Not every woman can have a perfect “six pack”. It’s one thing to have well developed muscle, but she’d also need to have limited body fat around the midsection to achieve defined abs, and many women simply won’t get there. Not for lack of trying, but simply for want of such fortuitous natural endowment… they ain’t got the right genes for it.
If you don’t have a naturally flat stomach and haven’t had defined abs
since you were 11, get over it, Sister. It probably isn’t happening.
The natural fact is that women are supposed to carry extra fat around their belly area in order to help protect the reproductive organs. Additionally, estrogen in the body gets in the way of fat burning - again, to get the female ready for child bearing. So if you're one of those women who obsesses over obtaining a washboard belly, the first thing you need to do is ascertain whether it’s a realistic goal for yourself.
Unless you’re already biologically programmed to have minimal belly fat it’s going to be a tough road to attain a photoshop quality belly. In this case, form doesn’t always follow function. A fighter can have well developed stomach muscles, but that doesn’t mean her stomach will be aesthetically pleasing, at least by conventional standards.
Do you gain weight easily? When you lose weight does it come off your waistline at the same rate as everywhere else? These are some questions you might want to ask before killing yourself in the gym. Plus, you are aware that you can’t target fat loss, right? I mean, c’mon now, it’s not 1986 anymore. If you’re getting fitness advice from Sunday morning infomercials, you’re getting really poor info. Doing a million crunches will burn calories, but otherwise they’re no more effective than skipping rope at burning extra fat around your midsection; probably less.
Avoid getting caught up trying to do a million of this or a hundred of that. Go for quality and use good form so you’re not risking injury or strain. We recommend doing more functional exercises or drills that will develop stability and mobility in your core over pure muscle building (or fabled fat burning). Check out our previous post on preparing that midsection for combat.
You can do a ton of work at the gym, really build up your abdominal muscles and still barely see a shadow outline of definition. If the lack of “results” bothers you, this stress will only pull you farther away from your difficult goal. So just get over it already. If you don’t have a naturally flat stomach and you haven’t had defined abs since you were 11, get over it, Sister. it probably isn’t happening for you.
Get to know your body. And learn to love it. Forget about unrealistic goals of perfection and instead work on becoming a better You overall - a healthier person and a more dangerous fighter. Now that’s a goal.
