Want a washboard?

No break. Supersets ramp up fat loss.

Can I really get a six-pack in a month?

You can reveal your abs sooner than you think if you employ portion control and exercise to increase metabolism.

■How quickly you can reveal your six-pack depends largely on how committed you are — and how prepared to ignore the standard advice. For example, health authorities advise dropping no more than 1kg a week for healthy weight loss. Not only is that based on poor assumptions, it’s also totally unambitious. First, it assumes exercise isn’t part of the plan. Why? Because the second assumption is that weight loss is achieved by restricting calories. That’s in spite of mounting evidence suggesting losing weight isn’t as simple as a calories in/out equation.

Besides, getting a six-pack is not about losing weight — it’s about burning fat. And losing 1kg-plus of fat per week isn’t just possible, it’s the real way to reveal your abs. I routinely see clients lose 10kg of fat in eight weeks. This is done through portion control and by using diet to regulate the hormones controlling blood sugar and appetite. I also train clients in a way that stimulates muscle growth, as well as creating a “metabolic disturbance” that keeps their metabolism — the body’s fat-burning mechanism — high for up to 36 hours after training (see below).

In fact, you can eat more thanks to the metabolism change that comes from building new muscle tissue. This will support further lean tissue growth as well as ensuring the body doesn’t feel “starved” and hold on to fat, thereby concealing your abs.

METABOLISM DISTURBERS

Start your workouts with supersets that put your body in fat-burning mode fo

1A DEADLIFT Works the back of the lower body CH he the ody

2A Wo fro lower body

THE E XPERT

NAME: CHRIS WALTON SPECIALITY: METABOLISM

CARB ALARM A lot of people go carb-free when trying to lose fat. This is a mistake — the body reacts badly to a low-carb intake after two or three weeks. First, your thyroid slows production of the cells responsible for metabolism, and second, there’s an increase in production of the hormone cortisol. As well as storing fat around the belly, this breaks down muscle tissue and causes insulin resistance, which all spells bad news for fat loss.

So, yes, it’s totally possible to see your abs in four weeks. If you’re overweight it’ll take longer, but the immediate changes should be dramatic enough to keep you going until a six-pack starts taking shape. ■

2B CHINUP Works the back of the upper body

Dive to 100m

Fre e d i v i n g i s a n ex p l o ra t i o n o f t h e u n k n ow n — b o t h o f t h e o c e a n a n d o f m a n ’s p hys i c a l l i m i t s . H ow d e e p c o u l d yo u g o?

What goes down might not come up

Competitive freediving — diving as deep as possible on a single breath — tests the limits of human ability in the most hostile environment on Earth. “Hundreds of metres below the ocean’s surface organs compress, light disappears and one mistake could kill you,” says Adam Skolnick, author of One Breath: Freediving, Death And The Quest To Shatter Human Limits. Yet it’s rarely lethal. In 2013, American Nicholas Mevoli, the focus of Skolnick’s book, was the first death in over 35,000 comp dives.

You’ve already mastered it

Freediving is universal. You’ve probably done it yourself. “Anybody who’s ever dived to the bottom of a pool has done it,” says Skolnick. Roman freedivers used it to erect underwater barricades. The Ama are mostly female Japanese divers who look for pearls in a tradition said to go back two millennia. Freediving became a sport in 1949 when Italian Air Force captain Raimondo Bucher dived 30m to win a 50,000-lira bet.

We’re born to dive

“Humans can survive at amazing depths due to the mammalian dive reflex,” Skolnick says. As the lungs contract, blood vessels involuntarily constrict, pushing blood to the core to fill the vacuum with fluid that can’t be compressed. At the same time, blood vessels in the heart and brain dilate, flooding them with oxygen so you can function, and the spleen contracts, sending a fresh supply of red blood cells into the circulatory system.

It’s breathtaking

You must be able to hold your breath at the surface for close to six minutes to be capable of diving to 100m. “It takes hundreds of hours under water to prepare your body for the demands of deep sea equalisation,” says Skolnick. The hatha yoga pose uddiyana bandha, or upward abdominal lock, is practised daily by elite freedivers. It helps them control their diaphragm and fight the urge to gasp.

What it takes

● Zen-like calm ● Six-minute lung capacity ● 20bpm resting heart rate Di culty rating 10/10

At 10m the lungs shrink to half their normal size

99% of blackouts happen on return to the surface, 0.9% happen beyond 10m

The return feels like swimming against a stiff current until the final 10m

0 - 1 0 m

The pulse can slow to as little as 20bpm — known as bradycardia 1 0 - 2 0 m

At 20m underwater gravity takes over and you sink like a stone

Herber t Nitsch of Greece holds the No-Limits record of 214m set in 2007, using a weighted sled to dive down and an inflatable bag to return

2 0 m + 2 1 4 m

You have to be able to hold your breath for six months at the surface before you can freedive 100m.

The depths of courage

■ No-one knows the perils of underwater diving better that American Scott Cassell. A counterterrorism combat dive instructor to the US Special Ops community, Cassell attempted a record-breaking 83km scuba dive from Santa Catalina Island to San Pedro Harbor, California, in 2011. His mission was to explore the decline in the local shark population, but owing to an equipment failure, he blacked out after five hours and had to resurface. Battling hypothermia and extreme dehydration, he returned to complete the record dive — an incredible feat. It’s only one of the reasons why Cassell is considered a legend in undersea exploring. He also documents his discoveries for science, and hunts down lawbreakers whose activities threaten ocean ecosystems. On every expedition he sports a watch from the Luminox Scott Cassell Special 3950 Series — the rugged time piece Men’s Fitness recommends for all divers.

Luminox Scott Cassell Special 3950 $700, luminox.com