4-WEEK FAT-BURNING PLAN

Leaning down, building strength and tuning up your athleticism needn’t be discrete goals. Fuse hybrid movements and muscle-building protocols for functional fitness that shows

Three workouts that will build muscle and strip away the cladding that hides them

There has long been a trend in fitness to compartmentalise the different aspects of training by season. You know the drill: you pack on muscle and strength during winter; then, come spring, you focus on cardio in an effort to burn away excess body fat, before hammering core workouts as soon as the days start to get longer.

While this seems intuitive (and it has doubtless worked for many of us), the “two steps forward, one step back” nature of this structure can leave you feeling as though you’re living the same year on repeat, stuck in a gym-based Groundhog Day.

At best, this image-centric approach can become frustrating and lead to burnout. And at worst, it can make you feel uncomfortable in your own

skin. You’re not alone if you’ve ever fallen into this trap.

The solution is integrated training – compounding the best aspects of those cyclical workouts into a cohesive plan that ticks all of the boxes. Performing dynamic hybrid movements alongside musclebuilding staples, you’ll sear through body fat, upgrade your core and, crucially, level-up your functional strength along the way.

Before this starts sounding too much like a lofty sales pitch, here is the inevitable caveat: you’re going to have to work for it. But there will be no junk reps, no 1,000-rep sets of crunches, no ego lifting and no lung-searing workouts purely for the sake of it. You’ll get out what you put in and, with this three-day split, you’ll have the opportunity to go one rep better each and every time you train. That’s the surest way of guaranteeing progress.

Switch between the following sessions throughout the week, tracking your reps and aiming to hit a PB every time. Each takes exactly 30 minutes and is structured in a simple but challenging way. Burn, build and improve. Take that, summer.