Why Do Women Strive for Abdominal Perfection?

“Why is the abdominal region the most popular and sought after in terms of perfection for women?” asks a journalist in her email to me. A quick look at some of the most recent magazine covers verifies that ‘Ab workouts’ feature prominently. For example, Shape magazine helps readers to ‘Up Your Ab Game,’ Fitness provides a four step guide to ‘Sculpt Sexy Abs’ for the ‘Ultimate Mid-Section,’ and Women’s Health offers a fast ‘sane plan’ for ‘Tight Butt, Toned Arms and Flat Abs.’ Why is it, indeed, that abdominal workouts are of so much interest?

Women can, of course, exercise their abdominals for various reasons, but one way to think of ab exercises’ popularity is to consider the biology of the body (the abdominals), the psychology of exercise choices, and our cultural context for bodily ideals as co-contributors in the quest for abdominal perfection. Let’s first look at the biological body.

From an anatomical point of view, we have three layers of abdominal muscles. Only the superficial layer, rectus abdominis, is visible and is often referred to as ‘the six-pack.’ Like all muscles, rectus abdominis moves bones to enable our bodies to move in space. The upper end of this muscle is attached to the ribcage and the lower level to the pelvic bone. When rectus abdominis contracts it tilts both the ribcage and the pelvic bone forward. Different forms of 'sit-ups' or ‘crunches’ are typical exercises that strengthen the rectus abdominis. To exercise this muscle most effectively, both the upper body (as in a sit-up) and the pelvis (and legs) need to be lifted off the floor: this action engages both ends of the rectus abdominis muscle.

The other two abdominal layers serve different functions and also act as 'stabilizers' - they are the ones that, in addition to the rectus abdominis, should be included in any 'core' training program (like Pilates). However, they are not as visible as the rectus abdominis. The external obliques are located on the side and front of the abdomen and underneath these are the internal obliques. They are attached to the side of the ribcage and on the side of the pelvic bone. These muscles tilt the upper body sideways (laterally) and also help rotate the upper body when it tilts forwards. Sit-ups where you cross your body sideways or towards the opposite knee typically strengthen the obliques.

The deepest level of the abdominals is the transversus abdominis. It is almost like a ‘corset’ that embraces the body’s mid-section from the back (the aponeurosis – a type of fascia) to the front (the rectus abdominis sheath) and from the lower ribs to the pelvic bone. The transversus is often considered a muscle that stabilizes the body instead of moving certain bones to create visible movement. Most of the time, engaging the transversus means having to use the other layers of abdominals too. For example, a Pilates exercise called ‘the 100’ that includes ‘anchoring’ the pelvis on the ground (pressing the pelvis bones and lower spine on the mat), lifting the knees and feet as well as the upper body off the ground should engage all three layers of abdominals. As the transversus (and all the abdominals) is attached to the ribcage, moving it by breathing will further help work it.

It is clear that all our abdominals have a specific anatomical function, but the magazine workouts seldom point to these functions (tilting, stabilizing) on their covers. Let’s take a look at some online ab workouts to see what it takes to get the promised ‘ultimate midsection.’

Shape magazine that specializes in women’s fitness offers plenty of abdominal exercise choices. These workouts have moved beyond simple crunches to favor complex multi joint exercises such as various types of planks, burpees, variations of Pilates inspired teasers, or standing up abdominal exercises. Many of these exercises demand a significant amount of strength, mobility, and skill. Many emphasize using the core and the different abdominal muscles. All promise a flat and sexy stomach, many promise it fast, some promise specifically ‘to melt belly fat.’

This is where the cultural knowledge intertwines with the biological body to direct our exercise choices. Although improved strength and a better functioning body can result from these abdominal workouts, the magazines primarily promise visible changes towards the ultimate ‘sexy’ looking body: toning, flattening, or melting any extra fat around the abdominal area. While the visible upper layer, the rectus abdominis, is needed for the sexy, ‘six-pack’ look, the other two layers, hidden underneath the rectus, are often involved in quite complex ‘core exercises’ needed to deliver visible body transformation – the best ‘compression’ for the flat looking stomach.

Exercising for a better-looking body is not exactly news. Since the late 1980s, feminist researchers have argued that the ideal feminine body sells women's magazines. In their seminal work from more than two decades ago, Sandra Barky (1988) and Susan Bordo (1992) exposed the (very) thin, toned (not muscular), and youthful feminine ideal body as narrowly defined. Most women, they continued, have not been born with such bodies, but continually work toward this impossible ideal. Paradoxically, the areas where we naturally store fat (under arms, abdominals, pelvis, thighs) are the areas targeted to be lean. For women, the abdominals are among the most difficult muscles to sculpt to the correct lean and toned shape. Bordo (1992) even argued that women grow up despising their feminine form, because the ideal feminine shape in this society resembles that of a young boy: wide shoulders, tight muscles, narrow hips.

