corset is a bit more important than the actual reduction. If you are able to wear your corset at a 3-4 reduction comfortably all day, this will likely be more comfortable and more productive for your waist training compared to wearing a corset at a 6-7 inch reduction for only 1 hour and having to remove it to recuperate for the next couple of days (this is effectively overlacing). The latter scenario could set you up for discomfort, injury, it may lead to you having to take unwanted time off to regroup – and it also may lead to you associating the corset with pain and negative experiences, which is the exact opposite of what a waist trainer should experience.

Some people aim for wearing their corset for a specific number of hours each day. The Romantasy roller coaster method suggests 8 hours a day, 6 days a week as a good duration to strive for. In order to break my 22-inch plateau, I found I had to corset for about 12 hours a day.

Some people wear their corsets during waking hours (they put on their corsets when they get up in the morning, and take off their corset when getting ready for bed) – which may be in the range of 16 hours a day.

Others may do the opposite and only wear their corset during sleeping hours – they may not wear their corset during the day, but they cinch their waist when getting ready to sleep, and so they unconsciously get 8 hours in per day.

Some very dedicated trainers will wear their corset 23 hours a day – reserving one hour per day for bathing and exercising – often trainers will have to work their way up to this lifestyle over the course of months or years, because jumping into a 23/7 waist training regime can be a drastic change in lifestyle: all the things you did before without your corset, you would have to adjust to doing it with a corset, eliminate activities that are not compatible, or substitute some things that are more compatible. I do not recommend the 23/7 method for beginners, nor do I believe that a 23/7 lifestyle is really necessary for any waist trainer except under extenuating circumstances (like if they are going after the world record).

And it’s worth mentioning that sometimes the results from the 23/7 method are not worth the challenges that come with them. Heidi, aka Straight-Laced Dame/ Corset Athlete, has written a fantastic article which compares your enjoyment/ comfort level while wearing a corset, with the effectiveness of your training – and finding that “sweet spot” where you get your highest return on investment.

 

Which Method of Waist Training is Best?

I can’t tell you which waist training method is best for you, as I said before – we all have different bodies, different schedules and different goals. But myself, having tried both the Romantasy Roller Coaster method and the Contour Corsets Cycle method, I found that the Roller Coaster method gave me what I was looking for in the beginning, when I was still relatively new at corseting – back when I needed technical, straightforward, step-by-step guidance on wearing a corset.

Slowly building up my hours over many weeks and months at a time helped to teach me how my body is supposed to feel during the process of waist training, and how it’s not supposed to feel. I used the roller coaster method to successfully train down the first 5 or so inches of reduction.

Of course (as with most other forms of training!) I eventually reached a plateau. I had a hard time lacing past about 22″ comfortably for long periods of time. I sort of felt myself a failure at that point because I wasn’t advancing with the same speed I was before. Not wanting to risk pain or injury, after some time off and some research, I invested in a number of better fitting corsets and also found myself gravitating more to the Cycle method.

The Cycle method allowed me to be a bit less hard on myself if I didn’t meet a certain goal within a certain time, because I was no longer focusing on time. The method respected the limitations of my body and the signals it was giving me. It felt healthier – like I was allowed to be more gentle with myself, while still presenting enough of a challenge to see progress and advancement if I chose.

And I began enjoying wearing my corset again – it allowed me to take my eyes off the clock, to stop measuring my waist circumference every day, and to just enjoy the feeling of being in a corset – the posture support and the feeling of being hugged, my silhouette under a vintage gown, and the empowerment of wearing a form of armor. This method reminded me to enjoy the journey, as opposed to being unhealthily and impatiently focused on the destination.

In this article I touched on just a few different methods of waist training. I encourage you to do a little of your own research into waist training and to find the one that you find the one that feels most safe and comfortable for you. If you waist train, leave me a comment below and me know which method works best for you, or which methods you’ve tried in the past!

*Please note that this article is strictly my opinion and provided for information purposes. It is not intended to replace the advice of a medical physician. Please talk to your doctor if you’d like to start wearing a corset.*

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WAIST TRAINING RESULTS: How long should it take?

 

Here’s a question I receive nearly every day:

“My natural waist is 30 inches, and I just started waist training. How long will it take to see real results, and obtain a natural 24 inch waist?”

 Of course, the exact wording, the numbers, and the goals all vary slightly from person to person. But I will tell you what I tell all of them – and you will not be happy:

I DON’T KNOW. And unfortunately, neither can anyone else. If someone claims that they CAN give you a specific duration of time that you will achieve your waist training goal, they are flat out lying.

