Abs Or Six-pack Abs Are Not The Gold Standard For Fitness, And Here’s Why.

Did you ever come across a guy in your school days, who looked like a skeleton. It was like you could snap his forearms into two like a bar of Kit Kat because they were so thin. And then some stupid bully decides to mess with him, and then gets beaten the shit out of him, because the thin guy actually is very strong. He wipes the floor with the bull’s limp body and goes home and eats his food.

Back in school I had a fat guy in my class. He used to keep to himself because everyone called him bad names because he was fat. And one day, this group of arrogant footballers went too far with the teasing just after lunch. He got hold of two guys and slapped them so hard, they didn’t even see it coming.

Then he chased down the “Ronaldo of the school” and beat the shit out of him too. He chased that stupid jock down the corridor and beat the bejesus out of him. And I loved every minute of it.

Fast forward to the present day and just pick up any fitness magazine. Hell, pick up any magazine.

They look like this –

And people go – Whoa! That guy/girl looks good, I should probably build a body like that. Look at all the fat I have around my belly. It’s ridiculous. Time to get that gym membership!

Then what happens? You go to the gym, you work out for 2 months and then one day you see that vada pav stall and Oh my Gawd! It smells good!

You eat one and that’s it. You are sucked into that black hole of eating another one and then another one and then you say fuck the gym! Vada pav, Pani puri and pyaaz kachori are the real deal!

Who wants all that hard work anyway?

Those guys on the covers are models. They are paid to look good. And by good, I mean aesthetically good. If you were paid good money to just go to the gym and just pump muscles and do stupid poses, you probably would do it too.

There is no guarantee that they are the fittest of the lot.

You don’t agree with me? Well, let’s look through some pictures shall we?

The hottest and the most dangerous MMA female fighter, Ronda Rousey –

 

The best footballer in the world (Cristiano Ronaldo fans can go, suck it) –

 

The best cricketer right now. (I wanted to put Tendulkar here because he’s so chubby!)

 

Rafael Nadal –

 

Fedor Emelianenko. The greatest MMA fighter of all time –

The last guy doesn’t look scary at all, does he? The fact is he probably is that fat guy from my school and can wipe his ass with all the show boats on the magazine covers.

You must be wondering why am I pitting them against each other, when they are in completely different careers.

Here’s my point. My idea of fitness is to get fighting fit, and I don’t mean you have to take the guy who comes at you in the dark. That helps too, but when there is a fire in your building or an earthquake or a girl being harassed by 10 men, do you have the balls to interfere and save some lives? Because there, your glorified abs don’t come for help. They are useless. the earthquake is not gonna stop and admire your abs while you save some people and the abs are not a fire retardant!

The only thing those abs signify is that you have a low body fat percentage. Period.

Half the population in this country including the poor and the construction labourers have six pack abs. Because they just can’t afford fatty foods.

Why don’t they put them on the magazine covers? They are ripped too! Probably more ripped than the models. It’s because they don’t look aesthetically appealing enough.

Stop relating a good looking body with fitness. A good looking body may or may not be a BY PRODUCT of a very fit body. But rest assured, there are plenty of fat people there who are flabby but are extremely fit.

We need to stop this epidemic of thirsting for a ripped body. Fat is actually good for you. It provides backup energy, like that backup generator in your building, when you get sick. That’s why people say “Awww. You look thin now!”, after you have recovered from a bad disease.

And if you want to build muscle, use it to apply too. Usually, the muscle you’re building in the gym is built to do pump weights. There is no real world application. People realized this and started including real world applications, but then went too far with it. It’s called Crossfit.

But hey, if you want to workout to look good and feel better about yourself, good for you. You should do that, but please do not have the misconception that a ripped body is a fit body.

It probably is or isn’t.

Work and exercise and eat and enjoy food and lead a healthy life. Those shitty magazine covers will motivate you, yes. For long term, or for short, you don’t know.

Fitness is for life, and it should be made a habit, a lifestyle. Think long term. You don’t want a shot knee in your old age just because you lifted too much weight in your youth, just to get those ripped thighs. It’s not right.

Get fit to be fit. Not to get a set of six pack abs. Everyone has those. Everyone. It’s a group of muscles we are born with for god’s sake.

Cover image source