The distended bellies

Submitted by RonnyT on Sun, 2013-12-08 15:18

We all recognize that bodybuilding changed during the nineties. Old school bodybuilders where judged by a balanced, symmetrical and aesthetic physique with great definition . Of course other minor points like tanning and an athletic best stage presence are judged to. During the nineties pro-bodybuilders slowly became mass-monsters and the fans they loved it. To reach these goals pro-bodybuilders were forced to consume large amounts of food and large amounts of drugs and peptides.

Old school bodybuilders wanted to achieve a dramatic v-shape. They wanted a very small waist combined with broad shoulders. To achieve that they trained their core muscles and they also practiced a called “the stomach vacuum exercise”.

Of course a small waist is also dependent from genetics. But training with a belt doing core exercises and most important diet. Older athletes remember other forgotten exercises like the “twist”.

Nowedays people think that numerous sit-ups and small machines bought via television ads, will give them to desired six-pack. Yes, on the TV you see lean males and females that their athletic physique is made by that small bench that fits so nicely under your bed.

Not all members of our board want to become a competing bodybuilder or want to become such a mass monster. In fact most women and most men don’t even like such monsters as most interviews show. The majority of men wants to look athletically muscled, like the models from “Mens Health” magazine.

We, the more hard core members, prefer a more muscled look. Still on the boards we often discuss how much is TOO MUCH.

Our boards are also read by fitness enthusiasts, females and men that want to look good on the beach. It’s important to learn that a distended belly has various reasons. What we see at women after pregnancy that their core muscles and stomach wall is extended. Intelligent girls had a trained belly before pregnancy and watched their food-intake during pregnancy, it’s also important to treat the skin with oils to prevent stretchmarks. In a future blogpost we will write more about a narrow waist and how to achieve it.

The death of Greg Kovacs made all this very relevant. Dave Palumbo wrote an article about the deceased Greg Kovas called “ Breaking 400: A Tribute to Greg Kovacs! “

Dave Palumbo and Greg Kovacs where friends and as Dave said:

I, distinctly, remember the day ( in1997) I met IFBB Canadian Pro Bodybuilder Greg Kovacs for the first time. Why, you may ask? Well, it’s because I was never so intimidated by the sheer size of another bodybuilder in my life. At almost 6’2”, Kovacs had already far surpassed the 300lb barrier in the offseason and was competing at nearly that weight onstage. He was one of the largest men I had ever met in person and he was equally kind-hearted and warm, all at the same time. We instantly hit it off and became fast friends. We’d spend hours talking about diet and supplements and gear cycles; on 6ad6f0a914b2fbfa864a92b199a11fcathe phone and in person. We both were just as obsessed and devoted to finding the fastest, best, ways to get monstrously huge. While I was happy topping out at 315lbs, Kovacs had decided that his Pikes Peak would be the never-before-discussed 400lb mark

What most of you are probably wondering; however, is how the heck did Kovacs became the first and only man to ever weigh a lean 400lbs? Well, the formula is very simple; train with the heaviest weights any many in the history of the sport of bodybuilding has ever lifted, consume some sort of high protein meal every hour around the clock, and sleep and rest as much as humanly possible. No one lived bodybuilding more than Greg Kovacs. No one was more passionate about bodybuilding than Greg Kovacs. No one was so single-mindedly determined to be the largest, most muscular, man in the world more than Greg Kovacs. And because of these emotionally charged, passionate, doubtless beliefs; Greg Kovacs became the 400lb muscular freak he envisioned.

However, on November 26, 2013, 44 year old Greg Kovacs dropped to the floor and lost consciousness while at his home on the outskirts of Toronto, Canada. He died while the paramedics frantically worked on him for over 20 minutes.

Both Dave and Greg became very huge, but it backfired on them because their body started to deteriorate and both developed a condition that on the boards was called “Palumbism “. Palumboism is an affliction of the extreme atrophy of muscles- particularly the limbs- combined with the development of a big midsection whereby the entire width of the trunk, ribcage and pelvis grows disproportionately -after an extended period of time of excessive AAS and Peptide usage. The term is also often associated with the irregular distribution of fat on the body called lipodystrophy . The name comes from Dave Palumbo, a professional bodybuilder, who in his heyday, held his ground next to many of the greats.Though many professional bodybuilders suffer from the symptoms, the names of Dave Palumbo and Greg Kovacs are inextricably connected to the term "Palumboism".

