Because it is a good idea, but not the way we think it is. For this blog, we thought we’d take a deeper look into what it is about the “six-pack” that intrigues us so much as human beings. Why are we so enticed by the idea of a shaped and contoured core closely resembling the carvings of Greek statues? Is it the sheer aesthetic look of such great musculature that motivates us to want the same, or is it more mentally driven than that, in this blog, we find out. But before we do we’d like to ask a small favour of you, If you’ve been reading our blogs recently and have been finding them useful and insightful in any way, we’d greatly appreciate your feedback and response, it helps us grow and expand to suit your interests. Feel free to drop us an email at info@focusfitnessuk.com, in the meantime, enjoy!
A brief history lesson
Let’s take a look at the Greeks. The Ancient Greeks were very fond of their marble statue carvings which symbolized and represented important figures of Greek mythology, the bodies of such figures were carved with such great musculature and definition in order to symbolize strength and power/authority. The question is how were they so muscular? Firstly ,we must understand that in today’s world there are athletes who now outcompete athletes of the past in both performance and musculature, but with regard to how athletes maintained such muscular physiques, the key is in their training style and frequency. The Greeks spent much of their time in the gymnasium, the word gymnasium comes from the word gymnos meaning “naked”, yes the Greeks trained in the nude, this is the key! Ok, we’re clearly joking here, training naked has nothing to do with it. The key is actually in the time they would spend training because they would spend much of their day in the gymnasium, they would, in turn, spend many hours training. It is said they would spend 8 hours in physical training, usually centred around wrestling. The Romans adopted similar practices with routines largely consisting of sword-wielding.
Six-pack suggests a trained individual?
Notice the question mark at the end of the subheading. A “Six-pack suggests a trained individual”. Now how true is this statement? Are strongmen not trained athletes? Strongmen must maintain a higher bodyweight ratio in order to shift the tremendous amount of weight they intend to lift, therefore their body composition will vary from that of a lean athlete to an out of competition bodybuilder. For example, this does not mean to say they have weak cores, in fact, strongmen have very strong cores. In addition, Sumo Wrestlers, who maintain rigorous training and eating routines, training anywhere between 2-3 hours daily but do not maintain a “six-pack”, are they untrained? These questions are really just food for thought, but it all really boils down to what we perceive when we think of “six-packs” and why have we made this connection.
Endnote: Really this post was not aimed at coming to one set conclusion, really the debate is an open-ended debate, but I do personally believe that the obsession with the six pack has blinded people from what they really want to achieve. If your goal is purely aesthetic, then, by all means, practice your crunches, but if you want to maintain functionality, consider other methods to train the core. At the end of the day, a “six-pack” is visible when you are maintaining a body composition with low body fat percentage, just before you do embark on your quest for washboard abs, consider your training goal first and everything else will follow shortly after.
If you found this post insightful, why not check out some of our previous posts on our blog page or if you are interested in becoming a qualified personal trainer check out our main page for course information and if you have any questions feel free to email us at info@focusfitnessuk.com.
Written by Daniyal Siddiqui.