Stomach Vacuum
Trains the Abs and Transversus Abdominis.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Static
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Kneel on all fours, or stand with your hands on your thighs. The position matters less than being able to let the belly hang loose.
- Breathe all the way out, emptying your lungs as far as is comfortable.
- With no air in, draw your navel back toward your spine and up under your ribs.
- Hold there without breathing in. The first holds are usually short.
- Release, breathe normally for a few breaths, and repeat.
Common mistakes
- Trying it with air still in the lungs. The hollow depends on an empty chest as much as on the abdominal wall; with the lungs full there is nowhere for the abdomen to go.
- Holding until you are gasping. The hold is limited by breath rather than by the muscle, and nothing is gained by pushing it.
- Confusing it with bracing. Bracing pushes the abdominal wall out against a load; a vacuum draws it in. Both are the transversus abdominis working, in opposite directions, and the braced version is what happens under a heavy bar.
- Expecting it to change the shape of your waist. It trains a muscle that compresses the abdomen and produces no movement of its own, and it sits under two other layers.