The term bloating refers to the feeling of fullness in the abdomen and is usually caused by excess gas.
On the other hand, the term abdominal distention refers to the actual protrusion, the pregnant look. I wrote bloated in the title because it’s more commonly used but the correct term would be distended.
I’ve done some research into this and despite what is commonly believed, abdominal distention (the pregnant look) is not usually caused by excess gas, instead it’s more commonly caused by something called abdomino phrenic dyssynergia. It’s when the body does it wrong. When you eat food, the diaphragm is supposed to go up to make space for the abdominal contents. Instead in this condition, for some reason the opposite happens so the diaphragm goes down and pushes on the abdominal content creating the pregnant look.
There is not much research into this and it’s not very known. There’s not yet a “cure” but I used to suffer from severe distention everyday of my life but by experimenting with movements with my body I managed to cure it mostly so nowadays I mostly maintain a flat stomach.
For me I noticed it is connected to my spine . So I have a neck hump in my spine and a flatter than normal thoracic spine. This changes the position of my ribcage and creates pressure and contributes to the distention.
There is a Facebook group with the name of this condition and several people there have mentioned having postural problems, issues with their spine. There seems to be a connection.
Movements that have helped me: in no specific order
Through repetition, they’ve helped to correct this. It took some months for me to see significant improvement so be patient. In the beginning I did them all, nowadays I do pretty much only the third and forth movement and it helps me maintain a flat stomach.
Do as often as it helps you.
1. Go down on the floor on all fours, on your knees. This creates a vacuum in your abdomen. You can move around, back and forth, in this position and move your spine in different ways to see what feels good. For example tucking your hips. You can also bring your elbows to the floor. Play around with it. Exhale deeper in this position too.
2. Another way to create a kind of vacuum is by simply bending over and going down on all fours but this time on your feet. You can try different elevations too. Bending over and placing hands on couch for example. You can move your spine in this position like in the before example and play around with it.
3. This trick is extra helpful if you have a neck hump like I have or bad posture. This is my favorite that I use the most. Bring the back of your fingers to each side of your neck under your ears. Push upwards and carry your head upwards while tucking your chin. Hold this position. This lifts your entire ribcage and releases pressure off your abdomen. You can play around with this by moving your hips back and forth (I like to tuck my hips, or tilt my upper body forward while tucking my hips) to move the abdominal content back. You can also try to exhale extra deep in this position.
4. This is also extra helpful if you have posture problems. Hanging upside down. You can do it on a bar that has another bar in front so you can tuck your feet under the other bar to support you. This is amazing and will release tension in all of upper body.
5. Arms straight up in the air. Begin jumping upwards and each time you’re up in the air swing your butt back fast. This can help push back the abdominal contents.
6. Massage under your ribcage to manually press the diaphragm up. You can play around with this too, breathing in as you do. Massage your abdomen too. You can do this in any position.
7. If you have somewhere you can bathe in water. I noticed when I was on vacation and bathed in salty ocean that the pressure creates a vacuum in your stomach. You can take advantage of this and exhale extra deep to increase the vacuum. Massage your stomach and under your ribs. Move your hips and spine in different ways, basically play around with it.
Mindset:
Reduce stress!!! I found this very important for me
Try to not judge or be negative to your body. Mind connects to the body so negative thinking about it could make it worse. This I found in myself.
Other tips:
Eat slower
Don’t eat too much at once
Keep good posture
Get good sleep (very important)
Hope this can help people like it did for me! I mostly have flat stomach now thanks to this!
