‘Exercises you struggle with on a Monday will feel easy by Sunday’
Emma Kennedy on the Six Pack Revolution
I have always been an active person, interested in life, people, news, but after reacting badly to my second Covid vaccine, I developed ophthalmic nerve shingles. It was to affect me for six months and leave me with asthma so severe, I had to learn how to breathe again with a pulmonary physio. My day-to-day existence ground to dust, I found myself interested in nothing. I was overweight, listless and broken, all vibrancy gone. But at the end of 2021 I allowed myself to believe that, maybe, there was light at the end of the tunnel. I had learned to control my air hunger – the sensation of breathlessness experienced by asthmatics – and now, perhaps, with some encouragement, I might be able to put myself on a path back to wellness. My physio told me to start an exercise programme. It was going to need to be full-on, she told me, and I was going to have to commit to it properly.
Last Christmas came and went, and I found myself in a barn in Cornwall with my wife: she was scrolling through her phone, I was staring at the wind blowing through a field of grass. “Look at this,” she said, holding her phone up. They were transformation pictures from an exercise programme called the Six Pack Revolution. They were mind-blowing. Sometimes, things land in your lap right when you need them and, without thinking further, I signed up for the January wave.
The Six Pack Revolution is a 75-day food and exercise programme that gradually increases your fitness. It was established by Scott Harrison, a former double-glazing businessman who one day decided to do something about his softening “Dad Bod”. You’re assigned a group on Facebook, then helped by coaches who will support you when you wobble. There are Zooms with Scott throughout. Fans include Rylan Clark and Sara Cox.
For me, starting at a point of absolute zero, it was perfect. First, you know there’s a finish line to cross; second, the exercise was going to step up in manageable gradients: in week one you’re asked to do 10 push-ups, 10 glute exercises and a range of ab exercises. In week two, that goes up to 20, and so on. These are called dailies and you have to do them six days a week. I chose the Signature programme (£139), but it has harder courses for people who have a good level of fitness. You will need a battle rope – buy one from Six Pack for £89.99 (or find them cheaper elsewhere – try mirafit.co.uk).
On day one, you can’t do 10 push-ups; by the end of the week you can. At the beginning of week two you can’t do 20 push-ups; by the end of the week you can. This pattern repeats for 11 weeks until, in your final seven days, you’re doing 110. These daily exercises aren’t remotely time-consuming – at the beginning you can have them done in 10 minutes (towards the end, allow 20). The key is sticking to it. For me, getting my dailies done before breakfast worked best. The great and motivating aspect of the programme is how you can see and feel immediate improvement. Exercises you struggle with on a Monday will feel easy by Sunday, and each week brings new exercises. It never gets stale.
In addition, you’re given physical challenges every Wednesday and Saturday, which you have to do only once but you can choose to do as many times as you like. The challenges are circuit-based high-intensity interval training (Hiit) and each lasts about 20 minutes. Most of the exercises are done with the battle rope: there’s a lot of squatting and using your own body for weight training. Turns out the only thing you need to tone up is you. Bargain. You can easily do everything in your own home: I conducted the programme in my sitting room.
There is no weighing on the Six Pack Revolution. Instead, you take weekly pictures of yourself – you have to show your belly. At the start, it’s the worst thing you can imagine. I stared at my day one picture and cried. My six-month illness had left me bloated and unhealthy. I looked utterly miserable. There is no way, I thought, I’m going to let anyone see that picture. And then, week by week, you watch yourself getting smaller: I was shrinking before my eyes, a waistline started to appear, my shorts were hanging differently, a smile appeared, I looked bright and happy and healthy again. I now show my day one and day 75 pictures to anyone and everyone. I showed them to a cab driver a few weeks ago. He then tweeted me to tell me that he had signed up.
The food programme is perfectly manageable: it asks you to eat six meals a day. A typical day might involve eggs and asparagus for breakfast, cottage cheese on rice cakes mid-morning, pan-fried sea bass with garlic and chilli for lunch, chicken shish with baba ganoush for mid-afternoon, sweet potato jacket with chicken for supper and banoffee ice-cream for evening snack. There are loads of recipes to choose from. You can devise your own menu. If you stick to it like glue, you’ll see phenomenal results. You’ll be provided with meal-plan charts. Fill one in at the start of each week and stick to it. Disclaimer: I didn’t stick to it like glue (I couldn’t eat it all – you won’t go hungry) and still saw great results. It boils down to no booze, chicken and fish as your main sources of protein, and no bad white, starchy carbs. There’s also an option to use meal supplements to substitute breakfast and lunch.
I sleep better, I feel incredible and my energy levels are through the roof. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s given me my life back, and the best bit is that, once you’re used to it, it’s so easy to stick to when the programme is done. I do five days of Six Pack and what I like at the weekends.