When it comes to fitness, men often start and finish with the same picture of their eventual goal: glorious abs telling everyone they are strong and fit. Even healthy men struggle to get there, and this makes them doubt whether they are even fit at all. Fortunately, professional health and fitness advice is available online to answer your performance questions and train your body.
You can be fit even without visible abs. The range of healthy body fat percentage required for fit men falls between 17.6% and 25.3%. Still, for abs to be visible, you need to lower your body fat content to between 10% and 12% and intentionally sculpt the muscles in your abdominal area.
Where fitness is concerned, men should consider not only how their bodies look but how they work. Abs are not a requirement or even an indicator of optimal health, even if they serve as proof of your discipline and effort. All the information needed on how our bodies work is available to examine how people set fitness goals.
You Can Be Fit Without Visible Abs
The body fat index for healthy men is somewhere in the region of 17% to 25%, while the amount present in men with visible abs is typically only at 10% to 12%. While attractive, visible abs may not play a role in determining your fitness as they depend on your having extremely low body fat levels.
Regardless of your body fat level and your abs’ visibility, your fitness can be assessed by how well you can perform physical activities. In this manner, your fitness relies on strength, endurance, and flexibility rather than appearance. For instance, marathon runners may not focus on building muscle mass but can run great distances over extended periods.
Your Level Of Fitness And The Visibility Of Your Abs
While sculpted and visible abdominal muscles are considered good indicators of health and fitness, fitness does not merely rely on how sculpted this area of the body is nor on your body fat percentage. Fitness factors that simply aren’t as obviously evident may be more important than how your body appears.
Not all fit men will have visible abs, and some may even have modest amounts of visible body fat. Similarly, having abs does not necessarily mean that someone is fit.
Why You Are Fit But Can’t See Your Abs
Sometimes even low body fat percentages and strong abdominal muscles do not make your abs visible, possibly because your abs aren’t thick or well-toned enough. While healthy and strong, these muscles are smaller and tend to relax when not deliberately engaged.
Unless you are deliberately involved in activities that will increase the size of your abdominal muscles while reducing your body fat, you may be actively improving your overall health but not producing visible abs.
For instance, you may be an avid jogger (which will reduce your body fat), but it does not necessarily grow the size of your abdominal muscles.
Also, some people have genetic make-ups that make it somewhat more challenging for them to have their abs become visible. Their body may store fat reserves and have thicker skin in particular areas of their body, and if that area is in the abdominal area, they may have to decrease their body fat percentage even more.
Having Visible Abs Does Not Necessarily Indicate Fitness
While the body fat percentage for men to have visible abs requires that they be incredibly lean, a slender body with a visible six-pack does not suggest that someone is fit in and of itself. Even if they look good, they may have low overall body strength and little in the way of stamina.
Some men may deprive their bodies of the necessary nutrition and risk their health while striving for visible abs.
One way of obtaining abs is dropping tremendous amounts of body fat but not engaging in activities that increase your strength or fitness levels. In this manner, they may appear lean and have evident abs, but their appearance exaggerates their fitness level.
How To Get Fit With Visible Abs
Abs as a fitness goal may still be something that many men want to obtain, even if they require levels of leanness beyond what is considered healthy. Abs should be only part of a set of goals, including strength, endurance, and flexibility, rather than a single goal itself.
For a man’s abs to become visible, he typically must lower his body fat percentage to within the 10% to 12% range, and he may have to strengthen his abdominal muscles deliberately. Incorporating this into a fitness regime requires effective dieting and a variety of types of exercise, and a lot of patience.
Fitness experts suggest that reducing the amount of body fat in your body requires a diet that contains high amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables and lots of protein. You should also drink a lot of water and reduce your calorie intake by limiting the number of processed foods, sugar, and alcohol consumed.
In terms of your exercise routine, regularly getting in cardio and working with weights will increase your levels of endurance and strength. Strength exercises are particularly good at building extra muscle that helps reduce body fat. Try combining variations of crunches and planks with weights while remembering to get cardio in regularly.
When working your way to visible abs, remember that your overall health is more important than how you look and that the entire journey takes time and commitment. Being patient and disciplined will help you improve your overall health and create the best body you can if you stick with it.
Health Factors To Remember Regarding Abs And Fitness
Since abs require a low body fat percentage, working towards them will usually be positive for your overall health and fitness levels. But it would be best to consider some pitfalls since you do not want to harm your body in pursuing vanity.
Radically decreasing your body’s fat content requires extreme dietary choices, which are hard to maintain in the longer term. Change your diet gradually. Nutritional sacrifices should not risk normal body functioning.
A certain degree of fat is necessary for your essential body function, and overdoing fat reduction will thus interfere with your body’s vital systems. Here are a few risks related to excessively low body fat percentage:
- Compromised bladder and bowel control
- Hormone imbalances
- Weakened immune systems
- Increased risk of injury
Conclusion
While visible abs may suggest fitness and health, they require a lower body fat percentage than necessary for a person to be considered fit and healthy. Personal fitness is better assessed by considering individual strength, flexibility, and endurance levels.
Seemingly fit men may suffer from severe health complications if they focus solely on the appearance of their bodies to the detriment of their health. Healthy approaches to fitness include elements of diet and exercise which, when followed with discipline, will improve the overall appearance of your whole body, including your abs.
References
- https://www.fatherly.com/health-science/how-to-get-six-pack-abs-unhealthy-workouts
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/best-ways-to-get-abs
- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-long-does-it-take-to-get-abs#diet-tips
- https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/5-reasons-you-cant-see-your-abs
- https://www.stylist.co.uk/fitness-health/six-pack-is-it-healthy-to-have-abs-beauty-fitness-standards/359252
