Did you know … that there’s a Traditional Chinese Medicine exercise where you can rub your stomach away effortlessly using the palm of your hand — for only 2 minutes a day?
This may sound too good to be true but there’s ample evidence among practitioners of the exercise that it does work. Dr. Stephen Chang, an M.D. and PhD. who’s trained in both Western and Chinese medicine, states that this simple 2-minute internal exercise, which does not come from Western medicine, but rather from the wisdom of ancient Chinese sages — has been used successfully as a self-healing stomach remedy for over 6,000 years.
This exercise is entirely different from the external exercises of the Western world, such as sit-ups, crunches and other movements that only firm up the underlying stomach muscles but do nothing to shed the fat surrounding those muscles.
According to Dr. Chang, losing weight is a simple matter of increasing the efficiency of the digestive system. If you’ve ever wondered why you fail to lose weight even when you reduce your food and/or caloric intake — the reason is because your digestive and eliminatory systems are not functioning efficiently.
The following 2-minute stomach exercise works like a gentle colonic irrigation that helps speed up a sluggish digestive system (which usually carries at least 5 pounds of fecal matter within it), and this elimination of useless sludge has the effect of burning off excess fat from the abdominal area. The exercise effectively metabolizes the fatty tissues around the stomach and intestines, and flushes them out of your body through blood, sweat, urine, and feces.
Here’s how to do the stomach-rubbing exercise:
- Lie flat on your back on your bed or on the floor. Take your top off or pull it up so that your abdominal area is bare.
- Rub your hands together vigorously for about 30 seconds, or until they feel hot.
- Place the palm of one of your hands directly on your belly button and begin to rub in small circles around your belly button, and gradually make the circles larger. Use fairly firm but comfortable pressure and rub at a slow, even pace, approximately 1 circle per second.
- Concentrate on the heat building up in, around, and throughout your stomach.
- Do 60 circles or more for an approximate duration of 2 minutes.
Note: It is important to keep the abdominal area warm while doing the exercise, especially during winter months when even heated indoor air tends to be cool.
For best results, do this stomach exercise routine twice a day for 2 minutes — first thing in the morning (before breakfast) and just before you go to bed. Most people see noticeable results within 1 week of consistent practice.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the stomach is the center of energy. Massaging the stomach in the manner described above therefore accomplishes more than just melting away adipose tissue (fat).
The internal exercise also helps to:
- Stimulate the abdominal organs
- Help speed up slow digestion and remedy constipation
- Increase blood circulation in the abdominal area
- Help heal indigestion, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and the adverse effects of overeating
Caution: The stomach massage should not be practiced immediately after a heavy meal. Neither is it advisable for women who are pregnant, or have inflammation of the uterus, bladder, ovaries and fallopian tubes; and individuals who have the following conditions: hypertension; stones in the gall bladder, kidneys or bladder; general, femoral, inguinal and umbilical hernia; bleeding of the stomach, lungs or brain; or ulcers of the intestines and stomach.