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What is the Stomach Vacuum and Why Bother?

The stomach vacuum is an isometric contraction of the TVA (your deepest abdominal muscle).

The stomach vacuum involves breathing out air and maintaining the breathless hold whilst "sucking in" the stomach to engage the TVA. It generates negative pressure in the abdomen.

It will help you get really connected to your diaphragm, TVA and pelvic floor. It’s worth learning because it will help you practice engaging your TVA and deep spinal stabilizing muscles. As a bonus, with daily practice, it will further shrink your waistline and increase your core strength and stability. Plus, it’s a prerequisite for learning Nauli Kriya.

Stomach vacuums take practice but they are extremely effective for helping you gain more connection to and control over your TVA.

My program takes you through each stage of learning the stomach vacuum:

• • Core Breathing (connect your breath to your TVA engaging)
  • Stomach vacuum (Uddiyana Bandha)

Contraindications:

• Menstruation
• Pregnancy
• Up to 6 weeks post-partum
• Hernias
• Heart condition or serious digestive disorder
• Constipation

Practice Tips:

• Best practiced on an empty stomach in the morning or 5-6 hours after eating.
• The more you can relax your abdominals, the easier it is to get your diaphragm to move way up out of the way. This will make your vacuum more powerful. This is when the magic happens. Learning how to totally relax the abdomen is a learned skill.
• Beware of diminishing returns. This is a breathing exercise. I’m not breathing for 15s+ seconds when I’m doing this. When I first started, I probably only lasted 5s. So I’d suggest to stop after 5 to 7 attempts. And rest between attempts.
• I recommend you wear something that exposes your entire stomach and your legs. I noticed I kept pulling my leggings and pants down, and it was annoying. High rise prevents you from seeing what your lower belly is doing. I do practice in front of a mirror or a front facing video camera because for me, the biofeedback of seeing myself has helped me. But other people may prefer going by feel and not looking. Do what works the best for you.

My Approach:

The tutorials I created are based on epiphanies and feelings I have experienced during my learning process.

Focus on finding the feelings that I describe to you in the videos. Eventually things fall into place.

This program is divided into 2 parts.

• Part 1: Learning (Didactic): Watch the short videos for everything you need to know to facilitate learning Stomach Vacuum.
• Part 2: Action Taking (Practical): Exercise videos are provided so you can do my training sequences!