If you’ve spent the last decade crunching to coax those elusive abs out from under your spare tyre, it’s time to listen up. Crunches alone will not miraculously melt away your middle. (Here’s why you should get up now. Before it’s too late!)

Without a concurrent HIIT program to burn the blanket of body fat enshrouding your six pack, the fat will remain and, as the muscle beneath it develops, you may look bulkier.

The problem with crunches, apart from big questions about their role in vertebral degeneration, is that they focus almost exclusively on rectus abdominus (the exterior abdominal muscle).

If your goal is a strong, toned tummy you need to be optimising your workout time with exercises that blast your entire core, not just the outside. Contrary to common belief, the core is not a single muscle or organ, but comprises pelvic floor muscles, external obliques, internal obliques, rectus abdominus, multifidus, erector spinae and transverse abdominus (TVA). Got that?

Plus: Lower back carpet burn is not a good look.

Short, sharp, intense bursts of cardio rip the fat right off the top of your abs, while the strategic series of static muscle contractions in IAT will give you more precision than Michelangelo’s David.