Why Women Can’t Have Shredded Abs
Originally published November 6, 2015.
Recently, I have been going through some fitness forums to read the questions posed and the answers given to these questions.
A very popular question that I have read was from females asking for advice on how to get abs, and following the question, was a lot of myth and speculation from misinformed people. I am here to drop some truths for you that many people are not going to like to hear. You can do all of the crunches and insanity workouts you want ladies but you will never be as lean as men nor do you want to be. This has nothing to do with your work ethic or how athletic you are, it’s science. (There are of course outliers)
The first thing I want to point out is that you do have abs already, we all do. I think most people are aware of this by now. The “six-pack” is a muscle called the rectus abdominis. Along with several other muscles the rectus abdominis makes up the core musculature. I wanted to point this out so you know core training does not make you grow new muscles, your six-pack is already there hidden behind fat… which is not always bad.
Here are some statistics;
College Female Volleyball Players had an average body fat percentage of 23% according to a study done in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. Source
An average body fat percentage of 21% was found in elite level female athletes of endurance sports. Source (Endurance athletes very commonly have the lowest levels of body fat.)
Now in comparison to Men;
The average body fat % of an NFL lineman (these are the biggest guys) is 25%…
Average for an NFL running back, 7%. Source
I didn’t bring these numbers up to imply that men are better than women. I just want to shed light on this factor of having “abs”. Even elite level female athletes are not shredded. As I mentioned earlier, there are certainly outliers, but it is not common. Some of the women you do see showing a six-pack have health issues that would be best avoided. Including amenorrhea (cessation of menstruation), bone density issues and very low levels of energy.
Women have the unique ability to carry children inside of them, crazy I know. That extra fat is critical to health in many ways such as hormonal balance, vitamin transportation and to regulate the issues I mentioned above. It is not healthy for most women to be shredded and have a ripped up stomach. I want to reiterate that I am aware there are women that show their abs very well and are super healthy. I can assure you though it is a small minority and most women are better off holding onto some of that fat.
This post is not meant to discourage women from reaching any aesthetic goals. It is quite the opposite, I don’t want women to be discouraged when they are not meeting those goals, it may be a goal you really do not want.
One final point I want to bring up after introducing you to this information. Just because women have higher fat content, this is not an excuse to eat like shit and not exercise. You should still have a healthy diet and exercise like a madman, madwoman I should say. Just don’t take it to the extreme where you are jeopardizing your long-term health. And if you don’t believe me, go meet with athletic trainers at almost any university and they will tell you their female athletes with low body fat percentages have health issues that need to be addressed and it is a major concern.
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