Corsets for Fitness and Figure Competitors
About a year ago, for fun, I acquired my personal training certification, as I’m almost as obsessed with fitness as I am with c
orsets. I wanted to learn more, and I learn best by observing and teaching. Over the past 12 years, I have spent a lot of 
time around fitness people, competitors, instructors, and I’ve been lucky enough to learn from PhD’s in exercise physiology and nutrition. I have learned a lot, and I’m hoping to teach people a few things too. This blog came about because more and more women in the fitness industry would light up when they saw my corsets, and would ask me to give them a smaller waist, as well as others contacting me as a corset maker to make them corsets for contest prep. It was something I needed to address.
While I’m never going to be a stage competitor ( I cant walk in heels), I have huge respect for those men and women who do compete, and I have seen what it takes to get there. It’s truly amazing. My idea of a good time is obstacle course racing, like Spartan and Tough Mudder, and lifting heavy. They don’t require heels.
This post about corsets isn’t necessarily for most corset wearers, or even those interested in the general idea of weight loss and corsets, although I will address that in another post, I want to address corsets and fitness competitors specifically.
Can a corset help you to achieve a smaller waist for the stage? NO.
While there is a distinct difference between a $50 elastic cincher and a properly made custom corset, there CAN be benefits to corset wearing.
What a properly made corset can do – fashion aside:
-Aid in posture
-Provide resistance to the core, which can lead to a stronger core (only in properly made custom). Please use caution when wearing a corset that has steel bones that isn’t custom drafted to your body.
-Mindfulness of movement
-Back and sciatic pain (again, I’m not a doctor, physiotherapist, or a licensed orthopedic garment manufacturer), in the right circumstances, and only with a licensed professional’s go-ahead, it can help a great deal. I have had personal experience with corsets and spinal disk issues. For me, it isolated my spine and kept the pain manageable.
-A corset or elasticized brace can help short term after a baby is born to repair diastasis recti (separaton of the abdominal muscles) while using proper exercises to strengthen the abdominal muscles.
-Compression garments are often used in muscle rehabilitation to keep swelling down and promote circulation. Corsets have been prescribed as compression garments.
-In some overweight people, a corset can help them to be mindful of portion control, as itt’s difficult to overeat while wearing a corset.
What a corset or cincher can’t do:
What any sort of waist garment, high end corset, or $50 waist cincher CAN’T do, is permanently make a waist smaller than it would otherwise be, simply virtue of wearing it. It’s not a magic replacement for hard work and proper nutrition.
If this was possible, I would have a waist like Audrey Hepbourne (I don’t). When I had a back injury in 2012, I wore a corset literally day and night, 24 hours for 3 months, I couldn’t even take it off for x-rays before my back surgery because it was the only thing keeping me upright at the time. After, while my abs were stronger from the constant resistance, my overall shape was the same. Aside from that I’ve been wearing the corsets I make for 23 years. I started making them and wearing them, because I have a blocky torso, and I had hoped a corset would remedy this. It doesn’t, or after 23 years, I would have a long, tiny waist. I don’t. I achieve a lean body by training hard, lifting heavy, proper nutrition, and good coaches who don’t diet me to within an inch of my life and have me do endless cardio sessions.
Here are two fitness competitors I have met, both who use flexible dieting, heavy lifting, and look amazing, without involving corsets in their competition prep:
For fitness competitors, the best thing to strap on to your waist is a high quality lifting belt, and possibly a good pair of squat shoes. My favourite belt is from Best Belts
A corset can give a dramatic appearance, even comfortably so during the period of time someone is wearing one, and even for a little while after, but long-term permanent changes are often only in the posture learned from the mindfulness of wearing a corset, and the effects of the resistance to the core from the corset. These things can be achieved just as easily without a corset. They have NO PLACE on someone who is already lean and fit, who has a good handle on nutrition, who hope to achieve a leaner waistline while they aren’t wearing a corset.
Please, NEVER wear a corset while training. Even the best made custom corset doesn’t allow for the depth of breath that is required for a proper training session. They are different than weight belts, which do allow for enough movement from the diaphragm to lift. Attempting to lift weights while wearing a corset can prevent the pelvic floor from properly lifting to support the spine, during the eccentric motion of a lift which COULD lead to uterine prolapse over time.
The corsets I make are made to shape over the bones and not to compress the bones in an attempt to reshape them, which is highly dangerous, and can lead to broken ribs and punctured organs. Any reputable corset maker would never make a corset that attempted to reshape bones.
Corsets are great for an evening out, a wedding, a sexy bedroom outfit, or just for fun, but NEVER while training, or in hopes of it creating a better stage physique. Instead, take your money, get a better coach, who will provide you with a proper training schedule, and diet. Get a good posing coach to help you to minimize a short torso, and play up your shoulders and quads.
I have had the pleasure of working with some great coaches. Whether you’re a beginner, or already in great shape, Daryl Devonish at Body Pump Inc. is great, he’s been my coach for 3 years, and helped me to get stronger, and rehabilitate from my back injury. Or, come to BodyPump and work out with me!
If you are trying to prepare for a competition, Dr. Layne Norton and my nutrition coach Paul Revelia are both fantastic competition prep coaches, who can do online coaching if you can’t see them in person.
If you want to bring your best package to the stage, work at it. Invest in your skills, and avoid “quick fixes”. The best thing to take away from the stage is feeling proud of the work you put into getting there.
