The Elusive Six-Pack

Ask just about any guy who goes to the gym, "What is your number one goal in working out?" I'm sure answers will run the gamut from "I want to increase my agility for sports," to "I want to have bigger arms." But I'll be the number one answer to that question is "I want a six-pack." Ah, the elusive six-pack. The Moby Dick to so many workout junkies. Because in spite of how much time and effort you put into your daily workouts, the one part of your body that simply refuses to cooperate with your fitness goals is your abs. I'm not talking about the genetic freaks that were born with a six-pack and can eat whatever they want without gaining a pound on their midsection (we hate those guys). I'm talking about regular people who have full time jobs, try to hit the gym a few times a week, and follow fads like "spot reduction" and "8-minute abs", thinking that this will somehow lead to to promise land of washboard stomachs.

As for me, I fall squarely into the second category. I work out fairly regularly, try to eat right most of the time, and do crunches, jacknifes, trunk twists, and leg lifts ad nauseum. Yet at the end of the day, I still feel like I've about as far from a six pack as I ever was. But I always just encouraged myself by thinking, "Keep at it, Brian, and eventually, it'll happen." And then, I came across a sobering piece of news on the Internet. An article on a health and fitness website I read mentioned that if you don't have a six-pack by the time you're 30, it becomes signficantly harder to get, due to the body's slower metabolism. So as the big 3-0 looms less than a year away, I decided that this would be the push I need to really make a go of this whole six-pack quest. And since we are living in the 21st century, well I obviously need to blog about it as well.

So consider this the start of my journey to see if I can actually discover the magical six-pack that supposedly lives beneath the layers of midsection fat. Along the way, I will try to post interesting links, articles, and stories that relate to my quest. These posts won't solely be focused on getting a six-pack, however. I want to share general health and fitness stories that I also find interesting. After all, a six-pack may be the end goal, but there are so many routes to get there.

Just to be clear, I am no fitness expert. I don't have a master's degree in nutrition, and I still don't know how to use a stability ball at the gym. But I'm hoping that over the next few months, I'll learn more about what it takes to carve out that midsection. And I'll share my experiences with others who stumble across this blog so that perhaps we can all find the six-pack that lies beneath...