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[Karitsa]

Hi everyone,

Every year for the last 3 or 4 years, I have been working out from January to May to get ready for con-season. Each year, I usually have to lose 8-10 pounds, which I'm able to do after two months of working out. The remaining months are just to maintain.

Anyway, this year, I decided that I'd try to work my abs a bit more. I finally reached my goal weight and I'm always happy with the result, but this time, my stomach appears larger than it usually does - even though I'm the exact same weight as before!!

Obviously, the change is because of my new ab workouts, but it's supposed to make my stomach flatter, not larger and more bloated-looking... right?! Well, I was very upset and decided to look it up online. I found out that I've been working my abs WRONG for the last two months.

Instead of breathing OUT while contracting the muscle and IN when relaxing, I was doing the opposite, which apparently, causes your muscles in enlarge outward... A.K.A. my bigger stomach!!

Sooooooo... the big convention is at the end of May and I NEED THIS FIXED!! What should I do? Just keep at my cardio workouts and ignore my abs? Continue my ab workouts, but do them correctly this time? Stop working out completely?! I'm at a total loss.

Please help me!!!

[32spartan11]

The primary function of your abs, or more precisely your core (which includes far more than just the abdominal muscles) is to stabilize. Isometric holds such as planks and six inches are some of the best ways to work your core. I recommend sticking to them as they make you stronger/more fit but don't actually grow the size of your abs much.

Your breathing doesn't effect how muscle grows or guys would be doing what you did and be getting jacked easy. The fact you were contracting your abdominals is what made them grow. My guess is you were doing around 15 reps (or less) per set of contracting your abs which would grow the muscle.

Secondly it seems you wanted to work your abs more to have better definition in that area. That is called spot training and it doesn't work it's a myth, doing crunches don't define your mid section. The only way to have more defined abs is to drop body fat. To do that you need to use more calories than you take in, easiest way to do so watch your nutrition. Hence the phrase "Abs are created in the kitchen, not the gym". Any one could have a six pack with out ever doing a sit up by weight training and nutrition. (though doing ab workouts help get that "pop")

Also their is many factors that go into your midsections appearance beside just workouts. Bloating water retention, sodium intake, carbonated drink intake all effect how bloated you look. Which gives the stomach that expanded look.

To get rid of this look I'd clean up my diet and make sure to drop any soda or other carbonated drinks and lower sodium intake. Focus on isometric exercises to work you core (abs) but mainly focus on cardio and resistance training.

Hopefully that helps.

[Karitsa]

I guess I should have stated that it's definitely not my eating habits that are doing this. I'm at an ideal weight for my age/height. Believe it or not, I don't eat fast food, hate carbonated beverages, and avoid all sweets. I've been that way for years and have never had a problem with my stomach until now. Nothing's changed in terms of my calorie intake or exercise routine, other than adding the ab workouts after my cardio. I thought the ab exercises would have toned the area instead of making it explode.

If the muscle has grown because of what I'm doing, how do I (for lack of a better term) UN-grow it? Just stick with the cardio then? I'm worried that working the muscle even more (by doing resistance training etc.) will make it look worse. How long will it take this to go away? I've been at it for two months! I wouldn't have bothered if I knew it was going to turn out like this. Who could have known that working out your abs actually makes you look worse... *sigh*

EDIT: Like I said, I've been this exact weight before and didn't have a problem with my stomach!!

[Rjr3412]

Well on the upside if you have only been working on them for two months ... there probably hasn't been that much muscle "growth". Whenever you progressively train a muscle, in the presence of adequate calories, you can expect it to grow. If you don't want to completely lay off of ab exercises try what Spartan mentioned, or look up vacuum exercises. It'll make them look flatter.

Please be sure this isn't anything hormonal, food, sodium, water related before panicking. Frankly, the best "cure" for too much muscle mass is being lazy. Extra cardio will speed things up, but don't overdo it.

