Stop sucking in your stomach – it can be harmful
HEATHER Jeffcoat is a keen observer of people. “I notice people,” said Jeffcoat, who ascribes her perceptive eye to her nearly two-decade career as a physical therapist. “I notice how people walk. I notice how people stand. I’ll just be like, ‘Oh, that person’s gripping their gluteal muscles, or that person looks like they're gripping their abs’.”
The latter observation – what some experts call “stomach gripping”, or what’s more widely known as sucking in your stomach, is one that Jeffcoat said she often sees among the patrons at her usual Starbucks, next to a spin studio in the Sherman Oaks neighbourhood of Los Angeles.
“They’ll be dressed in their spin clothes, basically a crop top or a sports bra and capris, and I’ve noticed it,” she said. Then, her physical therapist's brain starts whirling: “I wonder if they have back pain. I wonder if they have pelvic floor dysfunction.”
The pervasiveness of this habit can largely be attributed to a common approach to fitness that’ s overly focused on the abdominal muscles, as well as societal beauty standards that emphasise a flat stomach, said Julie Wiebe, a clinical assistant professor of physical therapy at the University of Michigan-flint.
Sucking in the stomach and keeping your abdominal muscles tense as you go about your day might seem innocuous, but Wiebe and other experts say the habit can have physical and mental consequences over time.
Beyond potentially affecting the pelvic floor muscles, which are involved in posture, urination, bowel movements and sex, sucking in your gut all the time “could alter the mechanics of your abdomen; it could alter its ability to respond to demands in the environment”, Wiebe said. “It could change your breath patterns.”
The term “stomach gripping” refers to when people activate their upper abdominal muscles and hold them in a contracted state for prolonged periods of time, said Sarah Hwang, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and obstetrics and gynaecology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.
If those muscles used are trained to always be activated, it can affect the entire core, including the pelvic floor muscles, said Hwang, who treats people with pelvic floor issues. She addresses tense abdominals in her patients “on a regular basis”.
Habitually contracting your oblique abdominal muscles can exert force down on the pelvic floor muscles and potentially cause the pelvic floor to become overwhelmed, which could have consequences such as incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, said Jeffcoat, president-elect of the Academy of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy. It’s also possible, she said, to consistently overwork your transverse abdominus muscle, which creates a “co-contraction” in the pelvic floor muscles and could result in a loss of flexibility in those muscles over time.
Hwang added that gripping your abdominal muscles too intensely can exacerbate symptoms for people who have existing pelvic floor issues, especially those with incontinence.
“When you activate those upper abdominal muscles, you’re creating an increase in intra-abdominal pressure at baseline,” she said. “Then when something happens to increase that pressure even further, like coughing or laughing or sneezing, the pelvic floor muscles can’t overcome that increased pressure, and people will have urinary incontinence.”
But Wiebe noted that the effects of sucking in your stomach can extend beyond the pelvic floor. You might notice that it’s harder to take deeper breaths, or you could develop soreness and stiffness in your lower back and hips. Contracted muscles are also less responsive, she said, meaning you could be affecting your body’s ability to absorb impact from activities such as running. People who run with their stomach muscles over-tensed may have an increased vulnerability to running-related injuries, she said.
“I’m not saying don’t ever engage your abs again,” Wiebe said. Instead, it’s important to “understand that they are part of a functional whole, and they’re intended to play on a team, and they need to be appropriately engaged for the task you’re up against”.
But breaking the habit and learning to relax your muscles isn’t always process, experts said.
To retrain your muscles, experts recommend consciously trying to relax and let your stomach out. For people who are having a hard time relaxing in a seated or standing position, getting on all fours and “letting your belly relax down to the floor” may help, Hwang said. |