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I remember standing in the locker room,
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drenched in sweat, shirts sticking to
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me, thinking I was finally lean. I'd
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been dieting for months. But when I
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pulled my shirt up to take a little
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sneak peek, all I saw was a soft blur. I
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really started wondering if like this
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was just how my body looked, thinking
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maybe I just wasn't built to have abs or
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my genetics were really that bad. That
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moment honestly hurt. You push through
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so many hard days thinking the reward is
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coming. And when it doesn't, it kind of
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messes with your head. I drove home from
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the gym that day feeling like I was
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failing even though I was working harder
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than ever. It felt like I was doing
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everything right. Clean meals, cardio,
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and even ab workouts, but I still looked
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soft. It just didn't make sense to me at
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the time. The worst part was I didn't
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even know what to change. Almost like
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I'd hit some invisible wall that no one
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told me even existed. My body really did
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not match how hard I was working. And
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that disconnect will really drain you
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mentally. But eventually, not overnight,
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and definitely not from some viral
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workout or magic supplement, small
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choices started to really add up, and I
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finally started seeing them. Some nice
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little lines going. So, I started to
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realize getting abs was not about some
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secret workout. It's about understanding
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what actually matters and doing it
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relentlessly. Most people think training
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is what gives you abs. So, they add 100
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zillioning crunches at the end of their
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workout and honestly, just hope for the
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best. I did that. And every week I check
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my stomach and still see the same blurry
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mess of fat. So just to clear this up,
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ab exercises do not burn belly fat. They
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build up your abdominal muscles
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underneath all the fat. You can't spot
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reduce or target your belly fat. Your
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body and your predetermined genetics
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decide where your fat comes off. Most of
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the time, either your love handles or
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your lower belly fat is going to be the
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last to go. I know it kind of sucks to
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hear like you literally can't do jack
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[ __ ] about it, but once you understand
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and accept that, it changes the game a
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little bit. Fat loss is dictated by your
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energy balance. In other words, calories
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in versus calories out. That meant
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tracking my food, getting 10,000 plus
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steps a day, eating enough protein, and
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just being real with myself. No more
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this doesn't count tiny bites at
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midnight. It meant saying no to friends
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sometimes when they want to eat 4,000
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calories of crumble cookies. Leaving the
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kitchen at night and drinking a big ass
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glass of water before bed to see if I
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was actually hungry or just bored. Or
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being a little bit more realistic, maybe
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like 17 diet cokes. Honestly, I just
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really like diet soda. But there came a
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point when even when my weight was
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plateauing, I could see the change
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happening. And that's what kept me
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locked in. Progress isn't always just
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the number on the scale going down. As I
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talk about a lot, the scale is kind of a
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[ __ ] liar. Your weight won't just be
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like a straight shot down. You're going
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to have times where you eat a little bit
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of extra sodium the day prior and you're
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holding a little bit more water. Times
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when you have extra food in your stomach
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and you quite literally just need to
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take a [ __ ] Progress isn't always the
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scale. Sometimes it's your face getting
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tighter. Shirts fitting a little bit
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different. a new vein popping out or
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literally like physically feeling
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yourself moving around and being like
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what the [ __ ] Like I feel different.
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This might be a little bit TMI, but I've
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had times when I've been in the shower
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and I'll be washing my lower back or
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stomach or something and like feeling it
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and it's like what the [ __ ] Like this
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did not feel like this 2 or 3 days ago.
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Now the interesting part, I throughout
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my entire career of lifting and doing
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all this diet [ __ ] honestly have
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barely trained my abs directly. Once a
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week, maybe twice a week. And when I am
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hitting them, I'm not doing like a
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gazillion crunches trying to burn my abs
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or something. I'm training them like
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every other muscle in my body. Put it
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like this. If you wanted to maximize the
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muscle growth and hypertrophy in your
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chest, the way to do so wouldn't be by
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doing 2,000 body weightight push-ups on
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the floor in your room, you probably do
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some heavy pressing to failure and
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somewhere around the 6 to 12 rep range.
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So, the same idea applies to your abs
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here. As far as what the [ __ ] to
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actually do, like what exercise to pick,
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your best bet is the weighted crunch
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machine or cable crunches. Both of these
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will add load or weight to your abs. And
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doing this isn't going to make your abs
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magically appear, but when they are
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visible, they're going to look way
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better and pop way more. Now, this
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doesn't mean just go to the gym and
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train only your abs. If you're over 20%
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body fat, doesn't matter how hard you
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train them, doesn't matter how hard they
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burn. If fat's there, your abs are
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hidden. For most people, the goal isn't
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to build your abs, it's to uncover them.
