Six-pack secrets: How your man can build the body ?

Six-pack secrets: How your man can build the body he – and you – have always wanted in just TWELVE weeks

• Men's Fitness writer went from chubby to chiselled in just 12 weeks
• Average Joe gained 10kg of muscle and lost 8kg of fat – the equivalent of 16 large packs of butter
• Joe, 31, still ate his favourite foods in moderation and drank a glass of red wine at weekends
• Here he reveals his secrets to becoming a Men’s Fitness cover star and explains how YOU can build cheese grater abs in three months

Joe Warner, the deputy editor of Men’s Fitness, the UK’s best-selling fitness lifestyle magazine, went from flabby, out-of-shape man to a cover model star – complete with rock-hard six-pack – in just 12 weeks, and reveals the secrets to how you can build a brand new physique with only four hours of exercise per week.

So what's his secret?

'I spent most of my 20s doing a lot of running but no matter for how far or how long I ran I would always have a bit of a belly and never any muscles on my chest, shoulders or arms,' he says.

'After turning 30 I decided to see whether I could get into the best shape I have ever been in.

'I deal with a lot of fitness models for my job but always thought I would never be able to get a physique like theirs.

'I believed I just didn’t have the right genetics or enough time to make it happen. But it turns out that there is no legitimate reason for not making huge changes to the way you look without a t-shirt on. 

'If I can do it, anyone can. I’m an average guy with a busy, deadline-driven desk job so finding the time to train is always difficult, but the regime I followed proves that you don’t need to spend hour after hour exercising to dramatically transform the way you look, even in a relatively short period of time.' 

Step by step: Joe's abs look considerably better after just one week but by week 12, he's in model territory

OLD FITNESS REGIME

1. Monday: 60-minute run
2. Tuesday: 45-minute run
3. Wednesday: 60-minute gym session 
4. Thursday: 60-minute run 
5. Friday: Rest
6. Saturday: 45-minute run 
7. Sunday: Rest

NEW FITNESS REGIME

1. Monday: 60-minute gym session
2. Tuesday: Rest
3. Wednesday: 60-minute gym session 
4. Thursday: Rest
5. Friday: 60-minute gym session 
6. Saturday: 60-minute gym session 
7. Sunday: Rest

Nick Mitchell, the founder of Ultimate Performance, which has two personal training gyms in London, who designed and oversaw Joe’s training programme says:

‘When Joe came to me he had a 'skinny fat' physique, which is when you have very little muscle mass on your torso but a large amount of fat stored around the stomach. 

'It’s a body shape I’m seeing increasingly among UK men and one that can lead to a lot of long-term health issues, especially diabetes. 

'But Joe and I have proved that an effective training regime, which doesn’t require hours of boring exercise, coupled with smart eating can radically reduce body-fat levels while also packing on significant amounts of lean muscle for a better, and ultimately healthier, body.'

Nick’s training programme revolved around just one hour-long gym session four times per week, and in 12 weeks Joe shed 8kg of fat – the equivalent to 16 large packets of butter - while building 10kg of lean muscle mass to completely transform his body into one worthy of gracing the cover of Men’s Fitness magazine.

Tough: Joe pumps some iron under the watchful eye of Ultimate Performance trainer, Nick Mitchell

Feeling the burn: Joe's fat-busting fitness plan involves plenty of cardio - but only in short bursts

Joe’s four sessions were carried out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday lunch times, and first thing Saturday morning, so it had minimal impact on his work or social life. 

'Instead of working through lunch with a sandwich at my desk I got out of the office, trained, worked off some steam them came back to my job more energised and focused,' he says. 

'I found my productivity soared once I started training. Even if you have a very busy, very stressful job finding just four hours per week to train will not only have huge benefits to your physique, it will also help you combat stress levels and allow you to work more effectively and efficiently. 

'I booked my training sessions into my diary just like I would any other meeting. It sounds silly but it makes them feel more important so you’re less likely to cancel them.'

'I started seeing major changes after the first week and after a fortnight by body-fat percentage had tumbled from nearly 17 per cent to 12.8 per cent, with nearly all of the fat falling off my stomach,' says Joe. 

'I was also adding lean muscle mass to my chest, shoulders and arms, so being wider on my torso but narrower at my waist made me look radically different relatively quicker.'

Ultimate Performance trainer Nick Mitchell knows exactly what it takes to shift that festive flab fast

OLD DIET

1. Breakfast: Cappuccino and croissant
2. Snack: Tea and biscuits
3. Lunch: Jacket potato with cheese and coleslaw
4. Snack: Fizzy drink and crisps
5. Dinner: Pasta with vegetables in tomato sauce

NEW DIET

1. Breakfast: Bacon and scrambled eggs
2. Snack: Handful of mixed nuts
3. Lunch: Tuna salad with peppers and olives
4. Snack: Greek yoghurt 
5. Dinner: Steak with sweet potato fries

'The key to getting rapid results is to work out intensively for a short amount of time, then give your body time to recover fully before training again,' says Nick.

'Training for too long in one go is counter-productive to getting a better body: it places too much stress on your body, which actually eats away at your muscles and encourages the storage of fat. 

'It’s also important to frequently change the exercises you do, and how many sets and reps of each you do so that your body is always out of its comfort zone so must keeping burning fat and building muscle so it’s ready for anything.'

Joe’s diet revolved around plenty of lean red meat and white meat, fish, fresh vegetables, eggs and slow-release carbs, such as sweet potatoes.

'The diet I followed was simple but effective so I was never hungry,' he says. 

'You do need to be organised so that you are never tempted by a quick sandwich and crisps at lunch, but I found that I was actually enjoying my food more on the diet than before, mainly because steak, vegetables and sweet potato mash is far more delicious than a pre-packed sarnie or ready meal. 

'And when you are training hard you want to feed your body the right food to keep your muscles growing and your belly shrinking.'

Body fat begone: Joe doesn't have an inch to pinch at the end of his intensive 12-week fitness regime

'I could even have a glass of red wine at the weekends, so never felt as though I was sacrificing anything,' he adds. 

'At first it was hard to go out and not being able to drink or order anything I wanted off the menu. 

'But most restaurants will serve steak, chicken or fish and happily give you as many vegetables as you want.

'It didn’t take long before I stopped craving for sugary foods and snacks because I could see that my training and diet regime were really working.'

'Joe has proved that training hard and eating healthily is all you need to do to transform your body into one that can grace the cover of a magazine,'Nick adds.

'A smart training plan, executed with 100% effort, really is the best, and most effective, way to build the body you’ve always wanted.'

VIDEO

Men's Fitness writer builds 'ideal body' in just TWELVE weeks

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