Let's talk about the models first. They have impressive abs, no doubt about it! And if you read the article, they'll tell you that you can have abs like that too. The truth is a long way from there. Here's the rub - that model trains fulltime to look like that (for years), has great genes and actually spent the better part of 2-3 months getting ready for that shoot. That's right - 2-3 months of hard dieting. on top of the years of preparation training. To get those abs, the models diet to strip as much bodyfat from themselves as possible. They cut carbs and fat from their diets, do heaps of cardio, and even resort to dehydrating themselves for 24 hours before the shoot. Then there's the lighting, the photographer and all the editing software. They don't tell you about that in the article, do they? If you looked at that model 24 hours after the shoot, they wouldn't have abs that good.
For the average person on the street, those abs are unobtainable. If we follow the guidelines in the article, we might well see an improvement in the appearance of our abs, particularly if we were pretty close to seeing them or could actually see them before. It is highly unlikely that we'll wind up with abs like the models. At some stage, we'll give up, and go back to our normal ways. It's how our brain operates - we need success to motivate, and if we are sold on quick success, we also have quick loss of motivation. How do we get that motivation back? In part, it comes back to us in the form of another model showing us great abs on the cover of a magazine or on an advert or website. And off we go again.
So, why does this approach work? It works because it uses a very basic form of marketing - concept reinforcement. Every time we see a person with great abs on a marketing product, we are being sold the idea that this is both desirable and achievable. It's desirable, because every person with great abs always has an equally good-looking person near them, or is portrayed as "successful", or looks amazingly happy. See that enough times, and our brain is taught to conflate the two ideas into one - we are led to believe that good abs leads to success, happiness and a high level of attraction to potential mates.
It also works on another level - every time we see an image of a person with great abs, usually with a marketing by-line, we are being told that another person has been able to achieve this look. That way, when we fail, which they actually want us to and know we will, we are led to a conclusion that the fault lies with us, and not the product/marketing/program. It's a strange idea, but it works - our failure leads us to buy into the concept more, not less. It's not our fault; it's the marketer's fault for selling unrealistic ideas. But they do it, because they know it works.
So, how do we get off of this crazy roundabout? Well, first things first - we need to accept the reality that good abs don't mean you are fit and healthy. All that good abs shows is that you are lean and have good genes. Sure, training can improve the appearance of your abs, and dieting can definitely improve the appearance of your abs, but it doesn't automatically mean you are fitter, healthier or better than you were. Rather than focusing on your abs, it might be worth focusing on a whole pile of other markers of health.
There are a range of indicators of health, all of which have varying degrees of validity and reliability. For example, cardiovascular health can be assessed using measures of blood triglyceride levels, or blood pressure, or haemoglobin/ferritin levels, while lung function can best be measured using peak flow. For physical performance measures, there is a range of testing options available that can measure everything from flexibility to strength to rate of force development. All of these can be measured over time and compared back to the baseline; and that's something that your abs can't tell you. All of the health measures can be within healthy range without your abs being even close to visible.
At this point, it might be worth considering the types of body fat levels observed in elite athletes. After all, if there were a group of people who we would expect to have the "best bodies", it would be reasonable to assume this is that group. For most people, their abs become visible at about 15% bodyfat. Male Olympic swimmers typically have bodyfat levels between 10-15%, and many of them have poorly defined abs. Male elite level cyclists and marathon runners tend to sit at 8-10%, a similar level to female gymnasts. Elite rugby athletes are quite often around 18-20%, and some are even higher than that. It's pretty hard to argue that elite rugby players are unfit, and the athletes in the other sports target bodyfat levels for optimising performance, not health.
So, where does that leave you? On the one hand, you can buy into the slick marketing spin of supplement and publishing companies, whose sole purpose of existence is to make you believe that you need what they sell. Or, you can follow the true indicators of health, and recognise that a healthy body doesn't have a certain appearance, it has a certain function. That's not to say that you shouldn't desire a 6-pack; just that it won't make you healthier than the person who doesn't. Oh, and that whole appearance equals attractiveness myth that marketers use is pure bs - while we might initially seek that which is visually appealing, in the long term we seek that which is appealing on a series of levels. Be healthy, be happy, seek enlightenment and be a decent human, and your need for that 6 pack might just disappear into the ether, where it rightly belongs.
