Abs and Flat Stomach, and Posture.

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
21

For me to get from a lean 180 to 205lbs…I didn’t want to gain an ounce of fat…6 months later I realized I didn’t gain any weight…I did get a bit stronger…but nothing else. I had realized that I was being a bit too conscious…so everyday at schol in the cafeteria I’d buy some cheeseburgers, or some chicken fingers, pizza’s. I’d bring protein shakes to school, and drink milk in class.

By the next year I was up to 205. Took me a year to gain up to that 205…I gained a little bit of fat but for the most part I know I gained much more muslce I could still see abs completely, opened my eyes completely.

22


I’m probably going to annoy a few people here, but, I believe the main reason for a BIG protruding belly is excessive bulking. And then…the bodybuilder doesn’t cut calories/do enough cardio to cut the internal visceral fat (fat beneath stomach muscles that often causes protruding).

This is VERY difficult for a bodybuilder (even naturals) because they are constantly “bulking”…more than they are cutting…so obviously, in the long run, the visceral fat builds up beneath the abs…even though the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is being burned off. You can be ripped, but have loads of visceral fat.

In my opinion the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is easier to “burn off” than the internal visceral fat…hence why it builds up over time.

Essentially, it takes a pretty HIGH cut in calories to get rid of visceral fat - something most bodybuilders couldn’t bring themselves round to doing (understandably).

The way around this is to not eat more than is necessary (slow bulk)…and eat more “healthy” fats as apposed to ones like saturated. But then again, this is very difficult to do when in persuit of as much muscle as possible.

Visceral fat is often connected with heart problems…and so are steriods (or at least, abuse of steriods)…maybe there’s a connection?

23

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
I’m probably going to annoy a few people here, but, I believe the main reason for a BIG protruding belly is excessive bulking. And then…the bodybuilder doesn’t cut calories/do enough cardio to cut the internal visceral fat (fat beneath stomach muscles that often causes protruding).

This is VERY difficult for a bodybuilder (even naturals) because they are constantly “bulking”…more than they are cutting…so obviously, in the long run, the visceral fat builds up beneath the abs…even though the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is being burned off. You can be ripped, but have loads of visceral fat.

In my opinion the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is easier to “burn off” than the internal visceral fat…hence why it builds up over time.

Essentially, it takes a pretty HIGH cut in calories to get rid of visceral fat - something most bodybuilders couldn’t bring themselves round to doing (understandably).

The way around this is to not eat more than is necessary (slow bulk)…and eat more “healthy” fats as apposed to ones like saturated. But then again, this is very difficult to do when in persuit of as much muscle as possible.

Visceral fat is often connected with heart problems…and so are steriods (or at least, abuse of steriods)…maybe there’s a connection?[/quote]

If you are now blaming true abdominal distention on eating enough to gain, you are flat out wrong. If you think bodybuilders from the 60’s were eating light…yep, you are wrong again.

Most of the people even worrying about a “slow bulk” will never get that big to start with. Who the hell do you know “slow bulks” their way up 100lbs? It doesn’t fucking happen.

All you end up with is people who may gain 20lbs in 5-10 years but who never reach anywhere near their own personal limits.

24

Prof. I agree with your slow bulk…but how much do you think someone should shoot for when gaining muscle? 30lbs? and then cut. What I mean to say is…how much weight should one gain before deciding to trim some fat and then get back at. Also are these things possible if doing cardio 3-4x a week, or does it just mean you gotta eat a shitload more food to keep gaining and should shoot for half a pound a week of weight gain, instead of a lb. a week.

25

[quote]rasturai wrote:
Prof. I agree with your slow bulk…but how much do you think someone should shoot for when gaining muscle? 30lbs? and then cut. What I mean to say is…how much weight should one gain before deciding to trim some fat and then get back at. Also are these things possible if doing cardio 3-4x a week, or does it just mean you gotta eat a shitload more food to keep gaining and should shoot for half a pound a week of weight gain, instead of a lb. a week.

[/quote]

Dude, no one can give you some specific weight range that ALL people should try to gain before dieting. Person A may start gaining and put on 20lbs in two months and have most or all of that be muscle mass. Person B may start gaining that same 20lbs and have most of it be body fat.

Genetics and the ability to train hard along with the results seen are what you base that on. If you are the type of person who looks like Fat Albert just because you smelled cookies today, would it really make sense to simply gain some pre-determined body weight without considering WHAT is actually being gained?

