Six pack abs are the holy grail of modern health and fitness. It used to be that these were just the preserve of late teenage boys, who had all the time in the world to indulge in sports and none of the responsibilities to earn a living, or manage a family life that the rest of us have. A lack of exposure to the more calorific side of adult life, such as beer and fast food also paid a crucial role!
Nowadays, however, simply everyone has to have that washboard stomach, and along with perfect white teeth and a glossy, full, head of hair, it is merely the starting point for anyone wishing to be remotely successful.
Women too are well in on the act. A trip to the gym used to be a pleasurable way to relax on an afternoon off. Now it’s just a source of constant neuroses as every one seems to be in better shape that me!
So what are abs, and why do you need ‘six pack’ of them?
Well ‘abs’ is quite simply a contraction of abdominals – the row of muscles that run down the centre line of your torso, from just below your rid cage to your pelvic bone area. Their job is to maintain something, that fitness-types call ‘core stability’.
The term covers a multitude of functions. In my opinion one of the most important functions of the abdominal muscles is to give support and stability to your back, and to your spinal column. You may find this function surprising, but consider that most of your upper body movements involve twisting, bending, or flexing from the general area of your lower torso.
These movements put enormous strain on your back, and particularly the lower back. This problem is compound for those of us that carry a little bit (or quite a lot!) of extra upper body (… And not to mention lower body!) weight.
So why do you need six pack abs? Well, in a word or two, you don’t. As we’ve said they’re very more little more than the latest body image obsession for those with little better to occupy themselves with. In fact, as far as unhealthy pursuits go, the quest for six pack abs may well be up there as indicative of a borderline personality disorder!
As with a great many issues involving body structure, the generalities are usually pretty firmly fixed by the varied cocktail of DNA that we inherit from our parents. That isn’t to say that we should just throw our arms up and allow ourselves to be suffocated in the warm blanket that is inevitability, but we should certainly try to accept that inherited genes play a significant role in our body shape and any work we do, should be to complement this. There’s no point In trying to fight against it – nature has been fighting that particular fight for millions of years and is much better at it than us!
The role we can play is to eat healthily and get as much exercise as we feel able to do, always in the knowledge that any improvements we make towards living healthier and more active lives will pay dividends in terms of our ability to pass all of our allotted days to the very best of our abilities.
Be happy with who you are and don’t beat yourself up too much. Life’s over quickly enough so why spend any of that time worrying that our goal of the perfect six pack abs is proving just that bit too tough.
