There is a known fact in marketing. Consistency builds trust. When you repeatedly see an advertisement for a product, your brain starts to build trust, simply because you are hearing the promises over and over again. Lets give your mind some more information to go on, other than just the advertisements for waist trainers. They are very popular topics on fitness and especially weight loss sites. How do you know if the claims are true?
Burn fat? The advertisements say these abdominal binders are helpful for producing heat and burning fat. There is no scientific evidence that heat burns fat on your body. These waist trainers will not help you lose weight or burn more fat around your middle.
Back support? In theory the design of these will support your back. But that support is incomplete and not really helpful in the long run. You have the same built in support, right under your skin. Its called your transverse abdominal muscle. Look how similar it looks to the waist trainers:
This muscle is there, at no extra charge, in your body. The way to make it work is to use it. Click here for more information on how. Plus, you have more layers of core muscles to help support your back that the waist trainers do not include. All of these are designed to work together to support your back while you move. To get the most out of them, you simply need to use them the way they were designed (hint: sit ups and planks do not do this)
Tummy support? If you have a separation in your abdominal wall from a hernia or diastasis recti, the waist trainer design can be helpful but only if they are used as a reminder to use your core muscles. Using them needs to go along with good core rehab and exercises that teach your core to do its job and give it time to heal by avoiding things like sit ups and planks that make that separation worse.
Waist Trainers can have their place in your healing process. For many who have lost weight, and have extra skin, they find these helpful for feeling more comfortable with certain movements.
If you are considering a waist trainer, choose it for the right reasons but know that your body is designed to take care of you, no matter what the scale says. Learn how to strengthen it through high quality exercise and it will help you feel good each step of the way of your weight loss journey.
Post any questions or comments about your experience with a waist trainer in comments.
Keep Moving, Be Well,
Janet
Keep Moving Weekly 