I remember the first time I got the idea in my head that if I wanted to have “six pack abs”, all I needed to do was to do sit-ups.
I was in Junior High. 8th grade. It was 1984. George Orwell’s book was a big deal that year. I didn’t care about that though. All I cared about was “how can I get abs?”. Having “abs” would be the coolest thing EVER. I came home one day after school and decided to get started. We had done sit-ups in gym class. The kind where you pick a partner to hold your feet down, do your repetitions, and then switch positions, holding your partner’s feet down while he did his sit-ups. Repeat. Except, at home alone after school, I did not have the convenience of a partner. I did the next best thing. I wedged my feet under the living room couch and did sit-ups. I started with one set of 20 repetitions. GEEZ. This was harder than I remembered for some reason. I clasped my hands behind my head and touched my elbows to my knees for another set of 20. This time it took longer to get to 20 reps, struggling a little on the last rep. I decided 100 reps was a reasonable goal for that first day. By my 4th set of 20, I was truly SUFFERING. It was hot in the living room and I was still wearing my “school clothes” – corduroys and a dress shirt. I was sweating, and panting… periodically resting on the floor between reps, determined to do 20 reps each set.
I completed the 5th and final set of 20. It was pretty ugly. “I should have changed out of my school clothes before I began this”, I thought to myself. I was a sweaty mess. My corduroys were SOAKED. Finally finished, I went to look at myself in the mirror. I lifted up my shirt to look at my waistline. I was horrified. I had a MUFFIN TOP. I thought if I just did some sit-ups that this embarrassing physical condition would just go away. I guess I didn’t do enough of them. Tomorrow I will do twice as many, I thought confidently.
The next morning I woke up and I thought maybe someone had tried stealing one of my internal organs while I was sleeping – my entire mid section hurt. BAD.
I seriously considered, “maybe I somehow injured myself in my sleep?”. “Did I fall out of bed last night?”. Then I remembered the sit-ups. “Oh cool, it’s muscular soreness from the sit-ups”. “That’s good, I guess”.
I took a shower, had my normal breakfast consisting of Pop-Tarts and skim milk, and went out to wait for the school bus. “I am going to do twice as many sit-ups after school today”, I repeated in my head, all day at school. And I did. And I continued to do sit-ups every day after school, taking the weekends off. I started getting better and better at sit-ups. I remember the first time I did 10 sets of 100 sit-ups. That was 1000 sit-ups total! It took me about 30 minutes. “That was pretty good”, I thought to myself. But, I looked in the mirror after I was done… “No, no, NO!”, I shouted angrily. I STILL had a muffin top!
I redoubled my efforts. I had a new theory that it wasn’t enough to just do as many reps as I could, but I should be able to do them quickly too. About a month later, I could do 76 sit-ups in 60 seconds. I was pretty proud of that. A couple weeks after that, I was able to complete 75 sets of 50 reps. That took almost 2 hours. It was another milestone for me. 3750 reps. I could FEEL my abs. They were as hard as rocks. But they were rocks BURIED underneath 2 inches thick of blubber.
I still had the same problem. It didn’t matter how many sit-ups I did or how good I got at them. I still had a muffin top.
In fact, I noticed when I put on my belt getting ready for school that my waist had actually become thicker. I was still angry, but I finally UNDERSTOOD. You can develop any muscle in the body, but you CANNOT burn fat off your waist by just doing sit-ups.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION.
Thank you for reading.
Paul Newt has a passion for learning in all its forms, and finds great enjoyment in conceptualizing, creating, and improving systems that lead to success. Paul spends his time training, coaching clients, being a great husband and father, consuming non-fiction books, tinkering with new technology, researching investments, and building on old, refining current, and discovering new successful methods to improve human health, performance, and appearance. Paul’s lifelong goal is to become the best version of himself, and add value to the world by assisting others in doing the same.