Tempted?
If your stomach is the bit you most want to change, I wouldn’t blame you.
That’s exactly why these things sell.
You want a smaller waist.
Someone offers you an entire hour specifically training your waist.
Makes perfect sense.
There’s just one fairly big problem with it.
Training your abs and revealing your abs are two completely different jobs.
I was reminded of this recently when I started getting targeted online with adverts for a 10-week block of one-hour ab sessions.
An hour.
Just on abs.
Every week.
The promise was pretty much what you’d expect.
Stronger core.
Tighter stomach.
Better abs.
And I remember thinking…
Are we still doing this?
I thought the one-hour ab workout had disappeared along with vibrating ab belts and people wrapping themselves in cling film to lose weight.
Apparently not.
What do you actually want?
There’s nothing wrong with wanting stronger abs.
We train them at Transformation HQ.
Some of our full-body workouts have ab exercises programmed into them.
If we’re giving members extra work to do in our free-use area, we might give them something like upper body and abs, or legs and abs.
But we don’t give someone an hour of abs.
Because when most people tell me:
“I want to tone my stomach and strengthen my core…”
I know what they normally mean.
They want to fasten their jeans without breathing in.
They want to stop pulling their T-shirt away from their stomach when someone takes a photo.
They want to look in the mirror and see a smaller waist.
They want some abs popping through.
That’s the actual goal.
And doing more and more ab exercises isn’t the answer.
Your abs burning isn’t your belly fat burning
This is where people get caught out.
Do enough crunches, leg raises and Russian twists and your stomach will be on fire.
You’ll sweat.
You’ll ache the next morning.
It feels like you’ve attacked the exact bit you want to change.
That’s why it’s such an easy thing to sell.
But the bit most people want rid of isn’t their abdominal muscle.
It’s the body fat sitting over it.
Your abs are muscles.
Train them and they’ll get stronger.
Give them enough training and they can grow too.
So hammering the muscles around your waist for hours every week is a pretty strange strategy if the result you’re chasing is a smaller-looking waist.
And it gets worse.
You do the ab programme.
Your plank gets better.
Your crunches get better.
Your abs don’t ache as much anymore.
But you pull the same jeans on…
Same waist.
So what do you assume?
I need to do more.
Another ab class.
Another core challenge.
Another 30-day programme.
You’re working harder at the wrong part of the problem.
So what actually changes your waist?
You need to look at the whole week rather than the 60 minutes where your stomach is burning.
If you want to lose body fat, you need your body using more energy than you’re putting back in through food over time.
That’s the boring answer.
But it works.
It’s why, if we’ve got you for three 45-minute sessions each week, we’d rather train your whole body properly.
Squat.
Press.
Pull.
Train your legs.
Train your back.
Get stronger.
And yes, we’ll train your abs as part of those workouts too.
But they might make up 10–20% of the session.
They don’t need the whole bloody thing.
Because you’ve got a limited amount of time to train each week.
We want as much back from that time as possible.
I barely train mine.
When I got myself ready for one of our recent Transformation HQ shoots, I wanted exactly what most people want.
Lean.
Tight waist.
Visible abs.
Do you know how much dedicated ab training I was doing?
Three sets of hanging leg raises once a week.
About 10 reps.
Then three or four sets of ab rollouts somewhere else in the week.
That’s pretty much it.
No hour-long ab workout.
No daily core challenge.
No 500-crunch finisher.
Yet the abs appeared.
And I’m hardly a freak example.
We’ve had thousands of people go through our 12-Week Shoots over the years.
You see the photos.
Tighter waists.
Visible abs.
Body shapes completely changing.
They’re not spending an hour every week solely training their stomach.
They’re normally doing three or four proper workouts across the week, with some ab work included.
Then they’re getting the other stuff right.
Food.
Daily movement.
Training.
Consistency.
Week after week.
That’s where the change comes from.
And here’s the slightly annoying bit…
Look at the person advertising the miracle ab programme.
Six-pack out.
Lean.
Great shape.
Fair play to them.
But I’d put good money on them not getting that body from one ab workout a week.
They’re training their whole body.
They’re probably lifting weights several times a week.
They’re watching what they eat.
They’re eating plenty of protein.
They’re keeping active.
And if they’re trying to get particularly lean, they’re probably adding more movement or cardio too.
That’s what got them lean enough for you to see their abs.
Then they’re selling you the ab workout.
That’s the bit of the fitness industry that winds me up.
The person buying it isn’t stupid.
They’re being sold something that sounds completely logical.
“You don’t like your stomach? Train your stomach.”
Except that’s not really the problem we’re trying to solve.
It’s why our Shoot isn’t an ab programme
Our 12-Week Shoot isn’t 12 weeks of hammering the body part you don’t like.
We look at everything that actually moves the needle.
Your training.
Your food.
Your daily movement.
Your habits.
Your accountability.
And we keep working on them week after week.
That’s why the results can look dramatic without the training itself needing to be ridiculous.
But we don’t throw everyone straight into a Shoot either.
Sometimes you’ve got to learn the basics first.
That’s what our 6-Week Meltdown is for.
Three proper weight-training sessions a week.
A meal planner to give your food some structure.
Weekly accountability from your Head Coach.
Support when you get stuck.
Six weeks to learn how all these pieces actually fit together.
Then you’ve got the foundations to go after something bigger.
Because getting in great shape isn’t really about finding a harder ab exercise.
It’s about finally putting your effort into the things that matter.
So about that FREE one-hour ab session…
Sorry.
There isn’t one.
I just needed to get your attention.
I’ll happily give you some proper ab exercises.
Then we’ll spend the rest of your training time doing something that’ll actually help you get the result you wanted in the first place.
-Ryan
P.S
You don’t need to start with a 12-Week Shoot.
If you need to get the basics sorted first, that’s exactly what our 6-Week Meltdown is built for.
Three proper weight-training sessions each week. A simple meal plan. Weekly accountability. And a coach making sure you’re actually doing the stuff that gets results.
Six weeks is still plenty of time to make a noticeable difference to your waist, your clothes and what you see on the scales this year.
Have a look at how the 6-Week Meltdown works below.