I was wondering how you guys feel about stomach vacuums? I tried them a couple of times after I saw a video of Scott doing them in a circuit.

I have been getting this question a lot lately and I feel like there is a major misunderstanding in relation to training your abs and increasing your waist size.

Your CORE (Abs, obliques, lower back, etc) are the foundation to your body.  If you don't train your core, you can expect to be weaker in not only lifts like deadlifting and squatting, but benching and overhead pressing as well.  This is because you need to learn to contract and squeeze your core for stability throughout each of these exercise.  Without it, your body will just crumble under the pressure of the weights.

But the problem is that a lot of people think that if they are "bulking" it is pointless to work their abs because you are going to gain bodyfat and not be able to see them.  Or if you are trying to lose weight you are going to increase the size of your waist and look "bigger".

We already covered that a strong core is the foundation to your lifts whether "bulking" or "cutting".

But for those of you trying to lose weight who are under the impression that you will gain all kinds of muscle and have a thicker waist, that just isn't true.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. If if your waist is getting bigger but the rest of your body seems to not be making changes as all, it is more than likely just more bodyfat and you need to adjust your intensity level in the gym or take another look at your meal plan.
   
   
2. If you do increase muscle mass in your core that is a good thing.  You burn more calories with more muscle so the more you gain the better!  Also, as you gain muscle while simultaneously losing weight your abs are going to look AMAZING once you reach your goal!
   
   
3. This is more of a personal observation, but I have been doing weighted abdominal and oblique exercises my whole life.  I can pretty much stack any cable machine for woodchoppers and my waist is still a solid 30in. - 31in.  Maybe a close 29in. if I diet really well.  Basically what I am saying that if you eat right and train your core the muscles will become more defined and much stronger, not increase your waist size by any kind of crazy number!

They are great. I do them 2-3 times a week. I am finishing up a "How To" video on them tomorrow to post soon! You will definitely get some good tips from it! #HTH

Awesome! I am not really sure if I am doing them the right way.