The Latest on PJ Media

[quad]

Rip, could you write an article on how to get laid without abs?

Thanks

[kcc]

Be sure to follow the comments on PJ and my FB page. They will be amusing.

Facebook, at least, is supportive so far. And come on, Rip, you don't have a belly, you just have huge abs from all the pressing, squatting, and deadlifting you've done. They're so huge it appears like you have a belly.

That's what I tried to tell my wife, at least. She wasn't buying it, but now I have a good article to share with her about why not being super skinny is awesome.

[dbp]

People often complain about BMI inaccuracy because of large muscled people falsely showing up as overweight.

I wonder how often the reverse happens. Normal weight, yet under-muscled and over fat (ie: skinnyfat) folks creating flaws in the "healthy" BMI side. Plenty of guys I see who aren't that heavy but still have high bodyfat percentages.

[Gerhard]

Fuck abs, seriously fuck them. Like you state in your article Rip, the presence of visible abs is far more closely associated with starvation and poverty in non-Western cultures. Just why the hell have we adopted such a look as fashionable and attractive?

[Matt275]

That is the most even keeled and softest article written by you that I have read. I think it's the right move to reach that audience. I'm not so sure they are reachable tho. The comments on youtube, for the video series, are so far out in left field it's comical.

[Rich Rowe]

I note with some glee that my BMI is 24 - putting me at the lowest point of the mortality graph. My BMI is much improved from having followed SS, so yay for squats.

However, at 5'7" and 153 lbs I'm still a lightweight even though I'm approaching the top end of the 'normal' BMI range. Soon I will be 'overweight' according to BMI as applied to the general population.

Rip - do you see any value in shifting the classifications to the right somewhat for those with more leaner, muscled body composition? A scale where I'd emerge as overweight only if I weighed, say, more than 185lbs at my height, for example. I like the idea (of course I do - it was my idea) but see problems in folks agreeing where the thresholds between underweight, normal, overweight etc should go and also the criteria for applying the shifted scale to an individual, based on some strength or leanness qualifier.

If such a scale was agreed and applied consistently to stronger folks, I'd be interested to see whether the 'hockey stick of mortality' moved to the right as well, which is really the point of my question.

Thanks again for all your clearly expressed articles and I hope you don't find this to be a stupid question.

[ud2o]

Be sure to follow the comments on PJ and my FB page. They will be amusing.

...said the fat guy.

Nice work Mark.

[dpinsen]

Perhaps your most important article yet.

[Mugaaz]

I agree with all the individual points in the article, but there are lot of people in both somewhat obese and weak who are really in a tough place with determining what their priorities should be. The culture also really make the endurance/abs side look way more favorable than strength/usefulness side. Some guy who is 240 with a 200lb squat is going to have a hell of a time determining what the most effective thing he could be doing, and harder yet to determine how then to most effectively accomplish it. As amusing as the comments are it is not difficult to understand why people could be this confused.

[sbhikes]

Actually the first page of comments is pretty positive. I didn't read any other pages.

Knowing that my weight is probably perfect for the best longevity outcome doesn't exactly make me feel super wonderful about how I look. But as you say, "the psychological and physiological costs necessary for dropping below what for them would be normal healthy levels" is pretty much what I'm up against.