The ultimate 20 minute ab workout to ensure you keep the six pack this December

The festive period is conducive to unrepentant and unrestrained gluttony. Lunches get boozier, dinners get downright alcoholic and there’s enough chocolate and sugary treats in arms reach to send Augustus Gloop into a hyperglycemic coma. Maintaining any sort of discipline during this time of the year is an arduous task that even the strictest of athletes can struggle with, let alone us mere mortals.

Whilst it’s ok to give yourself the occasional ‘eatcation’ or cheat day, a degree of restraint after a binge is generally necessary to maintain that physique you’ve worked so hard for. It’s also crucial you keep up the workouts where possible during the Christmas season, even if it’s just a quick jog or home bodyweight workout.

That saying, you can put in place a certain amount of preventative measures before the feasting, drinking and general excess begins; i.e. prepping your stomach (and body fat) for the pain it’s going to go through from Christmas Eve to January 2.

Firstly, hit the cutting diet hard. It’s painful, but bring your calories right the way down to below maintenance with a high protein split from now until December 23. Combining this with regular exercise should get you down to a body fat percentage you can be proud of, and give you some leeway on the weight gain you’re going to experience during a weeklong binge.

With that regular exercise, beef up on the brutal abdominal targeting exercises. There’s no evidence that targeted, or spot, fat loss actually exists but the aim here is to sculpt so the effects of that excess are, somewhat, diminished.

With just 20 minutes, you can fit in a number of exercises that will not only target your stomach, but also work a number of other muscles, a two for one kind-of-deal. The logic behind this is, the more muscles you work, combined with a low calorie diet, the more fat you’ll lose. On top of this, it’ll increase your general strength and maintain an overall leaner physique. Win-win in every way really, although putting it on paper is the easy bit.

Do these 3 exercises as 3 sets of 8-12 reps. That’s not just 12 reps you can do and go again straight away either; you should be really sweating come rep number 8 or even 6. And work this into your usual workout routine during what is currently a rest day, or as an addition to your workout during the week.

The best core exercise you’re probably not doing. Admittedly, not every gym will have the correct equipment, although you can do a makeshift job by anchoring a bar securely into the corner of the room.

Remember to keep your arms extended throughout the movement and that each rep is comprised of once back and forth, not each swing. This will not only hit your arms hard, but your glutes, shoulders and lower back will also enjoy some stimulation.

One of the ultimate truly-full-body exercises. Your abs may not be the prominent group involved in the movement, but the pulling motion will naturally work your core – ensure you’re keeping the muscle group tense to help target them. If you’re not already deadlifting regularly, simply put, you should be.

Get your obliques, i.e. the sides of your stomach, working with this efficient and effective exercise. Far better than a side sit-up or crunch for the simple fact that your arms, upper back and shoulders are having to do some work to keep you suspended; hence the efficiency.

Last but not least, yes this is number four of three, but if you’ve got a bit of time at the end of the routine, throw in some of these crunch variations to finish off. Whether you take it in sets, or just power through as many as you can before exhaustion sets in, is up to you, or the clock.

Remember to hold the movement at the top for a brief moment before returning to the starting position for a full range of movement. It should be obvious, but up the weight on the medicine ball if you find yourself being able to knock this out easily, it shouldn’t be like a regular crunch where you could do a hundred in succession if you desired.

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