Abs and Flat Stomach, and Posture.

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Hey everyone…was just wondering…is there such thing as a flat stomach?
I mean I’ve trained my abs heavy and hard, directly and indirectly (heavy squats, rows etc etc.)
When I stand regularly I do NOT have a flat stomach, it definaetly protrudes…as soon as I flex of course it’s completely flat…I do not have a high BF, I can see all my abs when I flex and such…was just wondering is the ab protrusion simply because of a lot of muscle in the stomach region?

2nd thing regarding posture.
On this site, I’ve heard and well by the general population it’s not good to slouch while on computer, the desk etc.
I try to keep the best postrue all the time…but in everday life…are we always trying to bring our shoulder back and down day to day all the time…or does anyone here not really focus on that to keep posture as good as possible and doesn’t affect much?
Thanks

2

There is a good thread on this: Forums - T Nation - The World's Trusted Community for Elite Fitness

3

Abdominals are supposed to be three dimensional just like every other muscle. Generally though the ‘thickness’ should be uniform so the gut doesnt look round. Most people wont have a truly flat stomach until they are a few weeks away from competition condition.

Pelvic tilt has a big influence on whether or not your gut will protrude, regardless of bodyfat.

4

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
Pelvic tilt has a big influence on whether or not your gut will protrude, regardless of bodyfat. [/quote]

This. Do you have anterior pelvic tilt/lordosis?

5

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
Abdominals are supposed to be three dimensional just like every other muscle. Generally though the ‘thickness’ should be uniform so the gut doesnt look round. Most people wont have a truly flat stomach until they are a few weeks away from competition condition.

Pelvic tilt has a big influence on whether or not your gut will protrude, regardless of bodyfat. [/quote]

I just wanted to highlight this because it is a little bothersome to read so many people calling out bodybuilders left and right for having “abdominal distention” when that is simply within NORMAL range of how anyone is going to look.

I have known guys in contest shape who have a protruding belly…ALL NATURAL…simply because that is how they are put together.

There is a huge difference between a rounded pregnant belly influenced by insulin+GH+steroid use in contest shape and a rounded belly because that is simply how your body is structured.

Bottom line, if you can’t tell the difference, stop calling people out on it. It simply makes you look dumb.

6

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
Abdominals are supposed to be three dimensional just like every other muscle. Generally though the ‘thickness’ should be uniform so the gut doesnt look round. Most people wont have a truly flat stomach until they are a few weeks away from competition condition.

Pelvic tilt has a big influence on whether or not your gut will protrude, regardless of bodyfat. [/quote]

I guess that’s what it is for me…I definaetly don’t have a round gut or anything…but you can tell when I’m relaxed it’s thick, protrudes a bit…but when I flex it goes flat etc etc.

I don’t think I have pelvic tilt…I know my hips are a bit tight right now but not to the extent to give me anterior pelvic tilt, plus my abs back awlasy get worked and I have no shortage of glutes not firing. I don’t even feel squats in my quads anymore from the glute activation work I do before lifting. (unless variations…front squats with oly heel etc.)

Thanks for the post bonez.

7

[quote]rasturai wrote:

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
Abdominals are supposed to be three dimensional just like every other muscle. Generally though the ‘thickness’ should be uniform so the gut doesnt look round. Most people wont have a truly flat stomach until they are a few weeks away from competition condition.

Pelvic tilt has a big influence on whether or not your gut will protrude, regardless of bodyfat. [/quote]

I guess that’s what it is for me…I definaetly don’t have a round gut or anything…but you can tell when I’m relaxed it’s thick, protrudes a bit…but when I flex it goes flat etc etc.

I don’t think I have pelvic tilt…I know my hips are a bit tight right now but not to the extent to give me anterior pelvic tilt, plus my abs back awlasy get worked and I have no shortage of glutes not firing. I don’t even feel squats in my quads anymore from the glute activation work I do before lifting. (unless variations…front squats with oly heel etc.)

Thanks for the post bonez.[/quote]

Looks like you hold more fat on other parts of your body like your chest and arms. This is not necessarily a bad thing since supposedly abdominal fat is the worst thing to have, and muscle/fat can look alot bigger and stronger when in the right areas. Problem is it can give you a distorted perception of your bodyfat levels. Me and you can be the same bodyfat% but with most of my fat in my stomach I just look higher. I’m saying this to say that if you lose alot of bodyfat you would see the flat abs your talking about, especially with your bodytype.

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Mmm I think perhaps in the chest I do, but the arms definately not. I’ve got a distinct peak + buldge to my biceps and you can perfectly see the outline of my biceps when I flex…you can see the seperation between biceps, shoulder, and triceps…maybe not clear in the pic…but definately got quite a bit of definition in my arms.
I think you are correct though, I think if I got my BF a bit lower the flat abs would come in and stomach wouldn’t protrude as much…esp. since I wouldnt be gorging myself with the amount of carbs I eat everyday lol.

9

Food in the stomach?

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[quote]Amonero wrote:
Food in the stomach?[/quote]

People always offer this as an explanation, but I don’t buy it. Having a full stomach causes a protrusion in the upper left part of the abs only.

Or maybe I just have a fucked up stomach.

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You might just carry a lot of fat beneath the muscle, common in dudes (but not exactly “healthy” as mentioned int he post prior post).

Food/gas definitely can make your stomach protrude.

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Yeah, my brother and I are both kind of built like that (with pelvic tilt). I’m sure it’s from getting exposed to too much growth hormone during puberty. :slight_smile:

Seriously though, if it’s a muscle imbalance, I’m trying to follow some of the advice about training the transversus, working on glute/ab strength (I sit a lot all day), stretching my hip flexors and quads and keeping myself aware of my posture during the day.

