Strip Away Fat, Strip Away Trouble
In gyms, playing fields, beaches, and bedrooms across the country, our bodies are constantly being measured. And in dressing room mirrors and on bathroom scales, we’re constantly measuring ourselves. But let’s set aside those vanity measurements and concentrate on measuring ourselves by a different set of criteria – the number of fat cells we’re carrying.
The average American has about30 billion fat cells; each of them is filled with greasy substances called lipids. When you pump doughnuts, corn chips, and fried Snickers bars into your system, those fat cells can expand – up to 1,000 times their original size. But a fat cell can get only so big; once it reaches its physical limit, it starts to behave like a long-running sitcom. It creates spin-offs, leaving you with two or more fat cells for the price of one. Only problem: Fat cells have a no-return policy. Once you have a fat cell, you’re stuck with it. So as you grow fatter and double the number of fat cells in your body, you also double the difficulty you’ll have losing the lipids inside them.
Many of us tend to store fat in our bellies, and that’s where the health dangers of excess weight begin. Abdominal fat doesn’t just sit there and do nothing; it’s active. It functions like a separate organ, releasing substances that can be harmful to your body. For instance, it releases free fatty acids that impair your ability to break down the hormone insulin (too much insulin in your system can lead to diabetes). Fat also secretes substances that increase your risk of heart attacks and strokes, as well as the stress hormone cortisol (high levels of cortisol are also associated with diabetes and obesity as well as with high blood pressure). Abdominal fat bears the blame for many health problems because it resides within striking distance of your heart, liver, and other organs – pressing on them, feeding them poisons, and messing with their daily function.
Now take the person with a six-pack. He’s the icon of strength and good health. He’s lean; he’s strong; he looks good in clothes; he looks good without clothes. Defined abs, in many ways have defined fitness. But they define something else: They’re the hallmark of a person who’s in control of his body and, as such, in control of his health.
While some people may think that working toward abs of armor is shallower than a kiddy pool, there’s nothing wrong with striving for a six-pack. Of course, defined abs make you look good – and make others feel good about the way you look, too. (Take heed, men: In one survey, 32 percent of women said that abs are the muscles most likely to make them melt; the next closest was biceps at 17 percent.) And for good reason: When you have abs, you’re telling the world that you’re a disciplined, motivated, confident, and healthy person – and hence a desirable partner.And sometimes a little vanity can be good for your health. In a recent Canadian study of more than 8,000 people, researchers found that over 13 years, those with the weakest abdominal muscles had a death rate more than twice as high of those with the strongest midsections. Such research upholds the notion that strong abs do more than turn heads at the beach. In fact, your abdominal muscles control more of your body than you may even realize – and have just as much substance as show. In short, here are my top five reasons why striving for a six-pack is going to make your life better.
Abs Will Help You Live Longer
Study after study shows that the people with the largest waist sizes have the most risk of life-threatening disease. The evidence couldn’t be more convincing. According to the National Institutes of Health, a waistline larger than 40 inches for men signals significant risk of heart disease and diabetes. The Canadian Heart Health Surveys, published in 2001, looked at 9,913 people ages 18 to 74 and concluded that for maximum health, a guy needs to keep his waist size at no more than 35 inches (a little less for younger guys, a little more for older ones). When your waist grows larger than 35 inches, you’re at higher risk of developing two or more risk factors for heart disease. And when researchers examined data from the Physicians’ Health Study that has tracked 22,701 male physicians since 1982, they found that men whose waists measured more than 36.8 inches had a significantly elevated risk for myocardial infarction, or heart attack, in which an area of the heart muscle dies or is permanently damaged by a lack of blood flow. Men with the biggest bellies were at 60 percent higher risk. Now the real scary part: The average American man’s waist size is a ponderous 38.8 inches, up from 37.5 in 1988, according to the journal Obesity Research. The same sad truth holds for women, too: A woman with a flabby midsection is at increased risk for the same health problems. And American women have seen their weight rise just as men have.
The average American woman wears a size 12.