On the flip side, I am seeing some truly retarded behavior on this site lately that relates to this. I have seen skinny newbs truly get nervous because they gained 5lbs in a month and then log on asking if this is wrong. That makes no sense and implies that:

  1. This person probably believes that you can only gain .25lbs of muscle in a month based on their own lack of understanding and the word of “insert guru” and …
  2. They have no clue or are paying no attention to WHAT is being gained.

If you gain 10lbs and 90% of that was muscle, why the FUCK would you diet down?

If you gain 10lbs and 10% of that was muscle, why the FUCK would you keep eating the same?

Yes, some of this is just plain old common sense…which is not so common any longer.

26

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
I’m probably going to annoy a few people here, but, I believe the main reason for a BIG protruding belly is excessive bulking. And then…the bodybuilder doesn’t cut calories/do enough cardio to cut the internal visceral fat (fat beneath stomach muscles that often causes protruding).

This is VERY difficult for a bodybuilder (even naturals) because they are constantly “bulking”…more than they are cutting…so obviously, in the long run, the visceral fat builds up beneath the abs…even though the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is being burned off. You can be ripped, but have loads of visceral fat.

In my opinion the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is easier to “burn off” than the internal visceral fat…hence why it builds up over time.

Essentially, it takes a pretty HIGH cut in calories to get rid of visceral fat - something most bodybuilders couldn’t bring themselves round to doing (understandably).

The way around this is to not eat more than is necessary (slow bulk)…and eat more “healthy” fats as apposed to ones like saturated. But then again, this is very difficult to do when in persuit of as much muscle as possible.

Visceral fat is often connected with heart problems…and so are steriods (or at least, abuse of steriods)…maybe there’s a connection?[/quote]

Not everyone gains visceral fat and subQ fat in the same ratio. Same goes for losing it. You make it sound like someone has to lose ALL of their subQ fat before visceral fat will be shed. That’s rediculous. My basic understanding of energy metabolism and my common sense tells me that will not happen often enough to say it is a definite cause of gut distension.

And please don’t get into a steroid discussion. First of all you don’t even know how to spell the damn word. Second your logic is distorted. I’ll leave it at that.

The heart problems are caused (partly) because of homocystine levels increasing (acutely on cycle). And (partly) because certain drugs destroy people’s lipid profiles, the degree of which is based on a few things, one being genetics. Both of those things can be affected and manipulated in people who dont use supraphysiological levels of hormones. Sure steroids are risky to use in some cases, but lets not get crazy with that kind of a stretched connection.

27

Good points…I don’t believe in the things where one can only gain 5lbs of muscle per year…perhaps for a pro BBer this is true but for a guy’s who’s been lifting for a couple years no way.

I got this from CT actually tonight where I was just skimming through some of his articles…Do you believe this to be true?
“Under the best possible circumstances (perfect diet, training, supplementation, and recovery strategies) the average male body can manufacture between 0.25 and 0.5 pounds of dry muscle tissue per week. That is the amount your natural body chemistry will allow you to build. So we’re talking about around one or two pounds per month. It may not sound like much, but that can add up to twelve to twenty pounds over one year of training.”

I know people are different but I think this is pretty accurate from my own personal gains from lifting.

I don’t like to get caught up in the numbers though…I rather just eat, train…if I’m getting stronger…adding weight to the bar…and adding some scale weight…then I’m good to go.

Thoughts?

28

[quote]rasturai wrote:
Good points…I don’t believe in the things where one can only gain 5lbs of muscle per year…perhaps for a pro BBer this is true but for a guy’s who’s been lifting for a couple years no way.

I got this from CT actually tonight where I was just skimming through some of his articles…Do you believe this to be true?
“Under the best possible circumstances (perfect diet, training, supplementation, and recovery strategies) the average male body can manufacture between 0.25 and 0.5 pounds of dry muscle tissue per week. That is the amount your natural body chemistry will allow you to build. So we’re talking about around one or two pounds per month. It may not sound like much, but that can add up to twelve to twenty pounds over one year of training.”

I know people are different but I think this is pretty accurate from my own personal gains from lifting.

I don’t like to get caught up in the numbers though…I rather just eat, train…if I’m getting stronger…adding weight to the bar…and adding some scale weight…then I’m good to go.

Thoughts?

