Doing crunches are making my abs bloated...

[chris5]

I've noticed from all my ab work my abs are starting to get that swoll bloated look. i don't want them sticking out to much cuz it might make me look like i got a gut with my shirt on. how i do i get that defined look without them sticking out? i currently alternate between working abs with weights and doing lower reps and then doing light weights and higher reps and variations. should i start doing stomach vacuums so they don't bloat out?

[sabonis224]

Mine bloat out too. I guess it could be because of the weight, I always do my crunches (which is rarely) with at least 25 lbs.

[BernieD]

try vacuums, yea. Besides that, just watch your diet, it could be high BF. Also, if you drink lots of water (which you should, as a lifter) or you take creatine, that can contribute too. The bloated thing is unfortunately a side effect of a high protein diet/ab work.

[RogerWilco]

I had the exact same thing happen, and weighted decline ab crunches were the culprit. I'd spent years just doing regular unweighted flat crunches and had ok abs (but a little bit of fat covering them so that you could really only see a 4 pack), then cut down a lot, then started doing the weighted ab stuff. After only maybe 2 weeks, I started to notice crazy definition/mass in my abs, but then after that it really starter to seem like they were getting TOO big and the entire rectus abdominis hypertrophied beyond what I wanted.

I wish I had a solution for you . . . I'm still bulking right now so I'm kind of just not worrying about my abs in general, so we'll see how things are going once I cut. I stopped the weighted ab work about 2 months after I started it, and that was actually almost a year ago.

[Kilburn]

the main focus for abdominals should be defenetion, meaning you should do high reps low weight, bulking the abs is fricken stupid IMO.

[getgot211]

the main focus for abdominals should be defenetion, meaning you should do high reps low weight, bulking the abs is fricken stupid IMO.

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[youknowryan]

the main focus for abdominals should be defenetion, meaning you should do high reps low weight, bulking the abs is fricken stupid IMO.

that's an opinion, not a fact. for some (like me) weighted crunches work really well.

[maqman]

It happens to almost everyone i know that works their abs, I just try not to do abs on fridays or saturdays, cause i usually go out and dont want my stomach to stick out.

[Flex500]

I've noticed from all my ab work my abs are starting to get that swoll bloated look. i don't want them sticking out to much cuz it might make me look like i got a gut with my shirt on. how i do i get that defined look without them sticking out? i currently alternate between working abs with weights and doing lower reps and then doing light weights and higher reps and variations. should i start doing stomach vacuums so they don't bloat out?

actually this is a fairly easy problem...

if your abs are defined and very visible right now...

then your just working them too much and making them too big. Obviously your diet is in check if they are defined but your working them too much. They are a muscle too you know they will get bigger, work them with high reps once every 2 weeks or even stop working them for a while

If your abs are not visible and your gut is getting bigger...

fix your diet and cut some fat off your body. In this situation you may be both puting a lot of fat on your stomach and building your abs up too much so your making your stomach big in two ways here. Do abs once or so a week with hi reps and cut some fat.

[YuMadThough]

the main focus for abdominals should be defenetion, meaning you should do high reps low weight, bulking the abs is fricken stupid IMO.

Definition does not come with high reps.


Definition comes with low bodyfat.

[Andrew69]

I had the exact same thing happen, and weighted decline ab crunches were the culprit.

Funny you should mention that, because I have noticed the same thing!
Only the lower half though, and it makes me look much fatter than I really am

[AnaerobicAndrew]

the main focus for abdominals should be defenetion, meaning you should do high reps low weight, bulking the abs is fricken stupid IMO.

Definition doesnt come from that, the abs should be treated like any other muscle, and its not a stupid question.

The bloating could be from the creatine and protein if it feels deep, like its coming from behind abdominal wall somewhere in your GIT. Otherwise it could be that youre just getting a pump, like the same you feel in your chest after benching, and youre just feeling the blood engorgement. Probably a combo of both. I have the same prob. Pisses you off huh, because here you are working out those abs aiming for some washboard features, but then the short term result is the opposite and you get bloated!

[dts1789]

the main focus for abdominals should be defenetion, meaning you should do high reps low weight, bulking the abs is fricken stupid IMO.

Definition comes from Low bodyfat and a good diet.

[RogerWilco]

Funny you should mention that, because I have noticed the same thing!
Only the lower half though, and it makes me look much fatter than I really am

Exactly, that's the problem, the hypertrophy was mostly in the lower abs (though there was some in the upper abs as well) which gives an odd, fattish look . . .

[LiL USMC BBer]

Dexter Jackson is known for some of the best abs in the entire IFBB. And he said himself that he does no direct ab work. The only ab work he does is from squatting and deadlifting and other compound lifts..

I notice my abs get a workout sometimes from curls!

[Tsumaru]

Uh, I may have a solution. How do you breathe when doing abwork? If at the max contraction you have filled your lungs, and then as you're doing the negative breathing out, then you will probably get that bloated almost spherical appearance (not really cut out square-like defined muscle). This happened to me. I used to do crunches every night, breathing in on the concentric portion and exhaling on the eccentric. Sure, I got upper abs big quickly - but they look like ****. I looked into it and heard it was something to do with the air in your lungs and some crap. I started exhaling on the concentric so the most contracted part of the movement has little or no air in my lungs, and my abs have grown slower, but they look much better (that is, I've been working lower down in the other 4 'squares', and I can compare to the upper 2 from the crunches which are big and circular, and the other 4 are smaller but defined squares)

[BernieD]

^yes, as you're crunching always exhale, then inhale as you go back down..

[chris5]

i do take creatine and drink a crapload of water. i also started squatting and deadlifting heavy, this probably has a lot to do with it too huh? so just drop the heavy weights and go for high reps when doing abs?

[Choktu]

I always had the impression that seeing as abs attatch on the rib cage that the very top is going to stick out however thick the muscle is and that it just angles down to the pelvis from there, if its angling out again in the middle, it sounds like some kind of bloating in the guts.Stretching might make the whole muscle thinner though.
BTW I'm not too sure doing higher reps would be any better than doing less overall. I'm pretty sure it's just a less effective method.

[AnaerobicAndrew]

If you want to hit them directly, dont do high reps. High reps do not lead to hypertrophy. And stretching will not make the whole muscle thinner, haha.