Baywatch, Hollywood, Kardashian, and now the influencers. The one thing that all of these have in common is their fit lifestyle and glamorous physiques. What’s the one standard that defines their fitness? The abs- one of the most coveted muscle groups that most people spend an entire lifetime in chasing.
It’s a very common misconception among a huge majority of people that the abs they see on social media and the internet are visible all the time. You don’t just stand there like a dummy if you want to get your photographs clicked. The abs that we’ve seen on the internet and in the movies are all being actively flexed by the actor or model.
It's true that a picture speaks a thousand words and this is why we’re going to take a look at some of the examples of flexed and unflexed abs. It’ll help illustrate the point that flexed abs look very different than unflexed ones.
Aren’t Abs Supposed to Be Visible?
Now you must be wondering what’s going on, after all, you’ve seen lean people just walk around with abs. Sure, you might have, but the person who’s walking around flexing their abs has to constantly maintain tension. You don’t know this because you’re only seeing a calm dude rocking a set of washboard abs.
The myth that abs should be visible 24/7 without doing anything is just so widespread that everyone believes it, except the ones who are lean enough to have abs themselves. Chances are if you have low body fat and feel like your abs aren’t showing, your posture is bad. The most common problem with most people’s posture is the Anterior Pelvic Tilt. There can be a variety of other posture-related issues as well, but this one is the most common.
The What What Tilt?
Anterior Pelvic Tilt happens due to the shortening of your hip flexors and the lengthening of your hip extensors. What this does is push your belly out and put stress on your lower back. Very often, this can be fixed with just a little bit of posture correction and can make a drastic difference.
Flexed vs Unflexed Abs Examples
If your posture is right, body fat percent is at about 12%, and you know how to flex your muscles, then you’ll have visible abs. However, if any of these three things is off, your abs won’t reveal themselves. We can see the difference between pre-flexing and post-flexing in the pictures below. These photographs have been taken consecutively without any gap and the difference is as stark as day and night.
You Might Already Have Abs
A very common problem with people who’ve recently become ripped is that they don’t have enough experience. They don’t know the difference flexing makes so they set wrong expectations for themselves. Flexing is a very common thing to do when getting pictures clicked because it helps the muscles pop out. Just try flexing your abs for once, even if you aren’t very lean, you still might see a couple of abs if you’re a generally fit person!