[/quote]

Yea the numbers may be true for average people. But the range isn’t necessarily for different people. Some months a guy may gain .25lbs and other months may gain .5lbs. There is no practical way to keep track of it month to month unless you work in a university lab with unlimited acess to a DEXA scan. It’s simply not worth worry about it. Most people shouldnt even be using a scale more than a few times a year. The mirror is obviously a more valuable tool. Rank beginners need a scale because they are too new to know what theyre looking for. And pro bodybuilders need a scale because theyre meticulous like that. My opinion is that almost everyone else can get away with weighing themselves a few times a year just to have an idea of the numbers. Weight restricted atheletes clearly dont fit into this.

29

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
I’m probably going to annoy a few people here, but, I believe the main reason for a BIG protruding belly is excessive bulking. And then…the bodybuilder doesn’t cut calories/do enough cardio to cut the internal visceral fat (fat beneath stomach muscles that often causes protruding).

This is VERY difficult for a bodybuilder (even naturals) because they are constantly “bulking”…more than they are cutting…so obviously, in the long run, the visceral fat builds up beneath the abs…even though the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is being burned off. You can be ripped, but have loads of visceral fat.

In my opinion the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is easier to “burn off” than the internal visceral fat…hence why it builds up over time.

Essentially, it takes a pretty HIGH cut in calories to get rid of visceral fat - something most bodybuilders couldn’t bring themselves round to doing (understandably).

The way around this is to not eat more than is necessary (slow bulk)…and eat more “healthy” fats as apposed to ones like saturated. But then again, this is very difficult to do when in persuit of as much muscle as possible.

Visceral fat is often connected with heart problems…and so are steriods (or at least, abuse of steriods)…maybe there’s a connection?[/quote]

Not everyone gains visceral fat and subQ fat in the same ratio. Same goes for losing it. You make it sound like someone has to lose ALL of their subQ fat before visceral fat will be shed. That’s rediculous. My basic understanding of energy metabolism and my common sense tells me that will not happen often enough to say it is a definite cause of gut distension.

And please don’t get into a steroid discussion. First of all you don’t even know how to spell the damn word. Second your logic is distorted. I’ll leave it at that.

The heart problems are caused (partly) because of homocystine levels increasing (acutely on cycle). And (partly) because certain drugs destroy people’s lipid profiles, the degree of which is based on a few things, one being genetics. Both of those things can be affected and manipulated in people who dont use supraphysiological levels of hormones. Sure steroids are risky to use in some cases, but lets not get crazy with that kind of a stretched connection.

[/quote]
damn bonez you know your shit lol

30

[quote]rasturai wrote:

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
I’m probably going to annoy a few people here, but, I believe the main reason for a BIG protruding belly is excessive bulking. And then…the bodybuilder doesn’t cut calories/do enough cardio to cut the internal visceral fat (fat beneath stomach muscles that often causes protruding).

This is VERY difficult for a bodybuilder (even naturals) because they are constantly “bulking”…more than they are cutting…so obviously, in the long run, the visceral fat builds up beneath the abs…even though the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is being burned off. You can be ripped, but have loads of visceral fat.

In my opinion the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is easier to “burn off” than the internal visceral fat…hence why it builds up over time.

Essentially, it takes a pretty HIGH cut in calories to get rid of visceral fat - something most bodybuilders couldn’t bring themselves round to doing (understandably).

The way around this is to not eat more than is necessary (slow bulk)…and eat more “healthy” fats as apposed to ones like saturated. But then again, this is very difficult to do when in persuit of as much muscle as possible.

Visceral fat is often connected with heart problems…and so are steriods (or at least, abuse of steriods)…maybe there’s a connection?[/quote]

Not everyone gains visceral fat and subQ fat in the same ratio. Same goes for losing it. You make it sound like someone has to lose ALL of their subQ fat before visceral fat will be shed. That’s rediculous. My basic understanding of energy metabolism and my common sense tells me that will not happen often enough to say it is a definite cause of gut distension.

And please don’t get into a steroid discussion. First of all you don’t even know how to spell the damn word. Second your logic is distorted. I’ll leave it at that.

The heart problems are caused (partly) because of homocystine levels increasing (acutely on cycle). And (partly) because certain drugs destroy people’s lipid profiles, the degree of which is based on a few things, one being genetics. Both of those things can be affected and manipulated in people who dont use supraphysiological levels of hormones. Sure steroids are risky to use in some cases, but lets not get crazy with that kind of a stretched connection.

