Are you clenching your stomach muscles right now?

May of course not be the case in your instance but what you describe is how a body naturally responds to anxiety or panic attacks. May be that as you say you are very aware of the sensation that in fact is just a symptom of anxiety.

I don’t usually, and I only know this because I have a recurring back spasm thing which causes me to clench my abdominal muscles, as some kind of support and balance thing, maybe?
So yes, I am right now, but only because I’m having a back spasm event right now.

Eugh, sorry bout your back pain @canidmajor. :(

If my clenching is abnormal, I’m not sure if it’d be anxiety related (since I do have anxiety) or some kind of weird habit I’ve gotten into from my years of abdominal pain. I’m actually leaning towards the latter.

it sounds very odd. The only times I’m conscious of clenching my stomach is with the intake of breath before coughing or reflexively in anticipation of a blow to my gut.

So if you ask yourself at any random moment if you’re able to relax your stomach muscles any more than they already were, you can’t, @stanleybmanly?

I catch myself clenching, and I consciously relax them. But the moment my brain moves on to anything other than focusing on relaxing, they’re clenched up again.

I don’t know if this could be having any negative consequences but I’m going to try to break the habit anyhow.

I will ask my daughter, she-of-the-UC-gut, if she does this, then get back to you. It may be a specifically yucky-gut sufferers thing. Poor Sweetie!

Ooooh good idea @canidmajor, I didn’t think of asking her. I’ll be interested to hear what she says.

@Mariah. that’s right. Upon reading your latest response, I checked and things were relaxed. Do you think your clenching has anything to do with the crohns?

Thanks Stanley. Yeah, that’s what I’m wondering. I know I used to clench when I was in pain. I’m not in pain now, but maybe it’s just a habit I’ve formed.

From your other posts, I get the impression that you stress a lot, and it puzzles me. My wife tends to do this, and for the life of me I cannot understand it.

Stupid faulty brain hard-wiring. I’ve been mentally going over my to-do list late in the night since the age of 8.

I don’t think the clenching is anxiety, though it’s hard to be sure. I am happy in my life right now.

Your question made me giggle, because I know you’re thin as a rail, and the reason many of us have for “sucking it in” is funny when I visualize you.

Whatever the reason, I cannot imagine anything beneficial coming from it. I wonder what happens when you sleep? Are you going to tell your doc? The pain reflex thing makes sense. We probably all have that reaction, but to suffer to the extent that your norm is to be clenched up—that’s horrific.

I always do. As a form of exercise. I’m not getting any younger.
I would like to keep my stomach behind my belt for as long as possible.
I constantly squeeze my butt muscles too, for the same reason. So my pants will stay up.
And I take the stairs every chance I get.
Etc.

I am. I think I always do so when I’m sitting upright in an office chair (like I am now). Perhaps I woudln’t in other contexts. I do it completely without thinking…

@josie, so you’re doing it consciously then?

@Demosthenes Thanks! If you don’t mind me asking, do you suffer from anxiety or any physical problems with your stomach/abdomen? No pressure to answer. I’m just trying to figure out if I’m normal or if all this clenching is some manifestation of my health problems.

Oh, and no, @stanleybmanly I won’t give up any of the 10 minutes per 6 months I have with my doctor on something this trivial – lol. I’m not worried about the clenching, I don’t think it’s harming me, I’m more just curious about whether it’s an effect of my health stuff.

I don’t understand. The one person who is expert on the area involved, and a good bet for answering any question you might have about it. My guess is that your doc will be astonished that you are able to maintain a perpetually clenched stomach without concentration or effort. Let him/her tell you how trivial it is.

What stomach muscles?

I don’t generally have clenched stomach muscles.

I do push ups every day, and the stomach muscles clench with every push up, it’s part of why I do the exercise, to strengthen my arms and my core. If I had to hold that clench beyond the push ups, I would probably cause a blood vessel to burst.

The only other times I’ve noticed my stomach muscles being clenched, without purposely doing it, is when I’ve been scared, angry, or sick to my stomach.

I checked the instant I read your question. No. I’m sitting at the kitchen table. I could not make them loose but could tighten them.
I just checked during other activities:
In bed No.
Walking, bending over, sitting up: yes.
They are definitely not tight for most of the day.

In replying to but not actually addressing your response to me as you @Mariah have done it shows nothing but petty ignorance…needed saying.

I was. I can relax them, but I do have a habit of tensing them, particularly when I’m sitting, and/or nervous. It used to be pretty severe and unconscious, and was terrible on long airplane flights – sometimes my trunk muscles would end up exhausted and more than once I’d have to lie down on the airport floor after such a flight.

Some years ago I started taking Feldenkrais lessons, and now I’m much more aware of my body and that habit and how I sit and other things to do even when confined to an inadequate airplane seat, and can relax them, and in general hold a lot less tension in my body and can notice and do things about it.

It is extremely common to hold muscles tense for no reason, and it eventually can lead to various issues. The stomach (and connected back) muscles are a very common place to hold tension.

I’m sorry, @ucme, I don’t understand. You’re pissed because I kind-of referenced your reply by referring to anxiety as a possible cause as you did, but I didn’t @ tag you in my response? And I’m petty and ignorant because of this? Is that what you’re saying? I’m not sure how I deserve that.

Thanks all for the input.

@Mariah I think for me it has more to do with posture. When I was younger I was often told I had bad posture, so since then I’ve tried to make a conscious effort to sit up straight in every chair and stand up straight when talking. I’m quite thin, so no issue of “sucking in a gut”. I really for me it comes from trying to improve my posture (and thus clenching is part of sitting straight for me).

@Demosthenes Makes sense, thanks for replying. What’s hilarious is that I have both terrible posture and this clenching issue ahahah…