I Revisited Old-School ‘8-Minute Abs’ Workouts Every Day for 2 Weeks — Here’s What Happened

With more than 30 years of experience in the fitness industry, I’ve worked as a group exercise instructor, gym instructor, personal trainer, nutrition advisor, sports massage therapist, facility manager, and fitness qualifications lecturer.

During that time, I’ve seen the rise and fall of countless exercise and diet trends. Some have even come around more than once!

That said, the 90s were an especially exciting time in fitness. For starters, personal training became more widely accepted. Before this, it was something that only really appealed to Hollywood actors, music stars, and captains of industry.

Another thing that was very popular during the 1990s was workout videos. The internet was still in its infancy so if you wanted a workout to follow you either went to a group exercise class or popped a VHS cassette into your VCR and worked out in front of your TV.

There were thousands of titles to choose from, but 8-Minute Abs was one of the most popular.

For this article, I dusted off an old copy of 8-Minute Abs and followed it every day for two weeks. Now, it’s time to reveal the results—plus some modern-day modifications to make this classic routine safer and more effective.

What Was 8-Minute Abs, Anyway?

8-Minute Abs was part of a series of short, body-part-specific workouts produced in the 1990s by GoodTimes Entertainment. They were created and presented by well-known personal trainer Jamie Brenkus.

The 8-Minute programs were heavily marketed on TV and in magazines and gained a cult-like following. As you’ve probably guessed, each workout was just eight minutes long and designed to appeal to home exercisers. 

Other 8-Minute workout titles included: 

• 8-Minute Arms
• 8-Minute Buns
• 8-Minute Legs
• 8-Minute Stretch

8-Minute Abs consisted of nine abdominal exercises, each one performed for roughly 45 seconds. The routine emphasized high reps and short rests, which produced a deep, satisfying burn that followers of the program loved. 

Those exercises were: 

1. Basic Crunch
2. Right Oblique Crunch
3. Left Oblique Crunch
4. Reverse Crunch
5. Straight-Leg Crunch
6. Right-Side Crunch
7. Left-Side Crunch
8. Sit-Up
9. Static Crunch Hold

Participants were encouraged to do the workout four to five times per week, although some hardcore exercisers did it daily. 

I’m always up for a challenge and really enjoy training my abs, so I decided to go full “old school” and do this program every day for two weeks. How did it go? Keep reading to find out! 

Week One – A Punch to the Gut!

While eight minutes doesn’t sound like long, doing non-stop abs exercises for that length of time turned out to be a real challenge. The workout starts easily enough with some basic crunches and oblique crunches but moving immediately on to reverse and straight-leg crunches was a killer!

The exercises get harder as the workout progresses, making the last few minutes particularly challenging. Needless to say, as fatigue and lactic acid levels increased, my rep speed decreased, and, by the end, I found myself struggling to do more than a few half-hearted sit-ups.

However, my mother didn’t raise a quitter, so I accepted that these workouts were going to be tougher than anticipated, adjusted my expectations, and kept on grinding.

While things didn’t get any easier, I did find that rep quality started to improve toward the end of the week, and there was less of a performance drop in the closing minutes of the workouts.

That said, I did suffer some gnarly delayed onset muscle soreness, which made coughing and laughing particularly painful. I also got cramp in my abs a couple of times, which was a very unpleasant experience!

Still, I survived my first week of daily 8-Minute Abs workouts and headed into week two ready for more.

Week Two – Still Crunching, Still Hurting

I don’t normally do a lot of crunches. Instead, my abs workouts revolve around bracing exercises like Pallof presses, planks, rollouts, and single-arm farmer’s walks. These exercises force you to use your abs isometrically to prevent your spine from moving. As such, they’re typically done for time rather than repetitions.

In contrast, 8-Minute Abs is all about reps, reps, and more reps, and you are encouraged to do as many as you can in the allotted time.

While rep-based abs training can be effective, the repetitive movements also put a lot of stress on your lower back. It’s for this reason that sit-ups and crunches are often unsuitable for back pain sufferers (1).

While I have no history of lower back injuries, my daily 8-Minute Abs workouts were starting to cause some unwanted aches and pains.

My lower back felt stiff, and my hip flexors were noticeably tighter. This is likely because the hip flexors often work alongside the abs, especially during sit-up and crunch-type movements. There was also no lower back training to balance all the abs work, which probably contributed to my discomfort.  

All that said, my abs were starting to get stronger, and I was able to complete the workouts more comfortably. The first few exercises felt relatively easy, and it was only the last two to three movements that presented much of a challenge.

Because of this, I suspect that if I stuck with 8-Minute Abs for long enough, it would become too easy to be effective. After all, there are only so many reps you can do in a fixed time.

With the workouts feeling easier but my lower back and hip flexors protesting, it was time to end the challenge and evaluate—was 8-Minute Abs delivering results, or was it just wearing me down?

Results and Thoughts

Revisiting 8-Minute Abs after so many years was a fun trip down memory lane, reminding me of when I began working in the fitness industry. But did it live up to the hype? Here’s how doing 14 back-to-back abs workouts affected me.

Improved Endurance

High-rep sets paired with short rests make your muscles more resistant to fatigue. This fatigue resistance is commonly referred to as muscular endurance. While the first few workouts were almost impossible to complete without stopping, the last few were considerably easier.