On the boards we saw many discussions about this condition and many of the posters trashed these two great pioneers of bodybuilding. They were huge bodybuilders and they wanted to grow even bigger and used all kinds of means. But… they once where great looking bodybuilders and they deserve our respect and admiration and when young keyboard warriors on the boards post all kinds of nonsense about these bodybuilders we should tell them that when they are the same size as these two, they are allowed to comment.

On Tuesday, 06 December 2011 written by Greg Kovacs for Muscle RX:

Why Bodybuilders get distended Stomachs and how to prevent it !

Big, distended guts! If there's one topic that I get asked about all the time, it's stomach distention. This is a phenomenon that has been prevalent in bodybuilding for decades. It isn't just limited to the professional ranks; it's a problem with amateur bodybuilders as well. I am going to take the bull by the horns and discuss the factors that I feel have caused stomach distention in both myself and others. Learn from other's mistakes and incorporate it into your own protocols.

Stomach Stretching:

I feel the chief culprit in my own distention was the quantity of food I had been eating. Let's put this into perspective, I was eating enormous volumes of food in my quest to be the first 400 pound bodybuilder. I was consuming 800g of protein, countless carbohydrates and all the fat that came with that food; it was all food, I didn't use shakes. There was no off switch to the eating; there couldn't be. It follows that, as a direct result of the volumes of food that I was consuming, my stomach stretched and appeared distended. My stomach lining, under all that pressure, was forcing my abdomen to protrude and over extended periods of time my abdominal muscles started to force outward as opposed to in. The lesson that I would humbly impart to competitive bodybuilders is that you should eat just enough to be in a surplus. Do not try to bulk up too much in the off-season. Additionally, I would strongly recommend that you be cognoscente of any food allergies, i.e. gluten. I never realized it, but I have gluten intolerance and it caused a lot of bloating and discomfort.

Neglecting Core Training & Heavy Lifting:

I was a silly bastard back in the day. I had the audacity to use my bloat for stability; you've probably done it before too. In my estimation, lifting heavy and not focusing on pulling in my abdominal muscles contributed greatly to my distention. I would think that it plays a factor with many bodybuilders. I performed some heavy lifts regularly with no regard to keeping my abdominal wall tight, rather I let it out. It wasn't as stylish as it is now to pay attention to your core muscles. There were no BOSU balls or heavy emphasis on core training, we didn't think about it. I never gave any thought to strengthening my core along with the rest of my body. I was flat out old school – ab training was for women and right before a contest. Unfortunately, I was wrong. This is one of the main reasons for herniated belly buttons. Iron freaks don't want to waste time training abs, we want to lift heavy but it comes at a price. As we build all that muscle and neglect our transverse and supportive muscles in the abdominal girdle, something will give out. And, when it does, it is those muscles that cause the herniated belly button. I have one still, but since I have been incorporating core work, I am finding that it is flattening out dramatically. I'm not going to sit here and name names, but flatly, do core work and keep your abdominal wall strong. It will pay off on stage dramatically.

Structure:

There is something that none of us can really control and that is the structure that we are born with. Some of us are gifted, others are not. Structure also effects waist thickening and distention. I think most people have found that athletes with short torsos and longer legs have these issues much more commonly than a long torso, short legged bodybuilder. I happen to have a short torso. Some others that have a short torso are Ronnie Coleman and Kai Greene. I don't know if you have noticed, but we all have had issues with distention. Kai is getting his distention virtually gone through hard work and becoming aware of it.

I'm sure that you all know that drugs have a place in causing distention. I don't really need to get into that, it is common knowledge. The thing is, I believe that it only has a small role in distention. If it was a huge cause of distention then every pro bodybuilder would have huge distention. There is never one reason for a problem in bodybuilding or in life in general. It is much easier to blame it on drug use than to sit back and fully analyze the situation. I hope this article helps some guys out there battling with this issue and that they find some of the information useful in reversing the process. There are definitely ways to minimize the effect. The key to bodybuilding and this problem is to be honest with what you see happening in the mirror. If you see that your stomach is becoming distended, do something about it, don't let it get out of hand. Don't willfully ignore the problem, it won't go away and it will get worse. Be honest with yourself as a bodybuilder, tear through your ego and really take a look. If you are looking distended, do something about it. It won't go away by itself and it doesn't look good.