Stomach Flattening - Transverse Abdominus

M

MichaelA

0
I have been going crazy over my stomach for the past few years. About 5 years ago I was quite overweight, and simply by cutting out sweets and junk food I lost nearly all of it. Yet I still had a gigantic gut, and even when I reached my so-called optimal weight the gut still remained. Lately I've become more desperate to remove it, and implemented a heavy weight loss routine, and even after losing 10 more pounds the gut is still there. It seems like it isn't caused by fat, because when I pinch my stomach there is barely anything in between the skin and my abs.

With a little research I found that a distended abdomen could be caused by transverse abdominus weakness. Over the past three weeks I've started doing stomach vacuums hoping it would suck my stomach in and make me look the weight that I actually am. Maybe I just haven't given it long enough, but the only change I've really noticed is that it's easier to suck my stomach in for longer. I don't really want to walk around all day holding my stomach in, but if I completely relax my stomach juts out 3 inches further. Is there any hope for my stomach to become normal again? Do I need to take on a massive-calorie massive-protein body builder diet just to tone and bring in my stomach? Any help much appreciated.
 
give it time...vacuums are probably my favorite TA exercise and prescribe it all the time...just make sure that you are really sucking in as hard as you can...a little trick you can try is to breath all the way in and then release about 70% so your abs will be tensed and gut should be sucked in still...tie a peice of string around your waist at that circumference and everytime you let your gut hang out it will tighten...just doing vaccums a few times won't strengthen the TA enough you need to have it activated continuously and this teach you to do it without thinking about it
 
Don't mean to sound dumb but I never heard of stomach vacuums. What is it? I have always been thin and also have a protruding abdomen. The only time I had a flat stomach lately is when I had a colonostaphy (don't know how to spell it) last week and was on a liquid diet. I am hoping with proper diet and exercise it will eventually go down.
 
Right now I've only been doing them with my workouts (3 days a week). Should I be doing them more than that? Every day? Several times a day? How much rest does your TA need in between these exercises? I usually go relatively heavy on them, meaning I keep my stomach sucked in until I feel the burn and I can't do it any longer, and repeat twice. I know the exercises aren't like most resistance training (as the resistance one can apply is static), but I want to make sure I give it the proper rest.
 
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