Improved endurance had a knock-on effect when I returned to my usual abs training routine, and I was able to do more reps or hold static exercises for longer than before. I also noticed that my abs recovered faster between sets.

More Visible Abs

Like most fitness professionals, I was taught that spot reduction is a myth and that doing lots of exercises and reps for a particular body part did not promote fat loss.

However, there is a study that seems to indicate that spot reduction can occur provided you adopt a very specific training method (2). This is somewhat supported by old-school bodybuilders, who often did high-rep, high-frequency workouts for their often awesome-looking abs.

While I may be imagining it, I think 8-Minute Abs made my midsection more defined, suggesting that spot reduction might be possible. It’s worth noting that I made no dietary changes during my 8-Minute Abs challenge, and my body weight remained the same.

Mental Toughness and Discipline

People often avoid doing things that make them uncomfortable, and that includes intense exercise. Two weeks of daily 8-Minute Abs workouts was a tough undertaking and one I thought about quitting several times.

The first week was especially tough as I struggled to even complete the program correctly. I also found doing the same workout every day boring, which made completing the challenge even harder.

However, I persevered and didn’t quit, which helped strengthen my mind and improved my self-discipline.

Updating 8-Minute Abs For the 21st Century

Having revisited 8-Minute Abs, I can say that, from a fitness professional’s perspective, it hasn’t aged particularly well. The routine includes too many similar movements, and relying solely on high reps to train a muscle group is inefficient. Plus, working your abs everyday leaves little time for rest and recovery.

Consequently, I would make the following changes:

1. More Exercise Variety

The original 8-Minute Abs routine is heavy on crunch variations, which overemphasizes spinal flexion. A modernized version should include a mix of: 

• Anti-extension: Ab rollouts or stability ball rollouts
• Anti-rotation: Pallof presses or dead bugs
• Anti-lateral flexion: Side planks or suitcase carries
• Lower ab emphasis: Hanging leg raises or reverse crunches

2. More Attention to Rest and Recovery  

Instead of training abs daily, a more effective approach would be three or four sessions per week, allowing more time for rest and muscle recovery. This will prevent fatigue and reduce the potential for overuse injuries. 

3. Focus on Rep Quality, Not Quantity    

Rather than trying to crank out as many reps as possible, I recommend using a slower, more controlled tempo to make the exercises safer and more effective. This would improve the all-important mind-muscle connection and prevent momentum-based cheating.

4. Balanced Core Training

To counteract the excessive spinal flexion and hip flexor overuse, the program should incorporate lower back exercises such as: 

• Bird dogs
• Back extensions
• Glute bridges

These additions would promote better core stability while preventing lower back pain.

5. Progressive Overload

8-Minute Abs stays the same no matter how strong you get. A modern version should include progressions, so followers are less likely to outgrow the program.

Ways to do this include:  

• Increasing exercise difficulty (e.g., progressing to more challenging variations)
• Increasing volume (e.g., longer holds, additional sets)
• More resistance (e.g., adding weight, or cable/banded core exercises)

With those recommendations in mind, a more updated version of 8-Minute Abs would look like this:

Do this program 3-4 times per week, alternating variations and increasing difficulty over time.  Perform each exercise for 45 seconds, followed by 15 seconds of rest before moving to the next movement.

No	Exercise Type	Exercises
1	Anti-extension	Stability ball rollouts or ab wheel rollouts
2	Lower ab focus	Hanging leg raises or reverse crunches
3	Anti-rotation	Pallof presses (band or cable)
4	Anti-lateral flexion	Side planks (switch sides halfway)
5	Traditional ab flexion	Slow-tempo crunches
6	Glute & lower back activation	Glute bridges or bird dogs
7	Static core endurance	Front plank or hollow body hold
8	Loaded core strength	Single-arm suitcase carry

This modernized approach provides more exercise variety and balance, smarter progressions, and a stronger, healthier core without the drawbacks of the original 8-Minute Abs.

Closing Thoughts

While I enjoyed this trip down memory lane, my two-week 8-Minute Abs experiment was only partially successful. On the one hand, I experienced some improvements in endurance and muscle definition. However, in return, I suffered back and hip pain and got bored of doing the same program every day.

Thankfully, the fitness world has moved on, 8-Minute Abs is largely forgotten, and we know a lot more about how to train and strengthen the core muscles.

It doesn’t have to be crunches, crunches, and more crunches!

So, don’t be tempted to revisit the past with the original 8-Minute Abs program. Instead, try my updated version for a more balanced, lower-back-friendly core strengthening workout.

Have you revisited an old-school workout recently? How did it go? Was it better or worse than more modern training programs? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below – I’d love to hear from you!

References:

1 – Bae CR, Jin Y, Yoon BC, Kim NH, Park KW, Lee SH. Effects of assisted sit-up exercise compared to core stabilization exercise on patients with non-specific low back pain: A randomized controlled trial. J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil. 2018;31(5):871-880. doi: 10.3233/BMR-170997. PMID: 29889057.

2 – Brobakken MF, Krogsaeter I, Helgerud J, Wang E, Hoff J. Abdominal aerobic endurance exercise reveals spot reduction exists: A randomized controlled trial. Physiol Rep. 2023 Nov;11(22):e15853. doi: 10.14814/phy2.15853. PMID: 38010201; PMCID: PMC10680576.

---