A Little Understanding Means a Lot

A shredded midsection is as easy as 1, 2, 3.
Or is it 3, 2, 1, or 2, 1, 3? Even the experts can’t agree.
The truth is . . . that great,
cleanly defined abdominals are some of
the most difficult of all muscle groups to accrue.


Andy McCutcheon’s six pack is a result
of strong, well-developed rectus abdominis
muscles and 3.4 percent body fat.


"Burn fat so fast your abs will pop," heralded the Muscle & Fitness cover line for January 2005. If you looked through the introductory material of their Cardio-Ab Slam, it promised a plan that would burn fat and chisel a serious six pack in a matter of weeks.

Can you really get a six pack, or great abdominals, in a few weeks — or even a few months?

For the vast majority of fitness-minded people, the answer is . . . NO, absolutely not. For a very few gifted individuals . . . YES.

The primary difference between the no and yes answer is genetics.


THE RIGHT GENETICS

Genetics control the size of your biceps, the shape of your triceps, the contours of your calves, and just about everything else involved in bodybuilding — including your abdominal formation and overall body leanness. To have really chiseled abs requires exceptional genes. In short, here’s why.

* First, you have to possess the ability to achieve a very low level of body fat. A very low level of body fat means less than 5 percent for a man and less than 10 percent for a woman (as determined by Lange skinfold caliper readings and Dr. Michael Pollock’s tables).

To give you an idea of how extreme those percentages are, I calculated percent body-fat numbers on each of 150 people who started and finished my six-week, A Flat Stomach ASAP course. The starting and finishing averages for men were 27.3 percent and 17.9 percent. For women, the averages were 33.7 percent and 26.1 percent. The finishing numbers, 17.9 and 26.1, are a long way from the 5-percent and 10-percent levels that are necessary for success on this aspect.

I’ve trained individuals, however, who have achieved very low levels of body fat and several are pictured in my ASAP book. Kerry Hamilton (8.8 percent) and Mike Derringer (4.3 percent), from the Gainesville Health & Fitness, had the lowest level of any woman and any man that I worked with in Gainesville. Both Kerry and Mike possessed excellent genetics for leanness.

It’s also important to understand that fat cells inside the body can vary — from a low of 10 billion to a high of 250 billion. Having a low number of fat cells is primarily genetic, since over 90 percent of your fat cells were already established prior to your birth.

Fewer fat cells allow you to reach a smaller percentage of body fat. But that in itself is not always enough for chiseled abs.

* Second, you must have a favorable ordering of the spots that you lose fat from. In other words, when you lose fat it must come off your midsection first or second in the selection process and not last.

Most of the fat that an average person has is located between the skin and muscle all over the body. Thin layers are around the feet, hands, and head. The layers increase toward the body’s core. The upper arms and thighs, for example, have thicker layers than do the forearms and calves. The heaviest layers of fat for a man are located on the waist, usually around the navel and over the sides between the lower ribs and pelvic girdle. A woman sometimes stores fat there, too, but usually her thickest layers are over the buttocks and upper thighs.

Fat deposition and fat reduction are ordered processes. A typical man might deposit fat first on the sides of his waist. Second, it might go over the navel area; then the hips and chest; then the upper arms and thighs; and finally the calves, forearms, hands, feet, and head. When he reduces fat, it comes off in reverse: first from the head, feet, hands, forearms, and calves; then the thighs and upper arms; followed by the chest and hips; and finally the navel area and sides. Once again, the ordering above is typical.

But there are a few people who have different orderings of where fat is stored. These people lose fat first or second from their waist. Rather than be a huge struggle, as it is for most of us, their waistline fat comes off rather easily. So these few people have an advantage on the road for exceptional abs.

* Third, once the fat is off the midsection, you still must have symmetrically paired, well-developed, rectus abdominis muscles. Most people who are extremely lean in the midsection can display three paired blocks of muscle. These formations are often called six packs, even though some people have a fourth pair of blocks. These blocks are caused by tendinous intersections. An inch-wide strip of tendon, called the linea alba, runs vertically down the center of the waist. Then, three or four other tendons stretch horizontally and connect to the vertical tendon.

But as is often the case throughout the body, many times the left muscle blocks don’t match the right muscle blocks. Sometimes the right muscle is thicker than the left. Or the tendons on the left side are not parallel to the right tendons. Or perhaps the tendons are wavy instead of straight.

In a bodybuilding contest, the judges usually prefer evenly developed blocks with parallel tendons.

Thus, the highly sought after, symmetrical six-pack look for the rectus abdominis muscles is another characteristic that is genetic. The rare individual who has inherited this characteristic, however, does have a distinct advantage.


PARADOXICALLY SPEAKING

Here’s the paradox: The very few people who have all the right genetics have had it too easy. They have chiseled abs almost in defiance of their training, not because of it. They would have had well-above-average abdominals with absolutely no training of any kind. But because they were not able to recognize their own exceptional genetics, they felt that whatever dieting and exercising they did produced outstanding results.

Thus, is it any wonder that these individuals often identify with highly promoted fad diets, quickie exercises, and easy claims?

On the other hand, typical people with average genetics — and this includes about 80 percent of the population — have to work very hard to get into decent shape. But after years and years of training, they will not have the same level of abdominal muscularity as do the people who have exceptional genetics and do only limited training or even have poor eating and exercising practices.

Genetics is almost everything when it comes to great abs.


REALITY AND DISCIPLINE

If you’ve got the right genetics for outstanding abs, then you will have already achieved exceptional results from whatever fitness program you’ve been practicing.

If you have average or slightly above-average genetics, then I hope you’ll apply some of my routines described in my books: 32 Days to a 32-Inch Waist, A Flat Stomach ASAP, and The New HIT (chapters 23 and 25).

Above all, be realistic in the assessment of your genetic potential. With discipline and persistence, your personal-best abdominals will soon surface.