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THE TRUTH ABOUT THE
SIX PACK & HOW TO GET IT
You turn on the television and you want to believe him. The
well sculpted models using some new fangled invention that they swear will get
your midsection tight within a matter of weeks. Summer is coming and you want
to look good for the beach so you buy the machine, you use it faithfully just
as they did on the infomercials and yet nothing happens. Your belly is still
just that- a belly. It isn’t a chiseled work of art and you can’t understand
why.
So you go to the gym. You just want to get your abdominals looking
sharp for the short sleeve and swimsuit season and all the advertisements
about the gyms show these beautifully built people with the stomachs of a
Greek god so you are certain that you will soon look like them. You do
thousands upon thousands of sit ups, crunches, and at first you fell that you
are making progress. You feel the burn and you know that the six pack of your
dreams are on there way.
The weeks turn into months and the months turn into years, and
still those blocks in your stomach remain elusive. So you decide to do more.
You train longer and you do more exercises for your abdominal muscles, training
them every day. Maybe even twice a day, yet your midsection still doesn’t look
any thing like the people on the magazine covers. What could be the problem?
Why is it that you are not able to get the definition that you seek? Why is
there still a layer of fat where rippling muscles should be as a result of all
of your hard work? The answer may surprise you.
It is important to note where your information comes from and for
the most part it comes from television, books and magazines, but before
taking the information to heart it is imperative that you reflect on what these
sources have to gain by your heeding their advice. You see the eye catching
before and after pictures from the various exercise programs and miracle
machines and there is one motivation behind it all. Profit.
There is a Latin phrase, ‘Cui bono?’ which translates
as ‘who stands to gain? And this is precisely the question you should be
asking. They are constantly coming out with new and improved
machines and exercise programs, hawked by well muscled trainers and athletes
simply because they know that they don’t work and they need to keep you
thinking that there is something out there that will.
It all comes down to the way we as a society expect results. I
call it the microwave mentality. You want something and you want it now- and
you are willing to pay for it, a weakness that manufacturers and media use to
their advantage. You will always buy that health magazine because you are
certain that if you follow the special exercises that the
bodybuilders/athletes/models are doing you will look like them, and in so doing
you continue to make the dishonest scoundrels rich.
You will always tune in to that special report on the nightly news
about the new way to lose inches off of your midsection and keep the shows
ratings and the advertisers that fund it very happy. In short it is all a rip
off. A rip off that appeals to the need for instant gratification, the
unfortunate truth is that you can’t make money off of the right way to get your
abdominals looking like that of a Greek god. Not one cent. You can do it
without magazines, supplements, special exercise programs and most importantly,
without spending the better part of your life doing abdominal exercises.
So how do you get your abdominal muscles? Well, for starters you
already have them. Every human being has four main abdominal muscles. The
transversus abdominus - the deepest muscle layer which stabilizes the
trunk and maintains internal abdominal pressure. The rectus abdominus -
slung between the ribs and the pubic bone at the front of the pelvis. This
muscle has the characteristic bumps or bulges, when contracting, that are
commonly called 'the six pack'. The external oblique muscles flanking the
rectus abdominus that allow the trunk to twist and the internal oblique muscles
which flank the rectus abdominus, and are located just inside the
hip-bones. They operate in the opposite way to the external oblique muscles.
Most men have a body fat percentage of around 15% to 17% and
most women have an average body fat level of between 18% to 22%. Now at even at
these levels (which by the way is quite low for most of the population) most
people would have a layer of fat that would hide the abdominal muscles. The
muscles are always there, what you really want to do it not make them come out
from under the fat, which is impossible, but rather to reduce your bodyfat to
level where you can see them.
How do you do that you ask, simple: PROPER DIET AND TIME. No
magic machine, no magic pill no special workout. All such ideas are simply
rubbish!
I can say so because for the past 17 years of being a
bodybuilder I only started training my abdominals
regularly over the past year. I have won several shows without doing more
than two or three direct abdominal exercises in over a decade! That is right,
in over a decade! Now that may not be what the health and fitness
companies want you to hear, but it is the truth. How did I get my abdominals
looking the way that they do? Simple, proper diet and patience.
Take a look at my abdominals in the pictures. They have
always looked like this, and quite possibly yours might not look too different,
if only you could remove the layer of fat over it. In my DVD, ‘Naturally
Intense’ there are no shots of me training my abdominals, because
that would be misleading- people would think that if they trained their abs the
way I trained mine they would get similar results and that is simply not
so. It is all about diet and proper nutrition, not any wonder exercise.
Now paying attention to your diet over a long period of time in
combination with a sensible exercise regiment isn’t going to give you the
instant feeling of really doing something that following some new routine in a
magazine will, nor will it make you feel good about spending money on a machine
that you believe will work for you. Attention to diet is a lifetime of
consideration, patience and discipline, traits that few really want to hear
about, but if it took you years to put on that layer of fat that obscures your
stomach, you should not expect it to go away in weeks.
There are legitimate reasons to work your abdominal muscles
directly, and that is to strengthen the muscles that support the trunk and
allow for movement. These muscles also help support your lower back, so
training them is not a cosmetic undertaking. Now what about the people in the
gym that say that you have to do this and do that to get your abdominals in
good shape? Well, think about it. Whose advice are you going to take, mine or
the guy that trains six days a week but still has a beer belly? The choice is
yours.
Information
contained in this article is not meant to treat, diagnose illness, nor
substitute for medical counsel and is
intended for purposes of information and education only. Consult your physician
before modifying your diet or
starting any exercise program.
Kevin Richardson
www.naturallyintense.net
copyright 2006
About The Author: Featured on ESPN Radio and Fox 5 News, Good Day New York,
Kevin Richardson, is one of America's most prolific personal fitness training
gurus and the founder of the Naturally Intense System. You can get his new
EBook for free here and you can read more of
his articles as well as learn more about the Naturally Intense Lifestyle at http://www.naturallyintense.net
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