As a former, or rather not currently practising, yogi, it occurred to me I'm wasting valuable "empty" state of my stomach by not practising vacuum exercises.
Vacuum was always my favourite among breathing exercises, and it only takes a few minutes. While exhaling completely and then pulling the stomach in is a serious muscle work, I never felt it being _hard work_. Back then I was more athletic and had no problem performing exercises soon after eating, I was never too many hours without food anyway. These days it's way harder to do if I'm not fasted.
I don't get tired of it, I don't avoid doing it. Apart from the fact that I avoided it along with the whole yoga.
So after the flu, I measured my weight, because I sometimes do, and the waist measurement, because I was sewing a garment :) Weight was a record low for my fasting journey, but the waist was bigger than I'd expect. Anyway, I memorized the numbers and started exercises and decided somewhere in the future to check if they also reduce the waist measurement.
They do. After six weeks my weight was a few kilo more because I was no longer post flu, but my waist 4-5cm smaller, that is significant (and increased my wardrobe problems, but also allowed me to start wearing previously-too-small garments I kept).
So, 3 minutes a day in the morning, only 3-4 vacuum holdings (and I don't hold for long, never could), and there is a noticeable waist reduction. Now I don't know if something they look into while measuring waists for health checks is also improved. No idea, I didn't measure amounts and colours of fat etc. But 3 minutes a day, huh? Sounds like a clickbaity video.
Also much, much easier than sewing a corset, which I still want to do, for back support and speaking aid ;)
#IntermittentFasting #breathingExercises #Uddiyana

Here's my new video on the breathwork morning-routine: https://youtu.be/BviZt0e29rk

#breathwork #pranayama #kapalbhati #uddiyana bandha #breath #breathing