Who are you doing this for?

That question must be answered honestly; Who are you working out for?

If you say yourself, yet, want a beach body and no actual strength go to with the look; than looks are all  your really working hard for... The honesty behind getting the 'look' is not so complicated.  Who is doing the looking, and why the desire for an outward appearance?  The simple answer is when it comes to getting a certain look, its for others to look at.  (The example I use relates to people that are average size and average body fat and I am not talking about or referring to someones goals in relation to obesity; clearly different. )

Think about driving a Enzo Ferrari.  That car looks amazing.  It "looks" sleek, sexy, expensive, and powerful.  People who have owned or currently own one put in some hard work for the cost of that "look".

What if that Enzo Ferrari had a 3 cylinder engine pumping out a whopping 75 horse power with a top speed of 45 miles an hour.  Is it still "powerful", and worth the cost of the "look"?  Any realistic and rational thinking human would say NO!  Sadly, this is how some people think about their fitness goals.

Some people want to put so much blood sweat and tears into getting this super awesome powerful muscular body more than actually having the power and strength to back up all the muscle they are trying to show off.  They go to the gym to get a Enzo Ferrari body with a 3 cylinder engin power.

This is because they are not working out for the greater of the their health and strength but for other peoples approval for their hard worked and 'ripped' body.  So they can walk around the beach, look big and swoll, ripped and sexy, for others to look; hence a 'beach body'.

When you bust your butt burning calories and stressing about a difficult diet and see muscle being eat'n away; and yet keep striving to be ripped despite your body cannibalizing your muscle, your goal isn't for you, its your desire for the approval of others. Heres why.

Your ripped abs should be equal to the desire for the protection and increase of overall muscle mass.  You want to keep all the muscle you have, plus more!  (Now people who are morbid obese clearly need to lose as much weight as possible; this has nothing to do with their situation.)  When your outward appearance trumps your actual and genuine muscle and strength; its no longer about your muscle and strength; its about the look of your abs on the outside for others to see.  The priorities in your desires reflect your true intentions.

So do you want a 3 cylinder Ferrari on the beach or do you want a genuine Enzo Ferrari?  What do you want under your hood and what are you working hard for?  One is fake and pseudo-muscular because the little amount of muscle is just really visible giving the illusion of being very muscular and the other is actually muscular because of the actual amount of muscle.  One goal is to get as strong and ripped as a 13 year old boy to "look" like a strong and ripped man, and the other is as strong and ripped as a actually big swoll and strong man.

OR

This also has a lot to do with the Anorexic Ripped is not the same as Swoll Ripped article.