14

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Fill a plastic bag with chicken guts or other offal. Is it still flat? Of course not. Now tense the bag by pulling the top and bottom away from each other. Does it flatten out? To a degree, yes.

It is tha same with your abdominal region. There is a lot of tissue and partly digested foodstuff in there. Gravity wants to pull it downwards. This results in an outward bulge as the mass of intestine etc pushes against the most pliant structure - the abdominal wall.

Unless you are some skinny emo-boy (or lower weight BBer about to step on stage), or you have just had a 4 day battle with gastric flu, you won’t posses a truly ‘flat’ stomach, unless you tense it. Even then, the ‘flat’ stomach is a result if residual resting tension in the muscles of the abdominal wall.

BBB

[/quote]

I always wonder why this isn’t common knowledge. Why are skinny newbs under the impression that the stomach is supposed to be flat as a board at all times? You would have to only be exposed to human bodies through magazines to believe something like that.

If you look at Kai Greene in the off season when he is weighing near 300lbs and eating 6lbs of meat a day, you would have to be half retarded to think his stomach is going to be completely flat especially since his goal is MORE muscle which means eating even more food and lifting even heavier weight.

Beyond that, you have to deal with the fact that the human body is not going to maintain a tiny stick figure waist like might be seen on someone who only weighs 140lbs when you are pushing 300lbs, have a 60" chest and 22" arms.

I think part of the confusion is the belief that some skinny newb is going to turn into 260lbs of solid muscle while maintaining 8% body fat or less the entire way through and that their body doesn’t adapt when adding large amounts of muscle.

There is no way 190lbs Ronnie Coleman’s beginner waist would be able to support over 300lbs of advanced bodybuilder muscle without adapting at all.

15

Just out of curiosity, anyone know what Brian Buchanan’s competition weight was? I don’t think he was real heavy but man, he had a tiny waist.

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[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Just out of curiosity, anyone know what Brian Buchanan’s competition weight was? I don’t think he was real heavy but man, he had a tiny waist.[/quote]

Usually under 230lbs.

The man was a freak for that even though he never got the attention for it that I thought he deserved. There are always outliers to any generalization but few bodybuilders were hitting over 250lbs on stage when he was competing aside from the people winning first and second place like Haney and a little later Levrone and Nasser.

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[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

I always wonder why this isn’t common knowledge. Why are skinny newbs under the impression that the stomach is supposed to be flat as a board at all times? You would have to only be exposed to human bodies through magazines to believe something like that.

.[/quote]

I once read a letter to the fitness editor in some national British newspaper where the guy was lamenting the fact that he didn’t have a flat stomach despite sleeping on his front every night with his fist balled up between his abs and the mattress. He thought that by pushing his abs into his spine every night, he could get a flat stomach.

I almost cried with laughter, then I almost cried, because this is the kind of ignorance/complete lack of common sense I have to deal with regularly.

BBB[/quote]

That’s retarded…but it isn’t much different than every other newb logging in calling people out for gyno and GH guts simply because the focus of their attention isn’t built like what they have been exposed to in Teen Beat magazine.

Johnnie Jackson has a gut when powerlifting…that he does not have when competing in bodybuilding. I have no doubt that some idiots are calling him out for having a GH gut simply because his stomach isn’t always flat.

It is no wonder so many of these guys don’t ever gain much overall muscular bodyweight when they are so self conscious that they are trying to meet some fantasy goal of having a stomach that somehow remains flexed at all times and never get distended no matter what they eat.

Having one particular author here act like gaining any body fat at all will either kill them or cause pounds and pounds of loose skin to appear out of nowhere and that explains why out of a gym filled with a hundred people, there may be 2 who actually look “big” lately.

20

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

I always wonder why this isn’t common knowledge. Why are skinny newbs under the impression that the stomach is supposed to be flat as a board at all times? You would have to only be exposed to human bodies through magazines to believe something like that.

.[/quote]

I once read a letter to the fitness editor in some national British newspaper where the guy was lamenting the fact that he didn’t have a flat stomach despite sleeping on his front every night with his fist balled up between his abs and the mattress. He thought that by pushing his abs into his spine every night, he could get a flat stomach.

I almost cried with laughter, then I almost cried, because this is the kind of ignorance/complete lack of common sense I have to deal with regularly.

BBB[/quote]

That’s retarded…but it isn’t much different than every other newb logging in calling people out for gyno and GH guts simply because the focus of their attention isn’t built like what they have been exposed to in Teen Beat magazine.

Johnnie Jackson has a gut when powerlifting…that he does not have when competing in bodybuilding. I have no doubt that some idiots are calling him out for having a GH gut simply because his stomach isn’t always flat.

It is no wonder so many of these guys don’t ever gain much overall muscular bodyweight when they are so self conscious that they are trying to meet some fantasy goal of having a stomach that somehow remains flexed at all times and never get distended no matter what they eat.

Having one particular author here act like gaining any body fat at all will either kill them or cause pounds and pounds of loose skin to appear out of nowhere and that explains why out of a gym filled with a hundred people, there may be 2 who actually look “big” lately.[/quote]

haha good post. I agree I’ve trained with a couple guys and well to be honest…I don’t blame some of the guys…they are young, in college, want to get laid/want to look good and to them havinga low bodyfat all abs showing etc etc. is the thing. They aren’t thinking long term, they are in the now…so that extra bodyfat that will be put on in exchange for 10-15lbs of muscle in the long run…well that doesn’t cross their mind. They just want to get bigger, but keeping BF same or even lower. (I want to gain muscle while losing some fat)…I hear that shit a million times.