Musubi Fitness

Last weekend, I was at a picnic and someone, finding out that I was a personal trainer, asked me how they could get 6-pack abs. My immediate response was “Why do you want 6-pack abs?”, to which he (unsurprisingly a male, since I have yet to have a female ask for 6-pack abs) said “Because it’s THE sign of physical fitness.”

I have to respectfully disagree. There are many examples of people with 6-pack abs that I think most people would agree are not physically fit. Individuals who have abused methamphetamine and individuals with wasting diseases, such as late stage uncontrolled AIDS, come to mind.

Being able to see your abs is mostly the result of losing the subcutaneous (under the skin) fat that covers them. The thing is, though, you can’t just lose fat around your abs, short of a medical procedure. You generally lose it everywhere, although genetics may favour certain places over others. While it varies for everyone, it’s generally around 10-12% body fat for males and 16-20% for females where you start getting “clearly visible” abs¹. If you want “camera ready” abs, it’s even lower.

So how do you get to these body fat percentages? It’s mostly about nutrition and creating a calorie deficit. Sure, you can exercise to have thicker abs so that they show sooner, and to increase the calorie deficit, but there’s only so much active exercise you can do before it becomes counter-productive. But the majority of the effect comes from eating less calories than your body needs so that it is forced to burn fat for fuel. You do not need to have the other hallmarks of physical fitness, such as cardiovascular endurance, strength or mobility.

I do not have 6-pack abs, nor do I really want to have them. My genetics, unfortunately, seems to favour losing fat from the face before anything else, so I end up looking like Skeletor from He-Man before the belly fat even starts shrinking. So the “physically fit” appearance is a bit of a wash for me.

I can also think of many examples of people who I think are physically fit and can kick my ass but do not have 6-pack abs. Powerlifters and strongmen/women competitors. Elite level weightlifters (although their abs can show when they are cutting for competition, but I suspect they are not usually not like that.) Sumo wrestlers. People in the Armed Forces. Martial artists. My friend “JC” from the gym.

Sure, you can point at all the pictures of athletes in track, runners, cyclists, swimmers, gymnasts, etc. But they are athletes. It’s there’s job to train and to maintain a body that suits their sport. Plus they are probably genetically gifted, otherwise they wouldn’t be at that level of the sport.

I haven’t even gotten into the potential risks of having such a low body fat percentage. Do your research.

So don’t make getting 6-pack abs your fitness goal, because it isn’t. It’s a nutrition goal. Fitness goals should improve your mobility (increase your range), improve your strength or conditioning (increase your ability to produce force), or increase your ability to perform (increase your skill). For more on appropriate goals, see my next post.

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Interested in a program that you can do at home and help you improve on all these three (Range, Force, Skill) fitness goals? Check out the GMB Elements program! I use it and love it so much that I affiliated with them! If you get it and need some extra personalized help, feel free to contact me!