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From my experience, you honestly get
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more out of training literally every
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single other muscle in your body
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consistently because that is going to be
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what improves your body composition the
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most. Think about it. If you show up to
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the gym and only train your abs, you're
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not building like the maximum amount of
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muscle mass that you could be building
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and optimally changing that ratio of
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muscle to fat tissue. So, just an
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example, on one hand, you just train
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your abs and you're gaining.1 lbs of
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muscle a week. And on the other hand,
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you're training every single muscle in
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your body and maybe your abs on top of
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that and gaining 0.5 lbs of muscle a
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week. In the second scenario, weirdly
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enough, you're actually going to get
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leaner faster, which in turn is going to
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make your abs appear faster. So, if I
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could go back to the moment in the
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locker room, rewrite history a little
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bit. I would literally do the exact
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opposite and focus on building up every
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single other muscle in my body that
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isn't my abs, particularly big compound
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stuff where you get the most bang for
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your buck, like chest, back, and legs.
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Oh [ __ ] push, pull, leg, split, and
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then hit them on the side whenever I
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[ __ ] feel like it. Again, math
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doesn't lie. It's objective. Your abs
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are revealed at a specific body fat
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percentage. I don't think there's much
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debate that quads, or I guess if you
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skip leg day right now, maybe your quads
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and your hamstrings combined certainly
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take up more space on your body than
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just your abs do. So, weirdly enough, by
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hitting your legs, you're actually
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getting closer to having a six-pack than
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directly training your abs will. On top
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of that, because you're indirectly
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hitting them on leg day anyways for
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stability, you're still getting some ab
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activation. It's not that training abs
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will have no impact or not help or make
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them look better or anything. It's just
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about shifting your priorities to get
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the most bang for your buck when I was a
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little flabby and very sweaty in that
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locker room. A lot of the kind of mental
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turmoil came from the fact that I was
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expending so much effort and not getting
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the results I was looking for. So, the
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goal here is to get a proportional
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amount of progress and results out of
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the crazy amount of effort we're putting
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out. If you want my full free
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transformation system, check out the
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first link below. Now, let's talk a
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little bit about some common mistakes
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and some of the mistakes I've personally
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made. I'm telling you, man, I've tried
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literally everything under the [ __ ]
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sun. Drank vinegar at 6:00 a.m., slammed
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fat burners, and done some crazy fasted
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stair master routines. I used to justify
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3,000 plus calorie binges after cardio
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sessions because I felt like I earned
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it. I was doing literally everything
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except the one thing that mattered the
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most. Being in a real consistent
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measurable calorie deficit. Not for a
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day, not for just a week, but for weeks,
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months. So, sure, I was training hard,
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but I wasn't eating like someone that
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wanted to get shredded. Once that
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changed, so did everything else. I was
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also just trying to go way too fast,
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cutting calories super duper low and
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burning myself out, looking like [ __ ]
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starving Marvin from South Park and
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[ __ ] Go crazy, get burnt out, binge,
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and then repeat the cycle. Slow progress
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always beats fast progress that
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eventually collapses. My transformation
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took me four whole years because it was
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far from perfect. I had days off, I
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[ __ ] up, I binged, and I had to figure
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all this [ __ ] out myself. But I never
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lost sight of where I wanted to be. And
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that's the difference. No supplements,
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no fat burners, no [ __ ] Just
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walking, sticking to the diet, protein,
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lifting, and some patience. Eat like you
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actually respect your goals, and you
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want to get where you want to be. Give
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it 90 days of slightly boring
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consistency, and you won't even
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recognize yourself. I'm not even saying
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that to motivate you. It's literally
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just mathematics. Depending on where
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you're at, 20 to 30 plus pounds in 90
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days is completely doable. If you're
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interested in picking up my full free
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transformation system, check out the
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link below. On top of that, because I
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keep the swag on me, I'm giving away a
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free, absolutely [ __ ] loaded
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one-on-one coaching package and giving
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away several partial scholarships for
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those of you guys that need it. If
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that's something that might interest
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you, shoot me a DM on Instagram and just
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let me know why you think you'd be a
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good fit. Either way, if you want to get
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abs fast, don't waste time on more
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workouts. Focus on getting lean
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first. See youa. You got to admit that
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was pretty [ __ ] good.
