Why You DON’T Need 6 Pack Abs

After 10 years and coaching hundreds of men to their best bodies, I’ve lost count on guys who tell me “I’ve got my sights on getting shredded”.

But most of these guys haven’t analyzed the changes they’d need to make to have 6 pack-abs. Or consider how that would impact their current lifestyle… And the people in it. 

So when I talk to them about all the gritty details of what that looks like in real life, most change their minds.

See …

The level of social restriction, time dedicated to workouts and meal prep is A LOT of your week. The time (and food pleasure) has to come from somewhere …

• Movie and pizza nights with the kids?
• Few weekend beers with the guys?
• Summer family BBQ’s without worrying about accounting for every gram of food you eat?
• Missing the odd workout…

If you want to get ‘shredded’ you’ll probably have to rethink a lot of those.

I’ve been around a lot of athletes and guys who look ripped all the time. They live by a very disciplined code of life, rarely missing workouts, almost never drink alcohol, and only allow themselves to eat limited amounts of treats each week. They’re also very precise with their macros and meal planning.

And those are all great things.

BUT.

When armed with the right knowledge, most guys just aren’t up for it. And that’s ok.

I’d actually encourage you NOT to set that kind of goal. (at least not until you’ve already made A LOT of progress). 

Because it can set you up for feeling a lot of frustration, demotivation, and failure. 

Here’s the good news – 

You Don’t Need Abs Popping Out To Look & Feel Fucking Awesome…

Coach Dean & Lola, Loch Lomond

Here’s 3 Things You DO need: 

1. A waist visibly smaller than your chest circumference (so build your chest and upper back whilst reducing your body fat through better nutrition).
2. Some stand out shape to your shoulders.
3. And upper arms with at least ‘some’ visible muscle shape. 

Achieving this is a fairly simple process most men can attain, and sustain it, without having to find Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnstone levels of discipline.

Achieve those 3 standards and I bet my left testicle it puts you in the top 1-2% of ‘fit looking’ guys on any beach (or swimming pool) with the family on holidays. 

Think about it…

Around 66% of adults in the UK, Ireland, and US are either overweight or obese. 

That leaves around 34% who can pass a BMI test, which doesn’t really speak for much if I’m honest.

Regardless of where you’re currently at right now, or how far you are away from a smaller waist than your upper body, it’s a very realistic (and healthy) standard to work towards.

It’ll have you looking amazing in your t-shirts, too:

Coach Duncan Gillies, a client of Dean’s who is a former forestry worker turned personal trainer and nutrition coach. Living with his family in Oban, Scotland.

Here’s Three Men Over 40 Who’ve Applied These Principles Through Our Coaching Program…  And Have The Results To Show For It.

 Gerry from Ayrshire – early forties, 2 kids, and often travels for work. 

Adam from Kent – 47, big family, multiple employee business, often travels the country for work. 

Garry – Multiple businesses, travels internationally all the time for work. 

All these men are in their forties with mega busy lives. They’ve achieved this without dieting, strict food rules, or fitness taking over. So can you. 

Here’s How To Get These Results …

1) Put your fat loss efforts into better nutrition principles to bring the belly and waist down (You can get all the detail on that in my FREE busy dad body transformation pack via any of the opt-in’s on this page).

2) Be more active every day (walking more, aim for a minimum of 7000-10,000 steps/day).

3) Get stronger with 2-3 strength simple workouts per week …

• Get stronger on press ups, bodyweight rows, and pull ups. Work towards a standard of 30-40 press-ups, 10+ bodyweight rows with your feet OFF the floor, and 10+ pull-ups. It won’t happen overnight, it’s the process that gets you these results.

• Increasing how much weight you can lift on dumbbell bench presses, 1 arm dumbbell rows, dumbbell overhead presses, bicep curls and triceps extensions (all for around 6-12 reps).

• Don’t skip leg day. Stronger legs always lead to increased testosterone and increased upper body strength. Get stronger on dumbbell goblet squats, Romanian deadlifts, and split squats. 

4) Committing to the process over TIME. (this is the biggest area of failure for most. Body transformation is an accumulation of marginal gains over months and years). 

That’s it.

Those are your BIG rocks.

And all your training can be done conveniently, from home. 

If you can build those principles into your life, you can get in amazing shape and be a fit role model without going to extremes with diet and fitness.

Then, once you get to that stage?

You can make the decision on whether taking things to the ‘next level’ is worth it for you… Or not. 

Get after it! 

Dean

PS – Are you wanting to achieve these kinds of results yourself? Download the FREE busy dad body transformation pack from any of the opt-in boxes on this page and get my best body transformation secrets for busy men over 35.