Why sometimes the cubes on your abdomen don't look attractive enough
Cubes on the stomach of the fitness director of the American Men's Health B. J. Gaddur appeared on the cover of books, DVDs, on the pages of magazines, in fitness videos in the media.
While most men and women are inspired to look at his torso, a handful of people have the opposite opinion. "I usually meet a few people who say ,' Your abs look weird. It's curved, " Gaddur says.
Crooked or not, most people would love to swap abs with Gaddur at any moment . But comments like this really made us wonder why belly cubes can be so different from one person to the next. So we put the question to Dean Somerset, C. S. C. S., a physiologist in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Like the dimples in your chin, hair color, and finger length, your abs are usually determined by your genes, Somerset says. If your mom, dad, or grandparent is healthy enough to work out their abs — which usually means that their body fat is 12 percent or less — you'll probably notice similarities between their abs and yours.
"Perhaps your abdominal muscles are well defined and bulge out like cobblestones. Or perhaps they are not expressed, resembling a smooth, brick wall. The difference comes down to the size of your abdominal muscles and the length of your tendons, " Somerset explains.
Let's start with the abdominal muscles. "Some people have regular-sized hair, others have thickened hair," Somerset says. — In the latter case, the cubes will look more prominent."
Some guys look like they're doing nothing but lifting weights, but they're not really even close to the bar. Their cubes are clearly distinguishable due to the higher percentage of muscle in the body. "If your abdominal muscles are smaller and thinner, then the surface of the cubes will be smoother," Somerset summarizes.
A big role in the appearance of your abs is also played by the tendons that attach the muscles to each other or to the bones. If they are long, then the distance between the cubes will be greater, if they are short, then, accordingly, less.
To understand this, think about your calf muscles. They look like cannonballs and are quite high up? Then you have long tendons connecting your ankles and muscles. If they are located slightly lower, then the tendons are also short.
Abdominal muscle asymmetry is also caused by genes. "Angled cubes are found in athletes all over the world, so there is no evolutionary reason for this," Somerset said. — It's just passed down from generation to generation, like earlobes, for example."
But still, sometimes, the doctor admits, it is training that can determine what your cubes look like. If you perform a lot of rotational movements, you will end up with diagonal shapes. The muscles will develop more strongly on the sides, as this way the body will adapt to the loads.
Bodybuilders want their cubes to look very voluminous on stage, in 3D format. Therefore, when preparing for competitions, they make short-range movements at high speed. This helps to develop the relief of the abdomen. This is done as follows: at the end of each rep of the swing of the press, they strain the abdominal muscles as much as they can.
Powerlifters don't care about the appearance of their abs at all. They only care about the style of performance. So they use a special breathing technique that results in more dense cubes placed close together — which is why many of the powerlifters look like they've swallowed a keg.
"These athletes need very strong abdominal muscles that can withstand high loads," Somerset explains. "Otherwise, they will suffer from a hernia or muscle diastasis, that is, a tear in the tissue connecting the two halves of the press."
As for BJ Gaddur, his height is 180 cm, weight is 102 kg, and body fat content is about 6%. He is all muscle and does not suffer from insomnia due to his "strange" cubes