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Why the obsession with crunches, crunches and more crunches? I hear about crunches everywhere! Yet, there are excellent abs exercises that will do better for our stomach section, exercises that are often forgotten and that are essential to provide a foundation to our core.
One of these abs exercises is ‘The Vacuum’ a stomach exercise that has decades of use and is still practiced by professional trainers and bodybuilders. You may have tried it already when trying to “tuck your stomach in”, but repetition is the key total mastery. Here’s how to do it:
The Vacuum
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Inhale until your lungs are full.
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While slowly exhaling, try bring your belly button towards your spine.
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Once you feel your sides tighten, hold the position for 10 seconds.
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Exhale. This is one repetition.
Pretty easy to do right? Yeah…right. Try to do this exercise the best you can and don’t forget to practice it each day. This is an exercise that works your inner muscles in your abs, called the transverse abdominus muscles. These muscles are essential but they are not worked when doing crunches-like exercises.
12 comments ↓
I’m over 60 and have abs like steel cables. I attribute it to doing this exercise every morning before I shave for years. It’s actually a hatha yoga routine that builds your abs without hurting your back. Try it…you’ll like it.
Heh, try doing these pregnant…
This is a great exercise, try to do ten in a row and you will feel very light headed. The next day if you are not experienced at it you will really feel it in your stomach. Also I recommend doing this exercise on an empty stomach, if you don’t you will be sorry…LOL.
Breathing exercises in general are great for your core. Another one would be to breathe in very deeply then as you exhale tighten your stomach muscles as tight as you can while exhaling slowly. This one really burns your stomach and also increases the internal muscles like the vaccuum.
Good post.
Awesome tip, thanks!
Just to say that everyone should learn the types of inhalation exercises you describe on your site such as this vacuum one. This is something that can be done at one’s desk, in the kitchen while cooking, while watching TV, etc. and you can feel the inner muscles having to really work! Thanks for the info on your site, I really enjoyed reading! (check your text for simple oversigt errors in typing though
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Thank you for your comments! This is indeed a great exercise to build your transeverse abdominal abs, and it can’t be any easier.
corrie - I’ll try to write with less typing errors, thanks
Liked the post thanks.
@ Corrie - yes… spelling is important, like remembering the “h” in oversight
Nice exercise and it is aimed at a nice target - your waist
But i have a few concerns - after a give it a 10-15 seconds try (what i am to do currently), i feel some pain in my back. Does it indicate, that my muscles are currently undertrained? And if i do it before breakfast i feel slight heartburn.
Arthur
If it’s a kind of pain that starts on your sides and goes to your back, you are doing it right, because the tension works the core area. You may be undertrained though, if that is the case, start with 7 seconds.
If you feel heartburn, you can change the time of the day to the night before going to bed.
Very nice exercise! Thanks! I figure out that it also helps reposition your internal organs to the correct place. And the ease that it can be done, in work, in home in your pjs! Thanks!
the hatha yoga exercise that was referred to in an earlier reply, is called nauli. It is exactly as was described in the instructions, except a person is typically bent forwards in order to extenuate the “vaacum”. Then the muscles are rolled in a wave motion from right to left several times, and then left to right several times, breathing in between switching.
i believe this exercise is also used (plus bending forward) along with other very effective exercises in the book “Combat Abs” by Matt Furey.
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