Folks, being “average” is not a pretty sight.
In fact, being “average” is EXACTLY the same as being obese.
Of course, abs don’t guarantee you a get-out-of-the-hospital-free card, but studies show that by developing a strong abdominal section, you’ll reduce body-fat and significantly cut the risk factors associated with many diseases, not just heart disease. For example, the incidence of cancer among obese patients is 33 percent higher than among lean ones, according to a Swedish study. The World Health Organization estimates that up to one-third of cancers of the colon, kidney, and digestive tract are caused by being overweight and inactive. And having an excess of fat around your gut is especially dangerous. See, cancer is caused by mutations that occur in cells as they divide. Fat tissue in your abdomen spurs your body to produce hormones that prompt your cells to divide. More cell division means more opportunities for cell mutations, which means more cancer risk.
A lean waistline also heads off another of our most pressing health problems – diabetes. Currently, 13 million Americans have been diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes, and many more go undiagnosed. Fat, especially belly fat, bears the blame. There’s a misconception that diabetes comes only from eating too much refined sugar, like the kind in chocolate and ice cream. But people contract diabetes after years of eating high-carbohydrate foods that are easily converted into sugar – foods like white bread, pasta, and mashed potatoes. Scarfing down a basket of bread and a bowl of pasta can do the same thing to your body that a carton of ice cream does: flood it with sugar calories. The calories you can’t burn are what converts into fat cells that pad your gut and leaves you with a disease that, if untreated, can lead to impotence, blindness, heart attacks, strokes, amputation, and death.
And that, my friend, can really ruin your day.
Upper-body obesity is also the most significant risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which the soft tissue in the back of your throat collapses during sleep, blocking your airway. When that happens, your brain signals you to wake up and to start breathing again. As you nod off once more, the same thing happens, and it can continue hundreds of times during the night – making you chronically groggy and unable to get the rest your body needs. (You won’t remember waking up over and over again; you’ll just wonder why 8 hours of sleep left you dragging.) Fat’s role is that it can impede muscles that inflate and ventilate the lungs, forcing you to work harder to get enough air.
When Australian researchers studied 313 patients with severe obesity, they found that 62 percent of them with a waist circumference of 49 inches or more had a serious sleep disturbance and that 28 percent of obese patients with smaller waists (35 to 49 inches) had sleep problems. Being overweight also puts you at risk for a lot of other conditions that rob you of a good night’s rest, including asthma and gastro-esophageal reflux. When Dutch researchers studied nearly 6,000 men, they found that even those whose waistlines measured a relatively modest 37 to 40 inches had a significantly increased risk of respiratory problems, such as wheezing, chronic coughing, and shortness of breath. All of this can create an ugly cycle: Abdominal fat leads to poor sleep. Poor sleep means you drag through your day. Sluggish and tired, your body craves some quick energy, so you snack on some high-calorie junk food. That extra junk food leads to more abdominal fat, which leads to . . . well, you get the picture.
I could fill this whole book with evidence, but I’m going to boil it down to one sentence: A smaller waist equals fewer health risks.
Keep You Safe from Harm
In school, you were taught the story of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow and how, with one awkward misstep, the lumbering bovine knocked over an oil lamp that started the Great Chicago Fire and burned much of that toddlin’ town to the ground. That tragedy happened at a time when most urban housing was still built with wood. Today, such a disaster is unthinkable-and not just because we don’t let cows into the living room anymore. It’s unthinkable because the infrastructure of today’s cities is built with steel – steel that stands up to fire, to earthquakes, to hurricanes.
Think of your midsection as your body’s infrastructure. You don’t want a core made of dry, brittle wood or straw. You want one made of solid steel, one that will give you a layer of protection that belly fat never could.