Also, are you keeping any tension in your abs, or just letting it relax? I can look about 15+ pounds heavier just by purposefully relaxing my abs; whereas with a bit of tension and proper posture I look significantly better. Might be worth reading up on posture to see how that helps.

Best of luck

[Karitsa]

Laziness, huh? Laziness is good, haha! Just kidding~ X3

I'll definitely look into those "vacuum exercises." I've never heard of them before, but they sound interesting...

Yes, I can guarantee that all of those things you mentioned aren't a factor. If anything, I would think water has something to do with it, since I drink quite a lot, BUT this isn't something that comes and goes throughout the day. It's a constant thing. If it were water-related, wouldn't it simply go away after a full eight-hour sleep?

Adjusting my posture helps a bit, but I feel like I'm sucking in my stomach or something when I purposefully straighten my back. It doesn't look/feel natural. :P

Thanks for the input though!

Oh, and thank you as well, 32spartan11. I welcome any and all help I can get!

[crazycomicgurl]

http://youtu.be/Y6ZTzUEtPTI

I posted this video in another thread and it is great for core toning. Something that people forget is that to have a flatter, firmer stomach you need to tone the whole core, meaning you need to work your lower back and oblique’s as well. The whole core needs to be strong to hold it in tight. Thats why its called your core

When you do crunches (and other abdominal exercises) make sure that your back is pressed into the floor and that you are pulling your muscles in instead of pushing up. The way you do your crunch DOES matter. If you are pushing the muscles up (a lot of people do) then you are working the muscles wrong and that will effect your results. That is why breathing at the right time is important. If you are breathing in you'll push up. You want to pull the muscles in, contract, so releasing breath helps. Imagine you are pulling your belly button into your spine. Sounds nasty, but it works. Visualization like that helps. The breathing is also important because you need to be providing your body a steady supply of oxygen so make sure that you aren't holding your breath during a workout either.

Cardio is good, losing fat is good, but if you are at your goal weight and you are happy with that then you don't need to focus on losing more fat. Building muscle will do that. Sounds like you need to tone so I think (and I'm no professional here, but-) you need to tone. Keep going with your work out and focus on toning and toning correctly. Take a look at that video. I think you'll like it

[crazycomicgurl]

oh and that plank pose that is in the video is STELLAR for working the whole core all at once.

[32spartan11]

Originally Posted by Karitsa

EDIT: Like I said, I've been this exact weight before and didn't have a problem with my stomach!!

Honestly weight doesn't mean much. Unless your talking about lean body mass. For example I weigh somewhere around 175lbs @ around 10% Body fat which puts my LBM around 157.5lbs. some one who weighs 175lbs @ 12% BF is going to look much different as their LBM is 154lbs, they have an extra 3.5lbs fat. That is a huge difference though it's only 2% change.

Check out this video to see why it matters. It's a few years old but she does a great job explaining it.

Now how does this pertain to you. If you've been having this weight fluctuation for a few years with no resistance training and mostly cardio and caloric deficit studies show when weight loss is done in this approach about 75% of the weight you lose is fat and the other 25% is muscle. So for you your gaining weight then losing it. The weight you gaining is mostly likely fat and the weight your losing each time is a combination of both muscle and fat. What this would do is change your lean body mass and raise your body fat%. As I said above just a mere 2% difference in BF can change someones appearance drastically. Especially in the stomach area as most people's body naturally stores more fat around their mid section.

When I give advice on losing weight and getting fit I usually tell people to use their body weight as a guideline and that's all as body fat% is a much more important to track as most people don't actually want to weigh a certain amount, but look a certain way.

Hopefully that gives you a better understanding as to why you could look different and still be the same weight.

[Karitsa]

Sorry for the late response, folks. I was at a con. (Happy~ :3)

Anyway, that video is extremely helpful, crazycomicgurl! As 32spartan11 suggested, I think I'll stick with planks for now and focus on cardio. The video describing the difference between muscle and fat was extremely helpful as well. Thanks for elaborating! You guys rock!

[Alvulious]

Thanks for the video, helped