Check it oot.
Issue three.
Barcelona has been absolutely roasting over the last couple of weeks, and most of the northern hemisphere by the sound of it. Almost everyone I train is feeling the heat, and sessions are being adapted more than usual as a result. Here's what I do when it gets toasty: I dial training back from progress mode into maintenance mode. Slightly less weight and fewer sets, shorter sessions, more recovery between sets. Nobody's chasing a PB in this heat, and honestly, I'm not sure anybody should be. Heat doesn't just batter you during workouts, your body's working to keep cool round the clock, and that alone can leave you feeling drained and lethargic.
So if this is the month your numbers dip a little, don't panic. It's not you slipping. That's you training the actual conditions you're in, not the ones you wish you had.
The Question
This one landed in my Instagram DMs last week. No "Hi Martin, how are you?", straight to business. The way I like it.
“Do you have to do ab exercises to get abs?”
It's a very common doubt, and one I get asked a lot, so let's actually settle it properly.
No, thankfully you do not. You already have abs. Everyone does, they're just sitting under a layer of fat like every other muscle in your body. So getting them to show was never really a training question, it's a body fat question.
If most of your training time and energy is going into ab-specific exercises, that effort could be working a lot harder for you elsewhere.
If a client told me they just wanted to do ab exercises exclusively, I'd try to steer them somewhere else first: full-body strength work. It's the same if someone tells me they want a better bum, or to get rid of their "bingo wings". I wouldn't build a plan that only worked those areas on their own. It's rarely the best use of anyone's time or energy.
Squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, all your big compound lifts are already putting your abs to work as a secondary muscle. But here's the win-win. Compound training burns far more energy than a set of crunches ever will, and that adds up in your favour when it comes to fat loss over time. So the same session that's quietly building your abs is doing more to reveal them than isolated ab work ever could.
My rule for a session is simple: the exercises that give you the most return come first, while your energy's freshest. Compound lifts always lead, accessory work follows, and isolation, abs included, always comes last. Same logic as a leg day, big lifts first, isolation work right at the end.
I do train abs directly. But only in short spells, rather than all the time. When I'm lean, or when I want them to "pop", that's when I bring in the direct work. Even then I skip crunches and sit-ups, they've never done much for me. I'd rather use ab rollouts, hanging leg raises, TRX pikes, side plank variations, oblique twists and Pallof presses. Abs stay the main target throughout, but your shoulders, arms, grip and hips are all working hard alongside them.
So no, you don't need ab exercises to get abs. The better use of your time is to lift well, not just heavy, and save any direct work for the end of a session, for when you want to fine tune specific areas.
01
Pre-workout nutrition. It depends what you're chasing.
Ask five PTs what to eat before a session and you'll likely get five different answers. Here's mine, and it depends on one thing before anything else: what are you training for today?
Why I can't wait to eat
I train clients at all hours. If I've got someone at 4pm and need to train myself at 5pm, I'm not waiting until then to eat something. Something you should know about me: I'm an Ebner. We rise and eat. Don't talk to us until we have. My overnight oats are usually in my hand before I've even properly opened my eyes.
The exception to this rule is on the days I get to train first thing. Then I'll go in fasted, fuelled entirely on a pot of black coffee and whatever I had to eat the night before. I like it. But I'll be honest, these are never my best sessions. My energy runs out faster.
So, what's the goal?
This is where it splits in two.
If the goal is getting lean, I like training fasted. That's a preference, not a science lesson. I'm not going to tell you fasted training burns more fat, unfortunately the research doesn't back that up. There's truth in this though, train fasted and your body leans harder on fat for fuel in that session. Whether that adds up to more fat loss depends on what you eat the rest of the day, not the window around training. I just like how it feels, especially around summer, and it works for how I structure that phase.
If the goal is PBs or building muscle, I eat first. Every time. The more output you need, the more useful it is to arrive fuelled. That one is actually backed by the numbers, not just my mood that day.
What about the two-hour rule?
You'll hear you need to eat two hours before training. I think that's mostly nonsense, at least for what I do. I don't coach cardio. Running, swimming, anything with sustained movement jostles your gut in a way lifting rarely does, so a lot of that advice was built for cardio, not for someone about to squat.
So what should you eat?
Protein, and a balance of carbs. That's it. Simple.
What you want to avoid is going overboard on fat or a big pile of fibre right before you train, both take longer to digest. A little fat is fine, especially if you've got an hour or two before your session, just don't load up on it right as you walk in the door. And whatever you do, don't expect a sugar hit to carry you through a big session, or go near anything heavy and fried either. A fish supper might be a Scottish institution and my death row meal, but it's built for the sofa, not for a fourth set.
Bottom line
There's no universal pre-workout meal. There's what you're training for today, and eating in a way that supports it. My current pre-workout go-to: high-protein yoghurt, a chopped pear, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a dollop of honey. And a coffee, always a coffee.
02
Coach's Pick: Cooling down
This month it's not one thing, it's three, and they've all got the same job, keeping me sane in this heat.
Watermelon. It barely needs an explanation. Ninety percent water, deliciously sweet, exactly what you want when it's this hot outside.
Frozen grapes. I got this one from the missus. Pop a bag in the freezer and you've got the easiest treat going. Feels indulgent, costs next to nothing, takes zero effort.
Quick honest note on both, they're not a replacement for an electrolyte drink if you're properly sweating through a session, they're low in sodium, the electrolyte your body loses the most of. For an ordinary hot afternoon, I'd reach for either before a bottle of Gatorade. No added sugar or dye, and actual fruit.
And the one I can't stop making: sweet iced coffee. A tsp of stevia first, then black coffee straight on top. Stir and leave until it's close to room temperature. Into the freezer for thirty to sixty minutes, then out with ice and a splash of milk, stir, and drink. Divine, every single time.
Nothing to buy here, nothing to link. Just three simple things keeping me cool in this Barcelona heat. Hopefully they'll do the same for you.
One more thing. If Issue 01's creatine chapter left you wanting a bigger scoop, I finally wrote it up properly: Creatine. What it actually does, and what it doesn't is up on the blog now.
Chau for now.
Martin · Barcelona