Good abs are only shown on video NEVER in a picture!

After flicking through a recent copy of Men’s Health magazine I was struck by how much advertising and wording is used to sell the promise of ripppppped abs, chiseled abs, cut abs, abs of steel, rock hard abs, do i really have to continue or will the picture below suffice?

The Chippendales of Mens health!

Most guys are encouraged by magazines to train so they too can have ripped abs. Now I’m all for getting guys to drop fat belly and moobs, hit the weights and eat healthier but what these magazines are selling is false. They display guys with good abs but all it’s really showing is a guy that got his diet on track and stripped away the fat. This does in no way mean that his abs or core is strong. It is my contention that looking like you are fit and strong are not the same as actually being fit and strong. You can’t show me a picture of a guy with a 6-pack or hell an 8-pack and say his core must be unbelievably strong. Only a video will show me that as there are plenty of guys that have a low body fat, have chiseled abs yet possibly wouldn’t last five minutes in any of the metcons I or most of my clients would do. If you want to have that pretty boy look and give the illusion that you are in super shape then thats easy as all you have to do is get really really tight on your diet (that’s critical)  and do some weights and cardio. However, that is not sexy and magazines just love to make something superficially exciting.

Ok here is a perfect exmaple of what I am talking about and it’s taken directly from the mens health site and I am just picking a very typical example. Meet Jan Schumacher (bloody great name to begin with!!).

Jan, all 6ft 1in and 11stone 8lbs of pure manness!

To start with Jan looks great and the guys the pick up a copy of the magazine are again sold on the superficial i.e. just look at the titles of the articles surrounding the picture. My personal fave is beach ready in 2 weeks. The only thing that’s going to be ready in a time frame of 2 weeks is getting your bloody bag packed for the trip!

Getting back to the lovely Jan. His profile gives plenty of sound advice like drink more water, eat more good protein sources and restrict your alcohol intake. However, his following tips were total clangers for me.  

• Train each muscle with three (not 2, not 4, not 5) different exercises, three sets at a time and for 9reps. Ok lets do that for say a chest and triceps day (God I hate those split programs). That might look like bench press, flys and decline bench press. He also recommends a tempo of 4secs lowering the weight and 1sec up x 9reps and a 1min break = at least 6-10mins per exercise (remember there are 3 exercises). Well that’s at least a good 20mins just to do your chest and you have yet to hit the outer head of your triceps for which according to Jan you are going to need another 20mins. Sounds like Jan has a whole lot of time to burn in his workouts, but wait there’s more…
• Do your cardio workouts for at least 25 minutes: you only hit your most efficient fat-burning zone after 20 minutes of pounding the pavement or the pedals. Wow another great tip from the lovely Jan! Well Jan can you please explain why my clients NEVER and I mean never do any straight cardio in our sessions yet manage to burn ample amounts of fat? Has he even heard or read up on the massive amounts of research that shows shorter and more intense sessions produce the most fat loss? May be a good plug for 10-20mins excellent workouts in my home workout section here.

Ok so lets get to the final and for me the most important point. Jan is 6ft 1in and is just slightly over 11 and a half stone. Now in my books that’s just plain skinny and there are girls heavier and leaner than him. I’m an inch taller and 2 and a half stone heavier! I would absolutely dwarf him. I am sure Jan hits his workouts hard but the point is that just because he has a 6-pack does in no way what so ever mean he is strong. So can you show me a strong core via a picture? I certainly don’t think so and for this reason I give you some videos of a strong core in action.

The first is my good self in a workout that takes 10mins – do I really look like I care about the optimal fat burning zone or 3 sets per muscle group?

The second is one of my hero’s Chris Spealler doing a Turkish Get up with his wife. Now try that with a 30kg dumbbell and you will quickly see your core strength or weakness.

Ok just one more short one. Chris Spealler again and pound for pound one of the greatest athletes on the planet. Do you think he even cares about a 6 pack?

Give me more real men that can run, move and actually display great strength rather than pretty boy models that largely just look good but have very very little to back it up. I am sick of guy’s preoccupation with getting a 6-pack when they won’t get the basics of their training and diet right. The girls below have better work capacity than most of the guys I see in gyms doing in their day to day training. It’s time men started being men again, dropped the moobs and bloated belly,  focused more on better performance, full body workouts with the importnat lifts, a good diet and workout plans that produce superior results without focusing on superficial goals like getting a 6 pack.

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Tags: 6 pack, Dominic Munnelly, dominic.ie, mens health, mens health cover, moobs, strong core