Elliot Page has been putting in serious training time at one of New York City’s most respected boxing gyms, and a recent Instagram post showing off his physique has reignited a conversation that first started a few years ago: are those abs the result of dedication in the gym, or something else entirely?
Page shared a post crediting his coach, Nolan Hanson, a USA Boxing certified trainer who works out of the legendary Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn. “I’ve been incredibly fortunate to train with @coachnol,” Page wrote. “He’s a brilliant teacher, not just in the way he breaks down complex movements, but also in his strategic understanding of boxing and his thoughtful approach to the psychological side of the sport. Training with Nolan has become an essential part of my life. If you’re in NYC and looking, I can’t recommend him highly enough. Just be warned, you may end up getting as hooked as I am.”
Hanson’s credentials are genuinely impressive. He got his start at the New Bed-Stuy Boxing Center, a community gym in Brooklyn founded by legendary trainer George Washington, whose coaching produced numerous amateur and professional champions.
Hanson trained under two of Washington’s former students, Charles Trammell and Nate Boyd, before later studying Soviet-style boxing under Talap Mamyrkanov, an influence that has left a clear mark on his coaching approach. Like Page, Hanson is trans and goes by he/him pronouns.
Then there are the abs.
When Page first posted a shirtless photo on Instagram after undergoing top surgery, the image went viral almost immediately, and questions about his midsection followed just as fast.
Derek from the YouTube channel More Plates More Dates had previously put out a detailed video 5 years ago examining whether that six-pack came from diet and training or from something surgical.
Derek acknowledged upfront that Page has always maintained a lean frame throughout his career. The issue, as he saw it, was not leanness but proportion. “I think there’s definitely diet involved, I think there’s definitely weight training involved, however I think the development of the muscles themselves look disproportionately progressed relative to the rest of the physique,” he said.
What stood out to him most was the contrast between Page’s abdominals and every other muscle group on his frame. Derek described the mismatch directly: “He’s walking around with toothpick arms, no traps, no visible muscle accrued in any significant fashion, and yet has the six-pack of a guy who’s like 30 pounds heavier in muscle tissue.”
Derek worked back through older photos methodically, including what he called Page’s leanest film role, and concluded that even under those optimal conditions, the depth and protrusion visible in the viral photo simply did not track with Page’s historical physique.
“I just don’t see that translating into those blocky and deep of abs,” he said. “It just does not seem to be there.”
He also pointed to the timing. Page had undergone a subcutaneous mastectomy, and Derek reasoned that if someone is already having one surgical procedure, the threshold for adding abdominal contouring at the same time is considerably lower.
The More Plates More Dates subreddit echoed similar observations, with commenters noting that “no one’s abs have that much mass while the rest of their body is pencil thin.”
Derek was measured throughout. “There’s nothing wrong with it necessarily,” he said, adding that he did not believe performance-enhancing d**gs played any role. His argument pointed specifically to surgical augmentation, not pharmaceutical help.
His final verdict: “Yes as far as the abs, no, I think they’re fake as far as I can tell. I think he actually has abs, I just think he slapped these things on top of them.”
