Can I Wear a Corset 24/7?

Featured Corset: Kayla Black Cotton Corset

You wouldn’t necessarily wear your work clothes or even casual streetwear to bed, and you certainly wouldn’t stay dressed in pajamas to go to work…unless, perhaps, you happen to be a lingerie model.  We tend to have wardrobes full of different garments so that we can change into the clothing most suitable for given occasions and activities.

Of course, you might keep your underwear on for a 24-hour period, from one shower to the next, but other types of clothing are meant to be changed at some point during the day.  What about corsets, though?

When you’re waist training, you goal is likely to wear the garment for enough hours during the day that you continue to work toward waist-slimming goals while creating semi-permanent results that remain even when your corset is off.  The question is: how long do you need to wear a corset each day for optimal results?  Can you wear a corset 24/7?  Should you?  Here’s what you need to know.

Starting Slow and Working Toward Longer Wear

In any waist training regimen, you need to work up to the point of maximum daily wear.  The thing to recognize is that there is no set number that works for everyone.  Waist training is a deeply personal process that involves specific goals balanced against your level of comfort and commitment.

When you first start waist training, you need to familiarize yourself with the feeling of wearing a corset.  At first, you may find the snug fit odd or uncomfortable.  You might have to adjust to restricted mobility or limits to your normal, active routine, for example.  In time, you’ll become more comfortable and confident wearing your corset, at which point you can start incrementally increasing wear until you keep it on several hours per day. From there, you can start incrementally tightening more.

Some women prefer to wear corsets during daytime hours, enhancing their figure under clothing, while others would rather slip between the sheets in a corset and get their hours of wear out of the way during slumber.  You may want to do both, but the truth is, doing so may not significantly improve your results.

Effort vs. Effect

Generally speaking, it’s recommended that serious waist trainers keep their corsets on for about 8-10 hours a day at maximum.  Why?  The truth is that you really won’t see additional results from longer wear.

With roughly eight hours a day in your corset, you’ll enjoy maximum waist training benefits, including progressing toward your goal for a smaller waist line at a reasonable and sustainable pace, as well as seeing the semi-permanent slimming you crave, when you continue with a regular waist training regimen.  Will wearing your corset 24/7 noticeably increase or speed results?  No.  In fact, it could have some consequences.

Potential Benefits and Drawbacks of 24/7 Wear

Okay, in all honesty, you really can’t wear a corset 24 hours a day.  You certainly can’t wear these garments into the shower or bath.  Could you reasonably wear corsets for, say, 22 hours a day, though?  Would you gain some benefit from this?  Are there potential drawbacks to extended wear?

It is possible to gain some benefit from longer corset wear if, say, the added support and posture correction help with back pain.  However, you should still take your corset off when you sleep to let your body relax and allow your skin to breathe.

It’s also important to understand that prolonged corset wear could be detrimental.  Even with a corset that fits like a glove and feels like a second skin, 24/7 wear could result in discomfort or even pain.  When transforming your body, you need to give it time to rest and recover.  Daily, intensive exercise can lead to injuries, which is why you schedule rest days in between, and you should take the same approach to waist training.

What about Ethel Granger?

Ethel Granger is famous for earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the smallest documented waist.  She went from a fairly svelte 24-inch natural waist to just 13 inches after 30 years of intensive tightlacing and round-the-clock corset wear.

Can you follow in her footsteps?  By all accounts, Granger lived a rather extreme lifestyle, including body modifications like gauged piercings, but she lived well into her 70s, an excellent life expectancy for someone born in 1905.  So, was any real harm done? Aside from the fact that she modified her body at her husband’s request and for his apparent pleasure, she seems to have lived a full life.  However, her course is still not recommended.  You wouldn’t work 24 hours a day when you could get your work done in just eight, and there’s really no reason to wear a corset around the clock when just 8-10 hours a day delivers the same results, with less potential for drawbacks.

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