An Old School Exercise for a Tight, Trim Waistline
An Old School Exercise for a Tight, Trim Waistline
Everyone reading this would like to have a smaller waistline, and the real key to a tighter torso is losing body fat - which often takes a lot of time. But there are some other things you can do (as you lose belly fat) to trim up around your midsection. One of the best exercises for enhancing the abdominal area is actually a very 'old school' movement: stomach vacuums.
Stomach Vacuum Exercise
Bodybuilders from the 'Golden Era' in the 1970s, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, did tons of stomach vacuums to keep a trim midsection, but this simple and effective exercise seems to have been forgotten by many people in the health and fitness industry. So what is a stomach vacuum? Basically, you are just sucking in your midsection as tightly as possible. Sounds simple, but it's actually pretty tough to do properly and to hold for much more than a few seconds when you start. Frank Zane was another bodybuilder in the 1970s and 1980s, like Arnold, who practiced stomach vacuum exercises almost daily and included them in some of his contest posing.
In that picture, Zane is actually drawing his stomach inward and upward as hard as possible. Now, we're obviously not going to look like Frank Zane (and most people don't want to), but we can all benefit from the stomach vacuum exercise.
How to Do a Stomach Vacuum Exercise
Here's how to do it the right way. I encourage everyone to begin with an easy version, lying on the ground on your back:
On the ground, breath in deeply and then exhale as much air as you can
While exhaling, try to draw your belly button downward, toward the ground
As you draw your stomach down toward the ground, try to imagine your stomach becoming smaller and smaller
When you cannot squeeze your stomach inward anymore, try to hold for a few seconds (this will be tough!)
Relax your midsection, breath and rest for 10-20 seconds, then try again
To make this exercise even more effective at reducing your waistline, try to do it on an empty stomach - no food and no liquids.
What Does a Stomach Vacuum Exercise Do?
Now, what is actually happening when you do a stomach vacuum exercise? To draw the belly button inward, you must flex your transverse abdominis muscles, which are basically your ab muscles underneath your ab muscles. The abs that you can see when someone has a 6-pack are the rectus abdominis muscles, and the transverse abdominis are beneath those. So you can't see them directly, but they are very important for several reasons:
First, what we all care about - they help you keep your gut from sticking out! When muscles are weak, they become lazy and flabby. So when the transverse abdominis is weak, guess what becomes lazy and flabby? Your waistline!
Second, they provide stability and protection for your spine. About 80% of American adults will experience lower back pain at some point in their lives, and often times weakness in the transverse abdominis muscles are a factor in the development and continuation of lower back pain and dysfunction.
Now, if you have any existing lower back pains, abdominal pains, or other health challenges concerning your midsection or torso, please be cautious with this exercise and consult your physician before trying it out. But if you are healthy and want a tighter waistline, try stomach vacuums a few times a week for 6-8 weeks and see how you look!
-Shane