A 30-year-old man built muscle and burned fat in 4 months with a time-saving workout technique

For Frade, it means spending more of his precious time in the gym making gains.

“It saves time on waiting around for the muscle to be ready for the next set,” he said.

Ditching the ‘bro split’ in favor of full-body workouts

Another benefit of the superset method is that makes it possible to move beyond the so-called “bro split,” Enaz told BI.

The “bro split” is a pretty standard approach to a gym routine: crush a specific muscle group at a time, with exercises from every angle.

Using supersets, you can create a full-body plan, and work out harder, because you’re not exhausting any one muscle group. Enaz, who is also a clinical dietitian, said that’s a benefit if your goal is fat loss, because a full-body workout offers more opportunities for calorie burn.

Frade said the overall evidence-based approach appealed to him “as a data guy,” and that doing four sessions a week for no more than an hour each fit his ambitious schedule.

Doing a few sets per muscle group more frequently allowed him to make each set count by adding more weight and pushing himself harder, he said.

To burn fat, Frade also dialed in his diet, maintaining a small calorie deficit to burn fat by being more mindful of how much he consumed.

“I can eat everything, I just compromise on the portions,” he said.

Seeing his progress boosted his drive to keep going.

“What I was always lacking was consistency and motivation. I would work hard for two weeks and didn’t see changes so I would stop,” Frade said.

Sticking to his goal and following through gave him a sense of confidence. “It doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it’s possible. I’ve taken that to work, too.”