My early research (Markula, 1995) also showed that women exercised mainly for the thin and toned body. While not wanting to look muscular, they longed for the ideal shape of the magazine models who they, rather paradoxically, also found unrealistic and even unhealthy. They listed the abdominals among ‘the problem’ spots where extra fat gathers. Similar to the current online workouts, they presumed that ab exercises would reduce any fat stored around their abdominal area. Here again, the cultural quest for the sexy looking body interferes with the biological body: physiologically, such ‘spot reduction’ is not possible because fat is metabolized in a general manner, not in a particular spot, when exercising (see also my earlier 'Spot Reduction' August, 2014). This means that an exerciser needs to also lose fat by dieting to uncover the muscle tone.

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More recent research finds that the same body ideal with the same problems spots brings women to exercise classes. While the participants, first and foremost, want to lose weight; the ‘stomach’ continues to be the number one problem area that needs to be reduced to the correct flatness by exercising (Chikinda, 2014).

With all of this in mind, I suggest to the journalist that because obtaining the ideal body, displayed in the magazines, is so impossible, we always seem to be in need of more abdominal exercises and diet advice from the magazines. She is not convinced.

It is a common misnomer, she argues, that the magazines shape the body ideal. They merely mirror their readers’ ideals, she continued. The magazine editors and staff do not believe that women should be thin or have great abs, it is the women who seem to want six-packs. In addition, she went to say, market research shows that it is the readers who want ab exercises on the covers and the magazines merely want to serve their readers.

This is where the psychological factors directing exercise choices enter the quest for abdominal perfection. It is clear that we have plenty of exercise choices, but why choose to work the abs? When women have plenty of different abdominal exercises for different purposes to choose from, why do they choose the ones that promise a flat and sexy looking stomach fast instead of those designed to improve our sideways tilt?

At the most basic level, psychologists call our willingness to act toward some goal, motivation. Motivation is further characterized by choice, effort, and persistence. To be motivated to exercise our abdominals, we obviously need to choose to it for it to become a particular goal (i.e., for a sexy looking mid-section), then put effort into performing those exercises, and finally we must continue or persist in doing those exercises over a significant amount of time like weeks and months.

Many exercise psychologists add that our exercise choices are related to individual’s self-efficacy: the confidence we have in our ability to successfully perform particular exercises. If we believe that we can successfully complete a series of abdominal exercises, we are motivated to choose and persist with these exercises. This also means that we are unlikely to continue with an ab workout that is too demanding, difficult, or that we cannot complete. While self-efficacy can improve our motivation to exercise, it does not alone explain why we choose to workout particular body parts more than others.

Several psychological theories (e.g., the theory of reasoned action, the theory of planned behavior) account for the influence of significant others on our intensions. For example, if all of the women around us exercise their abs, we also start thinking it is important. Based on these theories, the expectation of exercising one’s abs, however, derives from social norms defining acceptable femininity. Social cognitive theorists add that their immediate social and physical environment mediates individuals’ behavioral choices. For example, a woman’s individual choice to exercise her abs can also be directed by her environment where there is strong social support for such a choice. Seeing relatable peers model the desired behavior, like in an exercise class, is particularly effective in this regard. Based on this theory, readers of women’s exercise and health magazines should be able to relate to the magazines’ models and their tight abs to be motivated to read (and do) whatever exercise advice the magazines are selling.

More recent psychological theories, such as the socio-ecological model, recognize that external factors influence behavior as much as individual choice. For example, social influences like the ideal fit body shapes individual women’s beliefs of what type of exercise counts. Therefore, the social, environmental, and individual factors all shape behavior and effect our motivation in a number of dynamic and complex ways. This means that while individual women read articles on how to get the perfect abs, their ideas of such perfection come from their social environment, including, of course, images of so-called fit women portrayed in the media. Therefore, recent explanations of exercise behavior from psychologists have begun to account for the importance of global, cultural, and social environment factors in addition to individual’s preferences (Linke, Robinson & Pekmezi, 2013).

It seems like the reasons why women might seek abdominal perfection are, indeed, multi-layered (pardon the pun). The biological, psychological, and cultural ideas of the body become intertwined to support this quest. But is this a necessary quest for women to pursue? Do we really need tightly toned abdominals as sported by the fitness magazine models? Most of us do not need a six-pack or strong rectus abdominis to repeatedly tilt our ribcage and pelvic bone forward whereas we do need the support of the transversus to sit-up straight. So would we strive for flat and tight abs without the magazines’ images to ‘motivate’ us? What do you think, readers, how strongly does the image of the ideal body shape your desire for abdominal perfection? If we had more diverse women’s bodies represented on these magazines would we define abdominal perfection differently?

Works Cited:

Bartky, S. L. (1988). Foucault, femininity, and the modernization of patriarchy. In I. Diamond & L. Quinby (Eds.), Feminism and Foucault: Reflection on resistance (pp. 61-86). Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.

Bordo, S. (1992). Unbearable weight: Feminism, Western culture, and the body. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.

Chikinda, J. (2014). The body, health and exercise: A Foucauldian-feminist analysis of fitness instructor knowledges. Unpublished masters capping project. University of Alberta, Canada.

Linke, S. E., Robinson, C. J., & Pekmezi, D. (2013). Applying psychological theories to promote healthy lifestyles. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 1-11.

Markula, P. (1995). Firm but shapely, fit but sexy, strong but thin: The postmodern aerobicizing female bodies. Sociology of Sport Journal, 12, 424-453.