[/quote]
damn bonez you know your shit lol[/quote]

I’ve been wrong before but I do my best

31

[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]

For as long as I can remember I’ve always kept my abs tensed, whether I’m just sitting at my desk or walking around and the only time it protrudes is after a big meal. My mom told me to do that years ago for ‘good posture and a nice figure’ and I’ve done it since. I’ve always assumed others do this too, but I’ve never heard of anyone doing it.

33

In the morning my abdomen is reasonably flat, in the evening after eating 2-3 kg of food and drinking 6-8 l of water I have a round belly.
For me at least, there’s a direct link between food, water and distention. Why would it not? The intestines are a tube capable of expansion or contraction depending on content, metre upon metre long, why wouldn’t having those filled up matter?

34

[quote]debraD wrote:

[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]

For as long as I can remember I’ve always kept my abs tensed, whether I’m just sitting at my desk or walking around and the only time it protrudes is after a big meal. My mom told me to do that years ago for ‘good posture and a nice figure’ and I’ve done it since. I’ve always assumed others do this too, but I’ve never heard of anyone doing it.[/quote]

I have tried to tense the abs constantly as I have the same problem people mentioned it here. Although I am thin in stature I have a rounded belly when I am relaxed, which looks awful. Tensing the abs constantly makes me feel like I cannot breath as relaxed as I am used to without tension, like fat people who have to pull in the belly all the time.

I think that is not the solution to that problem. So my guess is the anterior pelvic tilt or in general a wrong posture may be the key to that problem. I have an anterior pelvic tilt and I guess that is causing also the belly to stick out although I am not fat. Maybe strengthening the core along with the abs, the glutes, the hams and the lower back could help getting rid of this bad posture and makes the strange looking belly look more “flat”. As you can see in the pic the posture makes the belly stick out more as it should normally!

35

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
I’m probably going to annoy a few people here, but, I believe the main reason for a BIG protruding belly is excessive bulking. And then…the bodybuilder doesn’t cut calories/do enough cardio to cut the internal visceral fat (fat beneath stomach muscles that often causes protruding).

This is VERY difficult for a bodybuilder (even naturals) because they are constantly “bulking”…more than they are cutting…so obviously, in the long run, the visceral fat builds up beneath the abs…even though the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is being burned off. You can be ripped, but have loads of visceral fat.

In my opinion the “external fat” (subcutaneous fat) is easier to “burn off” than the internal visceral fat…hence why it builds up over time.

Essentially, it takes a pretty HIGH cut in calories to get rid of visceral fat - something most bodybuilders couldn’t bring themselves round to doing (understandably).

The way around this is to not eat more than is necessary (slow bulk)…and eat more “healthy” fats as apposed to ones like saturated. But then again, this is very difficult to do when in persuit of as much muscle as possible.

Visceral fat is often connected with heart problems…and so are steriods (or at least, abuse of steriods)…maybe there’s a connection?[/quote]

Not everyone gains visceral fat and subQ fat in the same ratio. Same goes for losing it. You make it sound like someone has to lose ALL of their subQ fat before visceral fat will be shed. That’s rediculous. My basic understanding of energy metabolism and my common sense tells me that will not happen often enough to say it is a definite cause of gut distension.

[/quote]

I’m not even close to an expert in this field, but most experts and scientist have been pretty consistent in their opinion that visceral fat loss is much lower in the subq/visceral fat loss ratio.
There’s also the opinion that what you eat effects it what ratio fat is lost but visceral still being lower.

[quote]number8 wrote:

[quote]debraD wrote:

[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]

For as long as I can remember I’ve always kept my abs tensed, whether I’m just sitting at my desk or walking around and the only time it protrudes is after a big meal. My mom told me to do that years ago for ‘good posture and a nice figure’ and I’ve done it since. I’ve always assumed others do this too, but I’ve never heard of anyone doing it.[/quote]

I have tried to tense the abs constantly as I have the same problem people mentioned it here. Although I am thin in stature I have a rounded belly when I am relaxed, which looks awful. Tensing the abs constantly makes me feel like I cannot breath as relaxed as I am used to without tension, like fat people who have to pull in the belly all the time.

I think that is not the solution to that problem. So my guess is the anterior pelvic tilt or in general a wrong posture may be the key to that problem. I have an anterior pelvic tilt and I guess that is causing also the belly to stick out although I am not fat. Maybe strengthening the core along with the abs, the glutes, the hams and the lower back could help getting rid of this bad posture and makes the strange looking belly look more “flat”. As you can see in the pic the posture makes the belly stick out more as it should normally![/quote]

speculating
A lifetime posture change is incredibly deficult to correct, as well as the original posture might have some lasting effects.
Having seen the effects of all of the above -
1)F or example a supermodel with flat abs look like they have distended gut because they JUST ate.
2) an Anterior tilt so they ahve the rounded look,
3)flattening the abs by always flexing.
4) Steriods causing an extended gut.

