Stomach Vaccums

peejaygee1

So, I've read a few times recently (on here and other sites) that doing stomach vacuums is highly effective for reducing waist size: http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/stomach-vacuum[\url} and I have a couple of questions:

1 - Isn't this basically the same thing as sucking your gut in?
2 - Has anyone on here found them to be effective?

I'm actually giving them a go (I figure they can't hurt), but I'm interested in hearing other people's experiences with them and if it actually does help.

serindipte

I am so glad I went to the link because I was picturing someone with a weird tube around their belly hooked up to their Hoover and waiting for their waist size to shrink. lol

Now that I see what it is, though? Dunno but, like you said, can't hurt!

peejaygee1

lol serindipte - I thought it was some kind of plastic surgery thing when I fist heard the name...

BUMP-ing for more input, please?

Jewlz280

I'm betting due to the name, you'll get little to no replies. Can you change it? Maybe stomach vacuum exercises or something so people will take the question seriously and not think it's spam? Sorry I'm not much help. Never heard of them and the link wouldn't work for me.

peejaygee1

I can't edit the title, sorry. I can't really repost it with a different title as it will breach the community guidelines. :frown:

Here's the link again: http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/stomach-vacuum

nabilaboulela9

Essentially it's like sucking your stomach in to the point where it causes a lot of strain on the interior abdominal muscles. I'm not great at science or whatever but basically it builds your interior muscles and balances out your normal ab work. When you do crunches or most other ab exercises, you work the outer muscles. In men specifically, it can cause a pushed out gut because their abs are so strong on the outside but weak on the inside.

Basically, it's sucking in your stomach so that your stomach muscles adapt to it, get stronger and your stomach stays flatter. I can personally say that it's worked for me.

peejaygee1

Essentially it's like sucking your stomach in to the point where it causes a lot of strain on the interior abdominal muscles. I'm not great at science or whatever but basically it builds your interior muscles and balances out your normal ab work. When you do crunches or most other ab exercises, you work the outer muscles. In men specifically, it can cause a pushed out gut because their abs are so strong on the outside but weak on the inside.

Basically, it's sucking in your stomach so that your stomach muscles adapt to it, get stronger and your stomach stays flatter. I can personally say that it's worked for me.

Thank you for your reply, so it's definitely worth giving a go then in your opinion.

neandermagnon

it probably would have an effect on your abs muscle, as it's an abs exercise. However it's not going to reduce the amount of fat around your waist or do anything magical. Also, for maximum benefits (both in terms of health and how you look) you need to work your whole body not just your abs. It's a common myth that you should do abs exercises to get a thin waist... people do these without changing their eating habits and without exercising the rest of their body then wonder why they still don't have a thin waist. But if you're exercising your whole body and eating right, then abs exercises can help in terms of keeping the muscles around your middle strong and not saggy. (although saggy abs is only a small part of what makes someone's waist too big, maybe 1 inch comes from out of condition abs muscles the rest comes from too much fat)

ETA: I'd recommend exercises like planks to work the entire core, rather than abs isolation exercises. Nothing wrong with doing both though.

David_AUS

1 - Isn't this basically the same thing as sucking your gut in? - no this would be more intense and I think are similar to "Kelgel" exercises.

2 - Has anyone on here found them to be effective? - there is a quote that I believe is true - the posture you work out in in the posture your body will align to. So as you say if you walk tall and proud and sit with good posture you will see improvements in your mid section as you lose weight. Additionally you will appear more confident!

Any exercise which stretches or works a muscle will have some impact.

peejaygee1

Thanks everyone for your input.

I'm just started a weight training program, as well as some light cardio (I have recently reduced the amount of cardio I was doing after losing 20kg/45lb, so I could get a more "toned" physique), along with my normal eating plan. I'm currently taking part in the March planking challenge as I really love a good plank (I know, I'm a bit odd), and do try to make a concerted effort on my posture.

I was just reading about these and the idea intrigued me somewhat, and was interested if anyone did them, and if so did they find they worked.

Cheers