Consider a U.S. Army study that linked powerful abdominal muscles to injury prevention. After giving 120 artillery soldiers the standard army fitness test of sit-ups, pushups, and a 2-mile run, researchers tracked their lower-body injuries (such as lower-back pain and Achilles tendonitis) during a year of field training. The 29 men who cranked out the most sit-ups (73 in 2 minutes) were five times less likely to suffer lower-body injuries than the 31 who barely notched 50. But that’s not the most striking element. The men who performed well in the push-ups and 2-mile run enjoyed no such protection – suggesting that upper-body strength and cardiovascular endurance had little effect on keeping bodies sound. It was abdominal strength that offered the protection. Unlike any other muscles in your body, a strong core affects the functioning of the entire body. Whether you ski, sail, wrestle with the kids, or fool around with a partner, your abs are the most essential muscles for keeping you from injury. The stronger they are, the stronger – and safer – you are.
Abs Will Strengthen Your Back
I had a friend who threw out his back maybe two or three times a year. He always did it in the simplest way – sleeping a little awkwardly or getting out of a chair too quickly. One time, he pulled it out reaching into the back seat of his car to get something his young daughter had dropped. The pain once stabbed him so badly that he collapsed to the ground while he was standing at a urinal. (Go ahead. Imagine that.) His problem wasn’t that he had a bad back; it was that he had weak abs. If he had trained them regularly, he could’ve kept himself from being one of the millions of men who suffer from back pain every year. (And yes, he started an Abs-specific workout a year ago, and within weeks his back pain virtually disappeared.)
Since most back pain is related to weak muscles in your trunk, maintaining a strong midsection can help resolve many back issues. The muscles that crisscross your midsection don’t function in isolation; they weave through your torso like a spider web, even attaching to your spine. When your abdominal muscles are weak, the muscles in your butt (your glutes) and along the backs of your legs (your hamstrings) have to compensate for the work your abs should be doing. The effect, besides promoting bad company morale for the muscles picking up the slack, is that it destabilizes the spine and eventually leads to back pain and strain – or even more serious back problems.
Abs Will Limit Your Aches and Pains
As you age, it’s common to experience some joint pain-most likely in your knees, but maybe around your feet and ankles, too. But the source of that pain might not be weak joints; it might be weak abs – especially if you’re any kind of athlete, from the serious golfer to the I-pull-my-groin-every-time Thanksgiving Day football player. When you’re playing sports, your abdominal muscles help stabilize your body during start-and-stop movements, like changing direction on the football field or tennis court. If you have weak abdominal muscles, your joints absorb all the force from those movements.
It’s kind of like trampoline physics. Jump in the center, and the mat will absorb your weight and bounce you back in the air. Jump toward the side of the trampoline, where the mat meets the frame, and you’ll bust the springs. Your body is sort of like a trampoline, with your abs as the center of the mat and your joints as the supports that hold the mat to the frame. If your abs are strong enough to absorb some shock, you’ll function well. If they’re not, the force puts far more pressure on your joints than they were built to withstand.
Similar protection benefits extend to people who aren’t athletes, too. That Dutch study of nearly 6,000 men found that those with waist circumferences above 40 inches were more likely to have a condition called Sever’s disease, which causes heel pain, and to develop carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful hand and wrist condition. One study even found that 70 percent of people with carpal tunnel syndrome were either overweight or obese.
Abs Will Help You Win
If you play golf, basketball, naked Twister, or any sport that requires movement, your essential muscle group isn’t your chest, biceps, or legs. It’s your core – the muscles in your torso and hips. Developing core strength gives you power. It fortifies the muscles around your whole midsection and trains them to provide the right amount of support when you need it. So if you’re weak off the tee, strong abs will improve your distance. But if you also play stop-and-start sports like tennis or basketball, abs can improve your game tremendously.
Though speed is the buzzword TV analysts like to use to differentiate between Hall-of-Famers and practice-squad players, athletic success isn’t really about speed.
It’s really about accelerating and decelerating.
How fast can you go from a stopped position at point A to stopping at point B?
Your legs don’t control that; your abs do.
When researchers studied what muscles were the first to engage in these types of sports movements, they found that the abs fired first.
The stronger they are, the faster you’ll get to the ball.
Rick Streb