Someone with a protruding gut might have to work on all the above at the same time to correct it.

2 - life time anterior tilt would most likely stretch the TVS muscle a little more than someone with a nuetral tilt. So even if you correct the tilt you have to work on the fact that your TV muscle allows the stomach to expand a lot when relaxed. You can use 3) to correct that one.
3 - Constantly flexing and drawing in the TVS muscle when not exercising, as well as eating smaller meals so your stomach never stretches to capacity. (Key here is there are multiple ways to draw in the stomach must people just suck it in from the top, but practice trying to draw it in from the lower region.
Do this for a long time since mostlikely you’ve had your anterior tilt all your life.

For those that use roids, may want to skip the ab work while on a cycle, since the roids would cause faster muscle growth from ab work. Thats what old timers believed and they generally had smaller waist. Since then people have tried to say that that’s false but they did use roids back then too. I guess it depends on if you think HGH is the main contributing factor.

36

[quote]debraD wrote:

[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]

For as long as I can remember I’ve always kept my abs tensed, whether I’m just sitting at my desk or walking around and the only time it protrudes is after a big meal. My mom told me to do that years ago for ‘good posture and a nice figure’ and I’ve done it since. I’ve always assumed others do this too, but I’ve never heard of anyone doing it.[/quote]

haha my mom told me the same thing. I’ve been doing in since the 6th grade, it’s a habit now. I think that is partly why I keep visible, though blurry, abs even when my bodyfat may be up to 15% or so.

37

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:

[quote]debraD wrote:

[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]

For as long as I can remember I’ve always kept my abs tensed, whether I’m just sitting at my desk or walking around and the only time it protrudes is after a big meal. My mom told me to do that years ago for ‘good posture and a nice figure’ and I’ve done it since. I’ve always assumed others do this too, but I’ve never heard of anyone doing it.[/quote]

haha my mom told me the same thing. I’ve been doing in since the 6th grade, it’s a habit now. I think that is partly why I keep visible, though blurry, abs even when my bodyfat may be up to 15% or so.
[/quote]

No one ever told me to do that but I did that on my own for as long as I can remember. The one thing my mom did do early on was work on my posture. Between her and my grandmother, there was a whole period of my life around the age of 8 or 9 where I couldn’t go a whole day without someone correcting how I stood and walked.

Maybe that is why my gait is so distinct. People have always told me they can tell it’s me from a mile away just because of how I move when I walk.

38

can you tell how hard you flex your abs for that posture reasons? if 10 is as hard as you can and 0 is not at all (which would mean that your belly sticks out I guess, if you do not flex them?!)

39

[quote]Professor X wrote:

No one ever told me to do that but I did that on my own for as long as I can remember. The one thing my mom did do early on was work on my posture. Between her and my grandmother, there was a whole period of my life around the age of 8 or 9 where I couldn’t go a whole day without someone correcting how I stood and walked.

Maybe that is why my gait is so distinct. People have always told me they can tell it’s me from a mile away just because of how I move when I walk.[/quote]

I think the fact that you weigh close to 300 pounds helps people recognize you.

40

I’ve got a great book called Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers, he discusses the rectus in depth and specifically what is being discussed in this thread. I’ll go over the most applicable parts.

“As we view the rectus, then, we must assess three separate parts: the tonus of the muscle itself, and the tonus of two enveloping sheaths, in front and behind the muscle. If the rectus is flat - a set of six pack abs - then we can suspect high tonus in the superficial sheet and in the muscle itself.”

“If the rectus bulges out, we must assess the tonus of the muscle, but we can be fairly sure that the deep sheet, behind the muscle, is short”

Myers notes other reasons for a bulging abdomen are:

-Lumbars hyperextended into lordosis

  • Overeating or bloating
  • Fat in the Subcutaneous layer, or in men, in the omentum underlying the peritoneum.

Even if the belly sticks out and the muscle tonus seems low, it is possible that the tonus of the wall behind the rectus is quite high, tight, and responsible breathing or pulling on the back.

Extraordinarly good book. Meant for those who work with soft tissue, actually this book belongs to an ART practitioner co-worker of mine but I am going to pick one up. Very detailed about the intricate workings of the body, especially from a function standpoint.