My friend and strength coach extraordinaire Alwyn Cosgrove once told me that when choosing a topic for an article to think of what people ask about most often.
Considering Alwyn has an annoying tendency to be right almost all the time, clearly I should start writing more about fat loss.
Some experts want you to believe that losing fat is just a simple math problem: eat less and exercise more. While we we'd all prefer a simpler, more concise approach, anyone who's been at this a while will tell you that there's a lot more to getting lean than just that.
Food choices matter. Recovery matters. And maintaining, even gaining muscle as opposed to losing it, matters big time.
In this article I'm going to divulge a battle-tested fat loss protocol I developed, one that I've used for several years to help athletes and physique competitors lose fat and maintain muscle.
It's effective but also extremely versatile, and can be used in virtually any setting, regardless of space or equipment limitations.
However, it's not easy – and if you apply yourself accordingly, you may catch yourself wondering why the heck you're putting yourself through this.
The answer of course, is that if getting ripped were as easy as Grade 4 math, everyone in junior high and beyond would have a six-pack.
The name "Fat Loss 4" isn't just a catchy tagline. It also represents the most important aspects of this workout formula.
A Fat Loss 4 workout is four exercises, performed back-to-back in a circuit style, for a total of four minutes.
There are two basic components to the FL4 protocol: three strength (local muscle conditioning) exercises and one total-body cardiovascular (central conditioning of the heart and lungs) drill.
The four exercises making up a Fat Loss 4 (FL4) circuit are:
The beauty of the FL4 protocol is its simplicity and versatility. You can plug in virtually any exercise you like, provided it fits the category.
That said, I've found that certain exercises seem to work better than others. You'll find some of my favorites later in this article.
A FL4 circuit consists of four minutes of work with one minute of rest, for a total of five minutes.
Each strength exercise is performed for 30 seconds, with 15 seconds rest between exercises.
For example:
Note: Cardio duration depends on how much you need to recover after performing all three strength movements. The longest rest interval I'll allow is 30 seconds, which would put you at 2:30 when starting the cardio exercise.
Ideally, you'll only rest 15 seconds transitioning from strength to cardio, which would put you at 2:15 when starting the cardio drill (and leave you with 1:45 to do cardio).
After you've completed a full four-minute circuit, you'll rest for one minute. We typically perform 2-3 rounds of a given FL4 circuit for a total of 10-15 minutes. (Two rounds is a total of 10 minutes; three rounds is a total 15 minutes.)
There are two intensities to consider in the FL4 protocol:
During the strength exercises within a circuit, you should be able to complete the entire 30 seconds of work with good form and a consistent, controlled tempo.
On a scale of 1-10 (10 being working very hard), you should be at a 7 or 8 at the end of each strength exercise.
On the cardio exercise, we're after a pace that gets you to about 80% of your max heart rate.
By the time you're about to begin the next round of an FL4 circuit, you should feel mostly recovered. Basically, if you can get out a full sentence without huffing and puffing, you're good to go. But if you're still sucking wind after your 60-second rest between circuits, you need to reduce the intensity of the cardio.
Designing a workout is easy once you understand the formula.
I've found it works well to change the strength movements every 2-3 rounds, although as mentioned earlier, I like to keep the cardio drill the same throughout the workout. So although the strength moves may change, the cardio remains constant.
Here are a few sample FL4 circuits.
After performing 2-3 rounds of the same exercises, change the strength exercises and perform a new circuit for another 2-3 rounds while keeping the same cardio drill.
Sticking with the same cardio drill helps develop a consistent workout rhythm, while changing the strength moves every so often creates variety while serving to minimize localized muscle fatigue.
The great thing about FL4 is that it's "plug and play." You can insert just about any appropriate upper body, lower body, core, or cardio exercise you like and get great results.
However, there are a few movements I've found work exceptionally well with both my athletes and general fat loss clients. Here are my top five moves to try when designing your FL4 workouts.
Note: The PowerMax 360 is one of my favorite upper body training pieces.
Note:The exercises above are all either bilateral (two arm or two leg) or alternate limb actions. I've also experimented with unilateral exercises, performing one circuit on the left side and the next round on the right side.
Although this methods works, I've found circuits run smoother with either purely bilateral actions or with alternating limb actions like lunges, where you switch legs on each rep.
I also recommend sticking with compound strength movements instead of smaller, single-joints actions. This should be obvious, but compound strength movements create a better metabolic training response than single joint actions as they involve more muscle mass.
