Do your ab workouts take too much time? Do they really give you the results you want? If you feel like you’re not making progress, hear my story.

My abs aren’t world class by any means, but they

• are visible year round

• don’t require special dieting to be seen

And I have built this by training less than 2 minutes per week, with no crunches, and no planks.

If that interests you, keep reading— I’ll go over my philosophy, pitfalls of the most common approaches to ab training I see, and how I perform and program this exercise for continuous progress.

The Common Approach to Core Training

You go on YouTube, and search ‘ab workout’ and what do you find?

The top results are one very specific type of video. The 10 minute follow-along routine.

Why are these the most popular video? Is it because they’re scientifically proven to be the best way to develop core? Nope.

Is it because they’re how the creators themselves built their core strength? Also, guaranteed nope. I’m certain none of the creators of these videos do these routines with any regularity.

These are the most popular video type because they exploit the YT algorithm. They are follow-alongs, so you watch them multiple times and rewind. This leads to an inflated ‘watch time’ statistic, so YT recommends it to more people. That’s the only reason. They make these because they produce good YT results. Not because they produce strong cores.

Now, no hard feelings if you do enjoy these types of routines. If you like it, and it works for you, keep doing it. I’m not here to question your experience.

But here’s what I observe:

• Most people don’t love it. They feel a sense of obligation to do it for the results they think it gives

• People spend a large amount of time doing these. 10 minutes isn’t quick to work out 1 muscle group, if you’re a beginner.

• They don’t seem to progress year on year. The same scissor kicks, or plank holds they were doing at the beginning are still challenging years later, and the abs lack much size or strength development over time.

The 2 Big Problems with Circuit Training

1. It trains aerobic & anaerobic endurance, not strength.

The work volume is too high and the rest time is too low to give a truly max effort—you have to save energy for 9 more exercises.

There’s an inverse relationship between intensity and the amount of time we can sustain that intensity before failure. Circuit training is by definition long, and thus the intensity is generally lower than the minimum threshold to promote strength and hypertrophy adaptations.

This is like how distance runners train. They become great at distance running, but do they develop general strength and size in their legs?

Nope. They get stiff and have overuse injuries across the board, unless they apply strength and mobility methods in addition to endurance training.

2. It does not emphasize progressive overload.

Progressive Overload is the most important principle for physical training. You must progressively increase the stimulus over time to force the body to adapt. Doing the same routine will give you initial results and long term stagnation. Doing the same routine but adding 1 pound each time will let you progress for a very long time. But the exercises in your typical core routine are not easy to overload in a systematic way. They’re chosen just because they’re easy to do with minimal equipment.

So. How do we construct an ab routine that:

• actually works

• has nothing unnecessary

• is easy to progress over time

• is actually quick and convenient

Let’s first discuss the principles, then practically how to apply them to a training program.

The Uncommon Approach to Core Training

1. Prioritize long-term strength gains.

I believe that most of you want to actually get strong.

Whether you just want a six pack, or whether you want to build a stronger core for your sports, the actual physical attribute that delivers those outcomes is the same—muscular strength.

Strength is built by contracting the muscles through a large range of motion, progressing in difficulty every session, for years. It’s not built by adding extra sets or time on plank holds. Abs are no different than other muscles.

Think of someone who you look up to with strong arms. They didn’t get them by holding a dumbbell at 90 degrees for 2 minutes— they did curls.

People with strong legs didn’t get them from 2 minute wall sits— they did squats.

2. Quality over Quantity.

Don’t spread your energy too thinly. Better to choose 1 exercise and get brutally strong at it, than to choose 10 and make no measurable progress. Less is more.

One exercise is enough for most trainees, and is what I do. Two or three is fine too, but I legitimately can’t think of 3 high quality core exercises that meet all the criteria we want here.

Criteria for high-value exercises:

• scalable for beginners

• progressively overloadable long term

• require minimal equipment

• utilize a large Range of Motion (ROM)

I do is the hanging leg raise, and the only other one I’d recommend is weighted sit ups. But these have given me trouble with inguinal hernias in the past so I avoid them.

Program your Core Training:

Keep it simple. Choose 1 exercise. Get very good at it.

Here’s how to do the hanging knee raise and its variations:

1. Hang from a bar. Allow your hip joint to relax, feeling a light stretch in the abs and hip flexors.

2. Contract all of your ab muscles to bring your knees upwards toward your armpits.

   • Perform the motion slow enough to avoid utilizing momentum, but it doesn’t need to be painfully slow. Lower with control. We’ll add intensity by progressing ROM and then weight, not by adding more ‘time under tension’— which just trains endurance anyways.

3. Lift up as high as you can for 10-15 reps, aiming to reach muscular failure within that rep range.

4. After failing full reps, continue to do partial repetitions until the range of motion is very small.

   • If you feel very fatigued, or a pump in your ab muscles, you’re probably doing it right.

5. Rest a whole week, then do it again. You should find you can add a rep or progress the intensity somehow.

Methods of progression:

You not be able to reach 90 degrees when you first begin. First progress the ROM until your thigh bones are nearly vertical.

Then you have two paths:

1. Add weight

   • I like to hold an adjustable dumbbell between my knees. Whenever I hit more than 15 reps at a given weight, I add 1 kilo the next time.

2. Straighten your legs

   • This is similar to adding weight, but requires no more equipment. It also will work your hip flexor and quad mobility. Note that you can expect extreme cramps in these muscles when you begin straightening your legs, until you can reach toes to bar. Like no joke. It’ll be be heinous at first.

Bonus: Once you’ve progressed over a few months, you can add drop sets:

Start with say 20 pounds, or the straight leg version. Do 10-15 reps until failure.

Then take a few breaths, and do another set of just bodyweight knee raise until failure. This is called a drop set.

Using this exact method, I started with bodyweight knee raises. Twenty sessions later, I’m lifting a 22 kilo dumbbell for 11 reps.

This is the key to actual progress— undeniable strength gains. If you train like this, you’ll have evidence that you’re actually getting stronger over time. Don’t just chase a burn, chase progress.

Nutrition

Finally, the elephant in the room.

If your abs get strong and big, they’re more likely to show through your belly fat. Of course, if you have a large layer of fat, your abs won’t show through.

I don’t ever cut weight. I have a reasonable, sustainable bodyfat percentage that lets me make progress and perform. My abs are always there without having to diet down to reveal them. A deep dive in nutrition is beyond the scope of this letter— but in simple terms here’s my one sentence diet advice:

If it was made by humans, it’s not fit for humans.

Evolution doesn’t happen in reverse.

If humans made it, it didn’t make humans.

That means only animals, plants, fungi, and water.

Follow that one principle with reasonable consistency, I don’t think you’ll have trouble maintaining a weight that you’re happy with.

I still have love handles. I’m not shredded. I don’t count my calories. I eat to satiety whenever I’m hungry. You can have abs without hating your diet.

The key is bodybuilding your abs. Grow them like any other muscle, with intensity and progressive overload. and fall in love with the process,

If you need help on your fitness journey, send me a DM on twitter, I’m doing free consults to get you on the right track with whatever your fitness goals are.

I hope you enjoyed the read.

—John