If you did one, and only one, muscle control exercise, this is the one it should be.
It’s commonly known as the abdominal vacuum, because that’s just what you’re doing. You’re creating a vacuum of pressure inside.
This vacuum is great for the lungs as you expel a greater amount of air then you normally do. I heard a story about smokers that do this exercise, often times, even if they haven’t smoked in hours, smoke will come out! Its acting like wringing a sponge.
Also your other internal organs get massaged in a way that can’t be replicated by any other exercise. Great for keeping you regular in elimination too. But because of all this I wouldn’t recommend you do this exercise on anything but an empty stomach.
Now you may not get as pronounced of a vacuum as me on your first try. Don’t worry. Just keep working at it and you’ll improve just like any other exercise. Of course from here there are more advanced variations that include “The Rope” and Single Sided Abdominal Isolation. Fun stuff.
There are many other great benefits to adding muscle control practice into your routine. For the full details oh how and why to do it, plus tons of exercises, beginner and advanced, from head to toe, check out the new Master Muscle Control Course.
You’ll get plenty more details on the proper execution of this one move plus so much more.
In the video on this page you can see many more muscle control stunts performed.
Comments
Interesting stuff. What do you think of prisoner Charles Bronson’s advice of sticking the belly in and out during the vacuum?
@Davv: Yeah, there are plenty of variations you can do on top of this basic exercise. That is one good one.
yeah, so interesting, I love it!
I love doing Abdominal Vacuum Exercise and I can do it anytime I want. In work, bus, or even waiting for someone.
Interesting. I can do this. Do you have any tips on how long it’s safe to hold it in for, and how many repetitions per session or day? It seems to me there is a lot of misunderstanding on the net about this exercise – people saying you can do it while still breathing in and out a little while holding in —- people doing demonstrations where they are just pulling in the abs, but not lifting the chest and not actually creating a vaccum effect, one video where a woman recommends pulling in the sides of the chest while doing it – which seems to me the opposite of what’s wanted etc.
Do you also have any tips as to whether doing this regularly really does give a noticeable flattening effect to the belly, as is said?
First off I would recommend playing with the exercise yourself to answer your own questions. That being said here are my thoughts. I think its safe to hold as long as you can hold your breath. That being said I’d work up to it. I think you could do quite a few repetitions each day but don’t think you’d get more benefit then from just doing it a few times daily. Yes I would say this exercise will contribute to a flatter belly when done along with other things (diet and other exercise) that will help. The idea is that it can literally “squeeze the crap” out of you, all that stuff that likes to stick to the walls and possibly firm up the organs too.