I did this Chris Heria abs workout every day for a week – here’s what happened

Fitness influencer Chris Heria not only has an impressive physique, but he also has the physical strength to back it up. A quick glance at his Instagram feed shows the athlete performing moves most of us can only dream of, like a muscle-up that sees him finish on a bar in a standing position. I’m pretty sure just attempting something like that would land me in the hospital.

Like many influencers, Heria has tried to parlay his social media popularity into other successful ventures – his THENX smartphone app offers calisthenics and progressive bodyweight exercises for all ages and abilities. He often shares some of these programs on his free YouTube channel, and I stumbled upon it by chance this 8-minute core workout which, he claims, will give you a six-pack after a year of consistent exercise.

While I don’t have a year to dedicate to an ab workout, I certainly have a week. So I decided to roll out my mat and try Chris Heria’s ab workout every day for seven days. Read on to see what I learned.

As a reminder, talk to your doctor before starting any fitness program—especially if you’re new to regular exercise. Consider meeting with a certified personal trainer to make sure you’re exercising with proper technique and at an appropriate level.

What is Chris Heria’s abdominal workout?

“Today’s workout won’t be the hardest,” Heria admits in the video’s introduction. “But it’s an effective workout that will build every area of ​​your abs.”

The workout includes eight different exercises, each performed for 45 seconds, with a 15 second break between exercises. The exercises are:

I did this Chris Heria ab workout every day for a week – here’s what I learned

My core work has been getting monotonous lately, so I was excited to mix it up a bit. Here’s what I discovered after sticking to this routine for a week:

It is not for beginners

Despite what Heria says in the final minutes of the video, the exercises he incorporates into this workout are definitely not “beginner-friendly”—most beginners wouldn’t be able to get into a fully seated position for a reach-up, nor would they be able to perform leg raises, leg flutters, or Russian twists in standard form while balancing on the tailbone—and certainly not for 45 seconds at a time with minimal rest.

Heria doesn’t suggest any modifications to the exercises (technically, his suggestion of bending the knees during Russian twists could be considered a modification, but that doesn’t really make the movement more accessible). I have a relatively strong core, and even I had to modify some of the exercises when my abs started to fatigue. I had to modify them even further when my neck and back started to hurt.

As a certified personal trainer, I know when and how to make appropriate adjustments. Most people don’t, so the lack of options at Heria makes the entire workout pretty much out of reach for beginners.

It trained every muscle of the torso

Heria keeps its promise to work all the abdominal muscles in a quick and efficient eight minutes. At the end of the workout, I felt like I had effectively worked all the major muscles in my core.

However, the transverse abdominis (the deepest muscle in your core that connects to your spine and pelvis) doesn’t get too much attention in this workout. The plank variations will work it a bit, but most of the emphasis is on your rectus abdominis (the most superficial muscle in your core) and obliques (muscles on the sides of your core). To be honest, though, your transverse abdominis isn’t the muscle you’ll see in a “six-pack,” which is what this workout is aiming for.

As the week progressed it became a little easier

I’m no stranger to core training, but I will admit that this workout was humbling for the first few days. My abs were killing me by the second day and I had to limit some of the movements to avoid completely ruining myself.

On the fifth day, the training became a little easier. By the seventh day, I still found the program challenging, but it seemed much more doable.

It won’t give you a “six pack” (on its own)

Have you ever heard the phrase “abs are made in the kitchen”? That’s true for several reasons. One of them is that you want to make sure your diet – specifically the ratio of protein, carbohydrates and fat you consume – supports muscle growth.

This is also true because a “six pack” depends on having a low enough body fat percentage for the abs to be visible, and your body fat percentage depends on your calorie intake (the number of calories you eat per day). You could have the strongest, most toned abs you know, but if your body fat percentage is too high, you won’t see those abs protruding from your stomach (and the more unfortunate news is that your body fat percentage may be normal or optimal and still be too high for your “six pack” to be visible).

That’s not to say that this workout won’t help strengthen your abs. However, Heria left out one very important factor from his “six-pack” equation – even a year of consistent training won’t give you visible abs if you don’t stick to a strict diet.

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