Neither Six-pack Nor Six-Pack
November 30th 2006 11:45
I was reading a ill-advised comment in some fitness magazine the other days. You know the kind, with their glitzy headline teasers on the cover about shaping up for summer or how you can burn more calories every day(There's usually some assurance that you can do it without any sacrifice.). In future days I will be providing my readers with a guide to muscle and fitness magazines. For now I was struck when one the magazine's writers suggested that there was no point to the kind of exercise that cannot yield an abdominal six pack for summer on the beach.
I've got a problem with the thinking that apparently lies behind a comment like that. In my opinion a six pack of abs is a pretty remote possibility for the average person. If you have a small number of programmed fat cells and your body naturally adds muscle pretty fast(five pounds a year) you might be able to come up with a six pack say by mid-summer for those of you in the southern hemisphere. I won't comment on what kind of exercise the magaziner suggested was the only way to get to the holy grail. I will say that if you are endowed as I outlined above you can probably do it using his pet exercise. Odds are, though, that the genetically gifted are looking pretty good as it is and the motivation for six pack abs isn't that high for them. Yeah, if you can get them, go for it. If you are a more normal human,though, I think we can get a little value out of this fitness bravado.
Lets say you would like to look better and you live in North America where summer is months away. Let's set some reasonable goals. Lets say that you want to have a chest which measures larger than your waist, men. What's it going to take? First, a diet that makes sense, not some phoney " you can eat anything you want" diet myth. Lose a pound a week for 20 weeks and you will be able to hold your own on the beach. To get that chest bigger will depend on how fast you adapt to weights. If you are a little puny, it will be harder, but get a good workout regimen going and when you are ready adaptationwise start putting a little more emphasis on your chest and back. Ab work is only worthwhile if you are serious about diet. The idea that a million sit-ups can shrink your stomach is a myth.What you would end up with is immense abdominal power and a coating of fat over it. Diet makes the stomach smaller and abdominal workouts shape the muscles. (Here's a comment that reveals my radical side: get on a squat program now and by summer you'll look fit. I double- dog dare you.)
For ladies the motivation task is a little easier. There is always that bathing suit that you are hesitant to wear to the beach. A reasonable diet will make that task less odious, but some methodical weight training will add the shape that dieting can't. In fact, what harsh dieting, running, treadmilling, or 5 a week aerobics may do is shrink the areas you would just as well keep as they are and do alot less than you hope with the areas that you distress you. Refer to my "Fit Women" post and read it. You can go all out with weights and in a few months there will be a firmer more attractive you in that bikini.
Once again we come to the scariest word in fitness-lifestyle. If it is important enough to you to be in shape on the beach, you have to subordinate some things to that goal...like eating sugar and starch and lying in bed on Saturday morning. It means that rather than phantasizing about a six pack of abs, you might want to pass up the six pack you buy every so often. Neither a six pack nor a six pack is the reasonable approach to fitness and looking good. Your servant, as always.
I've got a problem with the thinking that apparently lies behind a comment like that. In my opinion a six pack of abs is a pretty remote possibility for the average person. If you have a small number of programmed fat cells and your body naturally adds muscle pretty fast(five pounds a year) you might be able to come up with a six pack say by mid-summer for those of you in the southern hemisphere. I won't comment on what kind of exercise the magaziner suggested was the only way to get to the holy grail. I will say that if you are endowed as I outlined above you can probably do it using his pet exercise. Odds are, though, that the genetically gifted are looking pretty good as it is and the motivation for six pack abs isn't that high for them. Yeah, if you can get them, go for it. If you are a more normal human,though, I think we can get a little value out of this fitness bravado.
Once again we come to the scariest word in fitness-lifestyle. If it is important enough to you to be in shape on the beach, you have to subordinate some things to that goal...like eating sugar and starch and lying in bed on Saturday morning. It means that rather than phantasizing about a six pack of abs, you might want to pass up the six pack you buy every so often. Neither a six pack nor a six pack is the reasonable approach to fitness and looking good. Your servant, as always.
| 46 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Anonymous