The 5 Top Ab Workouts I've Ever Done

What i'm doing here is giving you 5 ab workouts of varying difficulty that serve different purposes, give them a try and let me know how they work for you.

Workout 1 - The quintuple set
3 sets - reps to failure - 30 seconds rest between each set - treat as superset, no rest between exercises

1. Hanging leg raises
2. Cable crunches
3. Russian twists
4. Lying leg raises
5. Core ball crunch 

I pretty much just stole that from Steve Cook, but its cool and you do feel it, however its not so hard as to really feel it the next day or so on. Really good for abdominal muscular endurance. 

Workout 2 - The Supersets

Superset one - 3 sets - failure & 12 reps each side

Straight leg pullups & cable side crunches

Superset two - 3 sets - 16-20reps & 10 reps

Decline oblique situps & rollouts 

Leg raises - 1 bent knee, 1 straight leg = 1 rep - 3 sets - 15 reps 

Workout 3 - The Flashy

Windscreen wipers - 3 sets - Reps to failure

Hanging leg raises - Straight leg - 3 sets - Reps to failure

Core ball plank - 3 sets - Failure - 30 seconds rest

Workout 4 - Functional 1

Partner Leg throws - 21 reps - 3 sets - swap and no rest 

Plank tri-set - 2 sets - 30 seconds rest

Side plank - Failure

Centre plank - Failure 

Other side plank - Failure

Workout 5 - Functional 2 

Partner core ball & oblique situps - 

One rep = 1 oblique sit up each side, one full sit up & one sit up with core ball passed from partner

3 sets - 10 reps

Plank - Vibration plate & weighted

3 sets - Failure - 30 seconds rest

Hope you find them quick, difficult and useful, good luck giving them a try and let me know how you get on!!

Jordan Mason

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Your guide to abs

In this blog i'm looking to answer one of the most sought after questions in a gym environment.
"How do i get abs"

As part of this i'll break into theory, training and diet.

First off, i'll inform you all, I DO NOT TRAIN ABS. I did for a long time and when getting close to a shoot or event i'll maybe do it for a couple of weeks. However if you hit compound exercises right and diet pretty clean, you really don't need to train abs in my experience and somewhat expert opinion.

However, if you are looking to train abs and really feel that its necessary. I'll try and give you a reasonable guide on what sort of works best.

How often?
Well, just like any muscle group, when trained for hypertrophy (growth), they need around 72 hours to repair and grow. So twice a week maximum.

Diet?
Keep it clean, i typically attempt to recreate the physical aspect of my body in terms of my diet. I never get above 10% body fat, and no meal i ever take in contains more than 10% fat. See the correlation?

So in terms of my diet, i'd split it up via macros (macronutrients for those unaware brahs);

• Carbs - 50%
• Protein - 40%
• Fats - 10%

And if you diet in any way other than the IIFYM (if it fits in your macros) approach, you're not really on a diet. Of course you can restrict/change calorie intake. But your base macros linked with calorie surplus are key. 

Then we'll go onto the sorts of foods you should ideally be eating;

When clean eating you need to stick primarily to complex carbs (brown rice, sweet potato, brown pasta, wholegrain wheat), protein (chicken breasts, egg whites, steak) and a low fat % in all sources.

I'll do another blog on diet alone at some point and shall outlay my basic lean bulking, cutting and current diets or the likes otherwise this'd just be longgggg. 

Exercises that work best?
Well like any muscle group. There are different sections that comprise your abs.
For me these are;
Serratus anterior, Internal obliques, External obliques, Transverse abdominus and rectus abdominus.

Ideally for a perfect "ab" workout you'd look to hit all of these.
But since its such a small aspect of training in reality there's no need.
I personally would look to have one isometric exercise to work the deep core muscles, and either one or two contracting exercises to focus on the overlaying fibres.

So for me these are the best exercises;
Serratus - db pullover
Internal obliques - side plank
External obliques - windscreen wipers, side crunch, oblique situps, russian twists
Transverse abdominus - plank, straight leg pullups
Rectus abdominus - leg throws, crunches, cable crunch, hanging leg raises

Depending upon how advanced you are, different exercises will work best. However my favourite is windscreen wipers because of the control element and the fact it just looks really cool.

I'll do another blog on sample ab workouts. To make it simpler so you can all just screenshot and try them out, let me know how you get on and if you need any more in depth advice.

Jordan Mason

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5 top tips to lose fat

As a former personal trainer and fitness model my most asked question was;

"Jordan, how do i lose fat most quickly" 

So here i give you my 5 best tips to lose fat most quickly

1. HIIT - High intensity interval training
2. Increase water intake
3. Eat clean
4. Lift weights
5. Calorie deficit 

High intensity interval training is a system by where instead of steady state long slow duration cardio, you implement periods of high intensity followed by active rest. This promotes fat loss as you work across all energy systems, not just aerobic. 

Increasing water intake is integral to a healthy lifestyle, 70% of everything is made of water, the more water you have, the more hydrated you are, up until a point where water manipulation comes into effect when you go past around 11 litres per day. This can be difficult and i wouldn't recommend unless you have a lot of access to a toilet. I would also suggest that you don't implement this for a long time. Max of around a week. However the results can be spectacular. Basically, the mass increase in water intake causes your body to flush everything out. And by everything, i mean everything! So that when you decrease your water intake back to normal, your body is still flushing out everything, including fat cells.  Which leaves you looking dry and tight. Shedding a lot of weight very quickly. 

Eating clean. If you want to lose fat, eat a balanced diet made up of good sources in reasonable quantities. Highly recommend complex carbs, slower release of energy, leaving you fuller for longer. This doesn't necessarily mean low fat produce. You can eat whatever you want, but be wary of quantity and balance. 

Lifting weights, not enough people do it in my opinion. Especially women. The misguided approach that they'll get "hench" as opposed to being skinny is oh so wrong. Those "hench" women you see are using testosterone to promote muscle growth as women have a natural incapability of growing muscle when compared to men. What i'm getting at is, lifting weight at a high intensity increases calorie use, increases your metabolism and promotes protein synthesis, increasing body muscle % and decreasing body fat %. Now go lift weights. 

A calorie deficit is essential in reducing body fat, as reducing fat means reducing weight. And the only way to reduce weight naturally is to consume less than you expend. However this needs to be done carefully and you should aim for between 300-500 calories per day under your BMR to remain safe. Too many people use crash diets which work quickly then stop, and then revert back to their initial position because the habits have not changed. 

Hope you find this helpful, 

Jordan Mason 

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