If you look at these Before / After Waist Training examples, you will see that people have achieved all kinds of results, in all different durations. Some saw a marked difference in three months, while others achieved less dramatic results over two years. It’s different for everyone.

WHY is this?

The (semi)permanent results of waist training is dependent on a number of factors, including your body’s current state and your genetic pre-disposition, the quality of your corset and its compatibility with your body, and the way you train in your corset. Let’s break those down in further detail:

 

Factor #1: Your body type and current body stats

Abdominal body fat can be subcutaneous or visceral - and they affect your corset training differently.
Abdominal body fat can be subcutaneous or visceral – and they affect your corset training differently.

Your Body Fat

  • Adipose tissue can immediately compress down a lot more than muscle in a corset, but it also bounces back when you remove the corset. Some with a high body fat % are able to cinch down 10 inches in the waist, while someone with very low body fat may only be able to cinch down 2-3 inches.
  • Weight distribution also plays a role. Do you tend to carry more weight in your belly, or do you carry more weight on your hips and thighs? If you do carry weight in your belly, do you have a lot of visceral fat or subcutaneous fat? Subcutaneous fat sits under the skin but above the muscle, and makes your skin soft and malleable. Visceral fat is the more ‘dangerous’ fat that sits under your abdominal muscle, between your organs. Someone with more subcutaneous fat (even over their tummy) will probably have an easier time lacing down than someone with visceral body fat.

Your Muscle Tone

  • Very toned, dense muscles may be more difficult to cinch down compared to less toned muscles, BUT if you time your workouts well, you can actually use your resistance exercise regimen to your advantage in waist training to change the morphology of your oblique muscles and have them almost “grow” into the hourglass shape encouraged by the corset. Also, once you get to higher reductions, you have to “stretch” those side muscles, and also the tendons and ligaments. Some people’s bodies seem to more readily accommodate to this than other people’s bodies.

 Your Skeletal Frame

  • Do you have wider ribcage or smaller ribcage? Are your ribs flexible and are you able to accommodate corsets with a conical ribcage easily, or is your ribcage very inflexible and difficult to move? Those who are easily able to train their ribs are likely to see faster waist training results than those whose ribs are very rigid. My article on the corset’s effect on the skeleton goes into more detail about this.

Your Age

  • More mature waist trainers have bones that are not only less dense, but less malleable compared to younger trainers. For more information on how age can affect your corseting, see my article on waist training and age restrictions.

 Your Organs

  • When you look at human anatomy in a textbook, you’re seeing a general “average” of the size and orientation of organs. But not everyone’s organs look like that! Some people have larger organs, some have smaller organs. Even the position and orientation of organs can very slightly differ between individuals, and that small variation might make a huge difference in how well your body can accommodate the restriction of a corset. For further information, see my article on corsets and organs.

Your Water Retention

  • What’s your water content like? If you are often bloated or have water retention, either due to your lifestyle or because of a medical condition, you not only won’t be able to lace down as much or as readily, but you have more of that “temporary squish” to you as opposed to contributing to that “long term training”.

Whether You’ve Been Pregnant Before

  • Have you had a baby before or not? While this point is a bit more anecdotal, it seems that mothers are (on average) able to lace down more readily/ more comfortably/ to higher reductions compared to nulliparous women. Maybe this has to do with the fact that the baby had moved around a woman’s organs (especially in the final trimester), or the relaxin in your system during pregnancy had stretched out some tendons and ligaments already, or the woman was already accustomed to the feeling of restriction or breathing higher up in the chest, so she may be psychologically more comfortable with the feeling of being corseted. Read more about corsets after childbirth.

 

Factor #2: Your Corset

This corset has a conical ribcage, and will be more effective at training the ribcage.
This corset has a conical ribcage, and will be more effective at training the ribcage compared to a rounded ribcage.

Proper Fit

  • Is your corset comfortable? Does your corset fit you properly: when you lace down, does it reduce only the waist, and is it lying flat and gently supporting your upper ribcage and your hip area? Is your corset gap straight or uneven? Or is the corset overall not curvy enough: and is it giving you muffin top, pinching your hips or causing any lower tummy pooch to spill out underneath? A well-fitting corset is not only more effective at shaping, but it’s also much more comfortable, so you’ll be encouraged to wear it longer and more often.

