A Flat Tummy Trick You Might Not Know

I get a ton of questions from women always wanting to know how they can achieve a flat tummy.  There is no one singular answer for this question, and in fact the answer has many parts and depends a lot of the individual.  Of course nutrition plays a huge role.  That old saying that you “can’t out-train a bad diet” is true if a flat tummy is your goal.  Generally eating a “cleaner” diet is going to result in fat loss and the appearance of a flatter belly.  Also, you can’t spot reduce one area of your body.  To lose fat you are going to have to train your entire body, and with that, fat is going to melt off your body all over, not just in one area like your belly.  You can, however, spot train different areas of your body.  I’m going to get more into that in this post and share how to get a flat tummy & help your spine in the process with a flat tummy “trick” that you might not know!

In this case, working one muscle group in particular is how you would spot train to get a flat tummy.  You are probably thinking to yourself, “duh, you’re clearly talking about the abdominals”.  And to an extent you’d be right.  But did you know that the abdominals are actually a muscle group made up of four different muscles?  Yep, the external abdominal obliques, the internal abdominal obliques, the rectus abdominis and the transverse abdominis.  The rectus abdominis is the most superficial layer of your abs in the front, meaning it’s the one right under your skin.  People with a well defined 6-pack have a well defined rectus abdominis.  Then there are the external obliques and the internal obliques.  But the muscle I am referring to that is going to help you flatten out & strengthen that midsection & core is the transverse abdominis.

The transverse abdominis is the deepest of your abdominal muscles, wrapping around your midsection and spine.  Many people refer to it as being like a girdle…and I think that’s a pretty appropriate analogy.  Especially as you continue to work the transverse abdominis to get it stronger, it’s just like tightening a girdle, sucking you in and also stabilizing you.  The tricky thing is, however, is that many people do a lot of their routine core or abdominal exercises without properly engaging the TA.  So how do you do it?

Getting a Flat Belly: A Breathing Technique

Engaging the TA during exercise is something that most likely does not happen naturally. It is something you’ll have to remind yourself to do (probably constantly, if you’re like me!).  It’s also something you can work on throughout your day in your daily life!  Activation of the TA will be when you are bringing that belly button into your spine, but not “sucking in”.  An simple breathing exercise to try is to do this:

Lie on your back as if you were getting into a crunch position with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.  Place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly.  As you take an inhale, you want your chest to stay flat, but rise up that belly towards the ceiling.  As you exhale your belly button will fall towards your spine.  At the end of that breath make a snake sound like “sssssss” and really push out that last bit of air.  This will really make that Transverse Abdominis do all the work.  Be sure when you are doing this, that you aren’t tilting your pelvis forward or shoving your spine into the ground.  That is a GREAT place to start training your brain and your body to engage the TA.  Also note, remember to breathe while your TA is engaged.  It does not mean to hold your breath.  You can keep that TA flexed while you still allow air in and out of your lungs.  If it’s challenging, just keep practicing! This is a muscle and you’re working it!  This is something you can do while seated at your desk, while you’re in the car, anytime.  This is also referred to as a the “draw-in maneuver”.

Getting a Flat Belly: Incorporating into Exercise

Then, you can progress into using that move into your other exercises.  Let’s take a crunch, for example.  Because another thing I hear from women is “I do crunches and abdominal exercises all the time but I still don’t have a flat belly!”  (I will refer you back to paragraph 1 about this being a question with a multidimensional answer, but in terms of the TA, it’s because you aren’t using it!)  The crunch is going to look like this:

Lie on your back in the same position as the previous breathing exercise.  Take an inhale, belly rises, exhale, belly falls, make the “ssssss” noise to engage the TA as you lift your shoulder blades off the ground into the crunch.  Repeat.  It should feel differently than just using momentum to move that head up and down as so many people do.  When you do that, your abs probably come to a dome shape at the top of the crunch.  And that’s because you’re not engaging the TA! Yep…you got it.  When you don’t engage the TA while you perform a crunch, you’re essentially training your abs to have that dome shape and bulge outward rather than the flat abs look we all want.

This goes for pretty much any exercise when you need to engage that core (which, by the way, is going to be pretty much all of them!).  So start with that breathing technique to engage the TA, then continue to engage it as you breathe through your other exercises.  I like to try to constantly remind myself to do this even when I am running.  I try to remember to keep that core tight so I’m getting core work while I’m running…and of course still breathing through all of this.  Never forget to breathe, friends 😉

Getting a Flat Belly AND Helping Your Spine

So how does all of this help your spine?  Well, if you have a weak TA, you may experience chronic back pain or overall instability.  The TA supports the spine and the pelvis and helps protect your spine against the various stressors you put on it on a daily basis…things like twisting, running, jumping, etc.  The TA stabilizes the low back prior to any movement, so that is one reason why it is so important to ensure it is strong enough!  Exercises involving activation of the Transverse Abdominis have been shown to increase the ability to transfer loads (lift weights, pick up a grocery bag, pick up a toddler, etc.) and manage torque (twisting motions).

Anyways, I hope this helps!!  Remember to keep that Transverse Abdominis engaged throughout your exercises and even just daily tasks!  It is going to be a mental exercise to remember to do it, but your brain must tell your body to do it or else you won’t 🙂

xo,

Bess

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