01
Hypopressive exercises (similar breathing-based abdominal work) improved abdominal and pelvic floor muscle strength in women.
view on pubmed ↗← BACK TO VEDA
FITNESS
• MIXED
Stomach Vacuums for Shrinking Waist
RESEARCH
- Core stability exercises help with pain and function, but evidence doesn't show spot fat reduction from abdominal work alone.
COMMUNITY
- People report mixed results: some see waist reduction quickly, others say vacuums just improve muscle control without changing size.
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SAFETYAvoid if pregnant or have uncontrolled blood pressure; check with a doctor if you have pelvic floor dysfunction.
WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS
ALL 15 ON PUBMED ↗02
Core stability exercises focusing on deep abdominal muscles reduced pain and improved quality of life in pregnant women with pelvic girdle pain.
view on pubmed ↗03
Spot reduction (targeted abdominal fat loss from abdominal exercise alone) was not supported; total body fat loss requires full-body training.
view on pubmed ↗WHAT PEOPLE SAY
READ THREADS ON REDDIT ↗COMMUNITY SENTIMENT
58% positive
“There was a similar thread about this a while back where it was pretty much agreed that vacuums do not reduce your waist size but give you a better and easier ability to hold in your gut and to be able to keep your abs flexed for extended periods of time.”
U/SHAMEFUL_LOBSTER ↗“Lost 1.5 inches off my waist within a month doing them, didn’t lose any weight or add any new exercises other than that. FWIW, I’ve had two kids, didn’t have noticeable diastasis recti, but was definitely thicker around the waist after having them while still at the same weight pre-pregnancy. Don’t know if that contributed to them being so effective for me or not.”
U/FARTYFEMALE ↗“I love em, I have joint hypermobility and pain associated with it especially in my SI joint, stomach Vacuums will greatly improve any pain I'm having and I always feel like I can engage the muscles all over my body better after doing em. So I do a few before all my workouts(just a preference of mine) Which makes sense stomach vacuums are suppose to target that inner most muscle surrounding your spine. (transversus abdomonis) Also my waist did get significantly smaller very quickly when I started doing them.”
U/-LOAFLORD- ↗COMMENTS
Add context that might help others — skin type, conditions like PCOS, what you'd tried before. The more specific, the more useful.
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