The truth about non-surgical bum lifts

Bums are big news and even bigger business. But can magnetic pulses really sculpt your behind?

The Spiel: Instagram has a lot to answer for when it comes to our quest for the perfect derrière. Celebrities and the scourge of ‘ belfies’ (that’s a bum selfie to those ensconced in a nuclear bunker on Mars) mean bottoms have never before come under such scrutiny. ‘In the last five years, I’ve seen a 50% rise in patients requesting the Brazilian Bottom Lift,’ confirms London cosmetic surgeon Foued Hamza, who pioneered the surgery 10 years ago. But with major downtime – ‘ The treatment involves liposuction and fat transfers, which usually result in two weeks’ bed rest,’ says Hamza – it’s not for the fainthearted. And with the average client falling in the 20-35-year-old bracket (a demographic that generally demands instant results with no recovery), the clamour for a posteriorperfecting alternative has never been greater.

Cue the revolutionary Magnetic Induction Field treatment, aka ‘ The Wriggler’, which tones the muscle structure, resulting in a lifted and more defined behind. ‘ The Kardashian bum is old news,’ says Dr Galyna, the first UK aesthetic medical doctor to specialise in the treatment. ‘It’s now all about athletic bums that look toned and perky. My clients don’t want “big” or “extra volume”, they want a lift and sculpt.’

So how does it work? Swiped from technology used in neurology and MRI scans to stimulate the brain, MIF treatment uses the same techniques to stimulate your brawn (aka the glutes) and is the only system in the world to reduce the fat layer while improving the underlying muscle structures. ‘ The magnetic field produced creates extreme muscle contraction at very high frequencies,’ says Dr Galyna. ‘ This works the underlying muscle groups, firing muscle contractions at a rate that could never be achieved by your efforts alone.’

The TESTE r : My bottom has always been one of my better features, or so my mum tells me. It gives me an hourglass shape when wearing evening dresses and my skinny jeans something to cling to. But as my age has started creeping up, my bottom seems to have suffered an inverse trajectory.

It doesn’t help that I spend the majority of my day sitting still – on my booty – at my desk. So, when Dr Galyna told me that six sessions of ‘ The Wriggler’ would equate to the tightening and toning effects of six months of hard-core Pilates training, I didn’t need to be asked twice.

And so, over the course of three weeks, began my twice-weekly trips to Rita Rakus’s Clinic in Knightsbridge to meet ‘Dr G’. Trousers removed, pants hoicked up to unveil bare buttocks, I lay flat on my stomach while large magnetic plates were placed over each cheek. Once the machine was turned on, and up (you can choose the intensity of the contractions, according to your tolerance), I was left for 30 minutes while my bum was put to work.

There’s no two ways about it, the sensation of the contractions is definitely… strange. It doesn’t hurt, but it does feel like my muscles are pulsating at a rather alarming rate. The sessions alternate between strong five-second vibrations, and what feels like tiny muscle prods, which cause you to clench and engage the glutes, much like you would in a kettlebell class.

THE VERDICT: Amazingly, after just one session (curb those eye rolls now), I saw results. Six sessions later, my bottom had transformed – perter, perkier and less dimply – even the texture had improved. Sadly, though, the results won’t last as long as a bottom lift would, which, ‘for 80% of cases, last a lifetime’, according to Dr Hamza.

Instead, Dr G recommends regular exercise to maintain your newly uplifted posterior. ‘If you don’t do anything, the results may wear off over the next year,’ she warns. I’m careful to keep up my regular spin classes, and not-so-regular HIIT sessions. But although the results are still visible months on, they aren’t quite as amazing as they were after I’d finished the course.

So is it worth the buttock-clenching £600 per session? Surgery was never an option, so a treatment that promises results with zero downtime (I was able to nip straight back to work) or surgical complications was a no-brainer. A pert bum for Christmas might seem like an expensive indulgence, but with a little after-care (and fewer mince pies), it could be for life, too.

The Wriggler is a unique treatment developed by Dr Galyna and only available in the UK at the Dr Rita Rakus Clinic (020 3773 6387; drritarakus.com).