 Strength

  • Is the corset strong? Does it hold up to the tension without buckling? Are the seams securely stitched? Are the bones creating a proper scaffold and not digging into your body? Are the grommets holding in? Having to put your training on hold – not because you want to, but because your corset breaks every 2 months and you have to replace it – is not cost effective and it’s not time-effective. If you’re in this for the long haul, invest in something strong and custom. See my article on Waist Training vs Tight Lacing, which also covers different requirements of a suitable corset for each.

Silhouette

  • Is the corset the right silhouette to do the right job? If you want to train your ribcage, you might need a conical ribcage corset, which gradually tapers down and increases the pressure on the lower ribcage. A corset with a mild silhouette or with a corset with a rounded ribcage will give you a different effect. Be sure that the corset you are using is designed to do for you what you want. You can’t force a round peg through a square hole and expect a triangle to come out.

 

Factor #3: Your Lifestyle Habits and Training Methods

I demonstrate a bicycle crunch, one of the staples of my daily core workout.
I demonstrate a bicycle crunch, one of the staples of my daily core workout.

 Supplementary Exercise

  • Are you exercising alongside your waist training? Adding or increasing core resistance training can help you see results faster by encouraging your muscles to “heal” in a certain way. Even if you have no intention of losing weight (you only use a corset to see a change in your silhouette), exercise is still important! If you don’t add some core resistance training, your torso may see some shaping from the corset, but it may be squishy and complacent, and not hold that hourglass shape as well as if you were combining it with resistance training.

 Eating

  • Are you eating clean? Are you getting enough fiber so that you stay regular when corseting? Are you avoiding foods that you know can cause bloating or discomfort in your corset? Are you having regular small balanced meals, or are you the type to fast and then feast? Corseting over a large meal can be uncomfortable and difficult, and the quality of that meal also counts. You don’t necessarily need a specific diet for waist training, but eating sensibly goes a long way.

Drinking

  • Are you staying hydrated? Are you getting a lot of clean water or tea? Are you keeping your electrolytes balanced (this ties in with water retention). Are you watching your blood pressure (which relates to your blood volume)? Do you take in a lot of caffeine or other diuretics, and are you making sure that your water intake balances that out?

Duration of your corset wear (and reduction)

  • To get the best results in a corset, you have to use it. What method of waist training are you using? There is Romantasy’s “Roller Coaster” method, and there is the Contour Corsets “Cycle” Method (see the differences between the two waist training methods). Some people use a combination of both, or they may try a different method altogether. Some people consider waist training as wearing their corset only 8 hours a day while they’re out working. Others waist train by only wearing a corset to bed at night. Some people wear their corsets 12 or 16 hours a day, and a few very dedicated ones wear their corset 23 hours a day.
  • The body responds best to consistency – for reasons I’ll explain in an upcoming article, you’ll probably see more results (and more comfortably!) if you wear a corset at a light or moderate reduction for long hours, as opposed to tightlacing or overlacing your corset for an hour and then not wearing it again for a few days.

Let’s use an infomercial exercise program as a metaphor for waist training expectations. Many exercise programs say that you CAN lose UP TO 20 lbs per month (as an example), but read the small print and you find that these results are not typical. Many of these programs are also backed up with a guarantee that with proper compliance to the program, you will see some kind of result (often within 60 or 90 days) or your money back.

But you will notice that they do not guarantee a certain number of inches lost, because people have different bodies, different fitness levels, different levels of compliance. It’s the same with a waist training program.

Ann Grogan (of Romantasy) offers the only corset training program I currently know of – in her some 25 years of working with waist trainers and 14 years officially coaching, she is able to confidently say that with her 3-month waist training program, you’re likely to see some noticable results in your natural waist with proper compliance to the program (the program covers a lot of factors: the type of corset you’re using, the reduction, the hours, the foods you eat, the exercises you do, etc). But since each program is personalized based on goals, each person’s compliance is different and each person’s body accommodates their corset differently, it’s still very difficult to precisely predict how many inches you’ll lose, or how fast.

What I have found is the highest indicator of success is whether you actually enjoy wearing your corset and find it completely comfortable. If you practice patience, and wear your corset consistently (and ironically, not be overly attached to your end goal), you are likely to see more results over time than someone who is less patient and is only corseting for the end result. But I will cover that in another article soon.

Do you currently waist train, or did you train in the past? How long did it take you to see results? Let me know in a comment below!