4 Flat Belly Fails (HOW NOT TO GET A FLAT BELLY!)

Flatten your belly and have ripped abs year round here…
Learning how to get a flat belly starts with understanding what is really causing your belly to not be flat in the first place. Of course, any discussion of how to flatten out your stomach and start seeing your abs must start with nutrition and not “simple tricks”. It’s crazy how many people have been led to believe that they can eat anything under the sun but still have ripped abs. Can’t for the life of me figure out who could be responsible for that misinformation can you?
In the meantime, since this channel is not about feeding you B.S. on how to get a flat belly but actual fixes that are based in real world training science…I set out to create a practical solution for you. Each of the 4 causes of a distended belly are actually quite common. In fact, you can see the protruding belly occur even in people that have six pack abs already because of the reasons I will show you here.
First things first however, if you don’t have a flat stomach it might be because you are relying too much on lower ab exercises in an effort to get one. Training with too many lower ab workouts is actually likely to do the opposite of what you are hoping for. When you train bottom up ab movements at the exclusion of some of the other functions of the abs, such as top down crunching and anti-rotational exercises you are contributing to an imbalance of development. It is not uncommon for those that do this to see their lower bellies, beneath their belly buttons, start to stick out too much.
Second, performing your ab exercises without focusing on the quality of the reps as you seek more quantity is a big mistake. If you push out on your abs as you do your ab exercises, you are simply developing abs that are good at being strong in a distended position. If you want to truly flatten your belly you want to train them to contract and cinch down on your waist. You can do that by first focusing on contracting your transverse abdominus and then performing your ab exercises.
Next, you want to be sure that you keep your hip flexors (mainly your psoas) loose. If your hip flexors get tight you wind up pulling your pelvis down into an anterior tilt. This will immediately cause you to lose the appearance of a flat stomach since your abs push forward instead of down and in. You can keep the hip flexors loose by making sure to stretch them out as I show you in this video every time you stand up after sitting for a prolonged period of time.
Finally, if you are suffering from back pain or have a hernia, it becomes much more difficult to engage the abs and therefore you are less likely to be able to maintain tension needed to have a flat belly. Avoid both of these conditions be properly strengthening your abs and core by following a program based on athletic training science. Start using the ATHLEAN-X Training System available at and see what it’s like to have a strong core and abs year round.
For more videos on how to get a flat belly as well as plenty of ab workouts you can do at home or at the gym, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at