A waist trainer is worn around the midsection and is designed to reshape your body. However, before deciding to wear this garment, it is essential to know that a waist trainer may not be effective or even safe. Exercising in a waist trainer may not be as comfortable as it seems.
You can do yoga in a waist trainer. However, it is not recommended. You can hurt your muscles while doing the exercise in a waist trainer. These compression garments can also cause heartburn and breathing problems.
Exercise and a healthy diet are the best ways to lose weight. However, if you want to know about the benefits and risks of waist trainers, read on.
Waist Trainer Yoga Workouts
Yoga workouts can help you tone your waist. In addition to this, they can help ease anxiety, nervousness, and stress. Doing yoga daily will help you achieve inner peace and understand your mind and body better.
Here are some of the waist training yoga workouts that you can do to make your waist slim.
Bird Dog Pose
- You will require a mat for doing bird dog pose. You can put a towel or cushion under your knees for additional cushioning.
- Start on your feet and hands in the tabletop position.
- Put your hands under the shoulders and your knees under the hips.
- Engage your stomach muscles to maintain a neutral spine.
- Pull your shoulder blades together.
- Lift your left leg and right arm and keep your hips and shoulders parallel to the ground.
- Stretch the back of your neck and look down at the ground by tucking your chin into the chest.
- Hold your pose for a few seconds, then lower back down to the original position.
- Lift your right leg and left arm, and hold your pose for a few seconds.
- Now return to the original position.
Benefits
- Boosts stability
- Supports a neutral spine
- Eases low back pain
- Strengthens your back muscles, hips, and core
- Enhances range of motion and encourages the right posture
Raised Foot Pose
- Lie down on the mat, stretch your legs, and place your hands on the sides of your body.
- Breathe as usual, and keep your hands still.
- Inhale deeply and lift your legs from the ground at a 45° angle.
- Hold your position for 30 seconds. You can also hold your position for 60 seconds if you can.
- Exhale deeply and lift your legs to a 90° angle with the ground. Breathe as usual and hold your pose for 60 seconds.
- Inhale slowly and bring your legs down.
- Repeat this 10 times and take a break of 15 seconds in between them.
Benefits
- Improves the strength and tone of the thigh and abdominal muscles
- Strengthens the perineal muscles, pelvic muscles, and lower back
- Helps in the excretion process and synthesis of digestive juices
- Eases lower back pain
- Alleviates constipation and flatulence
Boat Pose
- Sit on the ground and keep your legs straight in front of you.
- Now put your hands on the floor behind your hips and point your fingers forward.
- Inhale deeply. Lift your legs, chest, and head from the floor as you exhale.
- Stretch your arms alongside the legs parallel to the ground and each other.
- Breathe and hold your position for 30 to 60 seconds. You will feel your stomach contracting.
- Inhale and exhale deeply and return to a lying position.
Benefits
- Strengthens the spine and abdomen
- Helps alleviate stress
- Boosts digestion
Waist Trainer: An Overview
Waist trainers are undergarments that slim your waistline and help you get or achieve an hourglass figure. They are made up of fibers and thick fabric.
You should know that a waist trainer can decrease your waist circumference or size temporarily, and you will usually see results instantly. However, your waist will not look smaller as soon as you remove the shaping garment.
Another important thing you need to be aware of is that these garments do not decrease your body fat. If you want to reduce your body fat, exercise daily, and eat a well-balanced diet.
You should know that you may feel a loss of appetite while wearing the shaping garment. Why? Because the waist trainer puts pressure on your abdomen, which can produce a feeling of fullness.
Benefits of a Waist Trainer
Wearing this shaping garment benefits you in several ways.
Helps You Maintain the Correct Posture
While you are wearing this corset, you will likely maintain the correct posture. However, if you wear the waist trainer too much, it may weaken your core muscles and cause poor posture and back pain.
Makes You Feel Full Faster
Having your stomach pressed will likely make you feel full faster. This may cause you to consume less food. However, it’s worth knowing that you should eat nutritious and healthy foods to stay fit and fine. By restricting the amount of food you eat, your diet may not be enough to keep you healthy.
Helps You Shed Weight
Wearing a waist training garment may help you shed weight temporarily. Additionally, you may eat less food while wearing the waist trainer because your stomach is squeezed. However, this is not the right way to reduce body weight. A well-balanced diet and exercise should be an important part of your weight loss plan.
Most importantly, it is not a good idea to wear a waist trainer while working out. It can severely limit movement. Also, your muscles and tissues require oxygen, particularly during exercise. And a waist trainer can make it hard for you to breathe in deeply, making it that much difficult to continue yoga.
A study analyzed the cost-effectiveness and possibility of losing weight on a low-calorie diet. Researchers also considered whether wearing a waist trainer would help maintain weight loss down the road.
They found that the low-calorie diet was effective in reducing and maintaining weight, even after one year. However, scientists were not able to assess the effectiveness of wearing a waist trainer because most subjects stopped wearing them due to uneasiness.
Risks of a Waist Trainer
Wearing a waist trainer for a long period can pose certain health risks.
May Damage Your Internal Organs
When you press your midsection, it forces your internal organs into unusual positions. Overcrowding your internal organs can affect the flow of blood and change how your internal organs work.
In time, this can damage your internal organ permanently and decrease the strength of your muscles.
Can Cause Digestive Problems
When you wear a waist training garment, you are not only crushing your skin and fat, but you are squeezing your intestines and stomach too. Apart from this, a waist trainer can also cause acid reflux by pressing your stomach.
Therefore, you should not wear this garment if you suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease, as it may make matters worse. Gastroesophageal reflux is a condition in which the stomach acid flows back into your food pipe.
Can Decrease Your Lung Capacity
Wearing this shaping undergarment can decrease your lung capacity by 30% to 60%. It can reduce your energy levels and cause discomfort.
This is not all. Wearing a waist trainer can cause inflammation or fluid accumulation in the lungs. Gradually, breathing issues can affect your lymphatic system, which helps protect you from disease and infection.
Conclusion
You can practice yoga while wearing a waist trainer. This shaping garment helps decrease appetite and improve your posture. What’s more, it helps in reducing weight temporarily. But waist trainers are not essential to reducing body weight.
Diet and exercise are the best ways to lose pounds and keep them off. Like most other things, waist trainers have their pros and cons. Moreover, you can trim your waist by doing waist training yoga workouts.
Sources
- Taylor & Francis Online: Very Low-Calorie Diet (VLCD) Followed by a Randomized Trial of Corset Treatment for Obesity in Primary Care
- ABCS Blog: 4 Reasons to Throw Your Waist Trainer in the Trash
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