There are four reasons why this protocol works so well for losing fat and keeping muscle:
I also don't suggest using FL4 as your only training method. Blending it with some basic strength training and bodybuilding helps ensure the muscle you've worked so hard to achieve is maintained while focusing on losing fat. You'll see how this is accomplished in the sample weekly training splits below.
Here's a few sample three, four, and five-day training splits showing how to incorporate the FL4 protocol with other strength and bodybuilding methods.
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
A | Bench press (dumbbell or barbell) | 4-5 | 6-8 |
B | Shoulder press (dumbbell or barbell) | 4-5 | 6-8 |
C | FL4 circuits | 6-8 rounds | * |
* total of 30-40 minutes
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
A | Deadlifts (Trap bar or barbell) | 5-6 | 4-6 |
B | Single-leg squat (Bulgarian or free standing) | 3-4 | 6-8 * |
C | FL4 circuits | 6-8 rounds | * * |
* each leg
* * total of 30-40 minutes
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
A | Chin-ups or pull-ups | 4-5 | 6-8 |
B | Single-arm dumbbell row (dumbbell or barbell) | 3-4 | 6-8 * |
C | FL4 circuits | 6-8 rounds | * * |
* each arm
* * total of 30-40 minutes
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
FL4 circuits | 9-12 rounds | * |
* total of 45-60 minutes
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
A1 | Bench press (dumbbell or barbell) | 4-5 | 6-8 |
A2 | Bent over row (dumbbell or barbell) | 4-5 | 6-8 |
B1 | Shoulder press (dumbbell or barbell) | 4-5 | 6-8 |
B2 | Pull-ups or lat pulldowns | 4-5 | 6-8 |
C1 | Skull crushers (dumbbell or EZ bar) | 3 | 10-12 |
C2 | Biceps curl (dumbbell or EZ bar) | 3 | 10-12 |
D | Dumbbell farmer's walk | 4-5 | 1 min. |
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
FL4 circuits | 9-12 rounds | * |
* total of 45-60 minutes
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
A1 | Deadlift (trap bar or barbell) | 4-5 | 6-8 |
A2 | Stability ball weighted crunch | 4 | 6-8 |
B1 | Lunges or step-ups (alternate legs) | 3-4 | 6-8 * |
B2 | Band rotations | 3-4 | 15-20 * * |
C1 | Leg extension | 3 | 10-12 |
C2 | Hamstring curls (seated or lying on Swiss ball) | 3 | 10-15 |
D | Dumbbell farmer's walk | 4-5 | 1 min. |
* each leg
* * each side
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
FL4 circuits | 9-12 rounds | * |
* total of 45-60 minutes
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
A1 | Bench press (dumbbell or barbell) | 4-5 | 6-8 |
A2 | Bent over row (dumbbell or barbell) | 4-5 | 6-8 |
B1 | Shoulder press (dumbbell or barbell) | 4-5 | 6-8 |
B2 | Pull-ups or lat pulldowns | 4-5 | 6-8 |
C1 | Skull crushers (dumbbell or EZ bar) | 3 | 10-12 |
C2 | Biceps curl (dumbbell or EZ bar) | 3 | 10-12 |
D | Dumbbell farmer's walk | 4-5 | 1 min. |
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
A1 | Deadlift (trap bar or barbell) | 4-5 | 6-8 |
A2 | Stability ball weighted crunch | 4 | 6-8 |
B1 | Lunges or step-ups (alternate legs) | 3-4 | 6-8 * |
B2 | Band rotations | 3-4 | 15-20 * * |
C1 | Leg extension | 3 | 10-12 |
C2 | Hamstring curls (seated or lying on Swiss ball) | 3 | 10-15 |
D | Sled or tire drag | 4-5 | 30-40 yards |
* each leg
* * each side
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
FL4 circuits | 9-12 rounds | * |
* total of 45-60 minutes
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
---|---|---|---|
FL4 circuits | 9-12 rounds | * |
* total of 45-60 minutes
Is the FL4 protocol the only method of losing fat while keeping the muscle? Absolutely not! But in my business it's proven to be a safe and effective way to get virtually any client in record shape, fast.
The beauty of FL4 is its elegant simplicity. In my experience, when clients can easily wrap their heads around what they're being instructed to do and why, they "commit" more and as such, get superior results.
On the other hand, excessively complex systems filled with pseudoscientific strength training jargon just yields the dreaded "deer in the headlights" look and subsequently, sub-optimal results.
This powerful fat loss weapon is now locked and loaded in your training arsenal. All you've got to do is use it!
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