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The High Performance Journal - March 11th, 2025

If you ask anyone about the key to losing weight, they'll usually say it's 80% diet.

While this does have some truth, it does signal someone's lack of experience in this field.

Losing weight can become detrimental if a portion of that loss comes from hard-earned muscle.

I've seen plenty of cases (myself included) where someone has lost weight only to have it offset by losing muscle, making them fatter.

In short, you don't want weight loss. You want fat loss. And preferably some muscle gain.

Today, I want to share the workout I did (and recommend to our clients) to help you lose fat.

You ready? Let's go 🔥

I Lost 23 Pounds Of Fat Doing These 3 Workouts

This is the workout I've done, but we prescribe similar programs to ​our clients​ depending on where they're at in their journey.

But first, some review...

To burn fat with your workouts, you need to do 2 things:

• They need to help you retain muscle.
• They should be optimized to help you build muscle despite being in a caloric deficit.

To build muscle, your workouts need to have these elements:

1. Mechanical Tension: They must strain, contract, and elongate under load.
2. Good Form: Keeping form tight helps avoid injury and engages the right muscles.
3. Effort: Intensity stimulates muscle growth
4. Progressive Overload: Do more to give your muscles a reason to grow.
5. Recovery: You want to do enough. Not too much or too little.

How Many Workouts A Week/Workout Schedule

At minimum, you need two workouts a week to keep muscle.

At maximum, you can do four workouts a week, depending on how fast you recover.

I've found that the best workout frequency is three times a week, as this allows for more recovery between workouts, especially for people over 35.

I did a 5-day split (upper, lower, upper, lower, sprint) but split it up over 3 days so it would look like this:

Monday - Shoulders, back, and triceps
Wednesday - Lower full
Friday - Upper horizontal push and bis
Monday - Lower full
Wednesday - Upper push and shoulder
Friday - Sprints

When I did sprints, I treated them as a lower-body workout and moved on to another upper-body day.

I found that breaking the concept of doing this over a traditional split helped me balance my body by incorporating different types of exercises and high-intensity cardio (e.g., sprints).

Important Note: I also hit my shoulders more frequently to amplify their visual effect on my body. You can do this if you feel a specific body part needs to be amplified, but again, you want the right frequency—not too much or too little. Avoid this if you don't like big shoulders.

The Warm Up

Before each workout, I do a short ​6-minute dynamic warm-up​.

If it were an upper body day, I'd do a warm-up that consisted of bar hangs and a lat stretch like this one:

If it were a lower body day, I'd usually do stretches like the World's Greatest Stretch:

Before a workout, on the first set of my first exercise, I'd do two warm-up sets: a light activation set using 25% of the weight I intend to use and a " warm-up " set using 50% of the top weight I intend to use.

The 3 Day Workout

I did three sets for each exercise unless otherwise noted. The first two sets used heavier weights in the 6-8 rep range, and the last set was around the 8-12 rep range.

If a set says myo-reps, I did it using a rest-pause technique called Myo-reps, which you can ​check out here​.

They were all straight sets, but if I had only 30 minutes to work out in the gym, I'd do supersets, as prescribed in our ​Lean Body 90 program​.

Day 1: Upper Body, Shoulders, and Back

Exercises

• Overhead presses
• Weighted chin-ups
• Overhead tricep extensions
• Lateral raises (myo-reps)

Day 2: Lower Body Full

Exercises

• Bulgarian split squat
• Smith machine hip thrust
• Romanian deadlift (barbell)
• Leg press calf raises (myo reps)

Day 3: Upper Body Horizontal Push

Exercises

• Dumbbell bench press
• Single arm hammer preacher curl
• Chest-supported reverse flys (myo-reps)
• Weighted hanging knee raises

Day 4: Lower Body Full

Exercises

• Leg press
• Leg extensions
• Leg curls
• Adductor machine
• Standing calf raises (myo-reps)

Day 5: Sprints

I used a protocol similar to the one I discussed in ​this article here​.

Important Notes On The Workout

• This workout is specific to me. For example, I worked more frequently on my shoulders to increase their size in my body.
• That said, you want to find something personal that's optimized towards how you want to look. Gender, body proportions, and physique preferences are important, so exercise selection needs to be personalized.
• I usually stay at least one rep away from failure to keep my joints fresh and avoid injury.
• To help me maintain and build muscle, I ate at least 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.

The Result? 23 lbs of Fat Down and 2 lbs of Lean Mass Up

The most important thing I want to get through is that this workout won't help you burn more calories per se.

It will help you keep muscle, meaning you're burning fat while keeping your metabolism healthy.

If you do it consistently while keeping protein high, you might be able to add a few pounds of muscle to your frame while leaning out.

While dieting is important, doing the right workouts is crucial to your progress.

Hope this gave you an idea of what workouts to do and helped steer you in the right direction.

Onward and upward. 🚀

- Dan

When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help:

1. The Lean Body 90 System: When you’re ready to get in great shape, Lean Body 90 is the obvious choice. You can get in great shape and reach your fitness goals in just 90 minutes a week. Lose weight and build muscle even without hours in the gym or highly restrictive diets. Join 1000+ students here.

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Disclaimer: This email is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. The information provided should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, and those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician.