Workout Summary
- Main GoalLose Fat
- Workout TypeSplit
- Training LevelIntermediate
- Program Duration8 weeks
- Days Per Week4
- Time Per Workout30-45 minutes
- Equipment RequiredBands, Barbell, Bodyweight, Cables, Dumbbells, Machines
- Target Gender Male & Female
- Workout PDF Download Workout
Workout Description
Do you want to get shredded?
Do you also want to cut down on the hours you spend in the gym on a weekly basis?
With summer right around the corner, I can’t say that I blame you if you answered yes to both of those questions.
I mean, who wants to spend all their time in the gym when they could be hanging out by the pool, shredded, soaking up that summer sun?
That’s why I’ve designed a sequel to the Fast Mass Program.
But instead of packing on size, we’re going to focus on shredding some body fat this go around.
Related: Tank Top Workout - 4 Day Muscle Building Split
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The Basic Component of the Fast Shred Program
In the Fast Mass Program, I introduced you to a time saving intensity booster known as the superset.
In this program, we (for the most part) traded out the superset for compound sets.
What’s the difference? I’m glad you asked. Supersets involve opposing muscle groups, for example you would superset a set of bicep curls with a set of dumbbell tricep extensions.
Compound sets involve the same muscle group. So, for a traditional back compound set, immediately after a set of barbell rows you might hit a set of pullups.
In the Fast Shred Program, I’ve done my best to strategically set up compound sets that involve a heavy lift followed by a set of a bodyweight exercises. This way, you can utilize a heavier weight for the weighted motion without fear of injury risk of a loaded second movement.
That’s not to say that a few compound sets, supersets and giant sets involving loaded exercises weren’t incorporated into this program, but it was avoided for the majority of the sets.
The compound set drastically increases the muscle’s time under tension, thus causing greater overall muscle damage. Combined with proper nutrition, rest, and recovery the end result should be increased muscular endurance and a greater amount of fat loss.
Day 1 – Lower Body
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| 1a. Squat | 4 | 8-12 |
| 1b. Bodyweight Squat | 4 | 12-20 |
| 2a. Dumbbell RDL | 4 | 8-12 |
| 2b. Leg Curls | 4 | 12-20 |
| 3a. Leg Press | 3 | 8-12 |
| 3b. Reverse Bodyweight Lunge | 3 | 10 each leg |
Day 2 – Upper Body
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| 1a. Bench Press | 4 | 8-12 |
| 1b. Pushup | 4 | 12-20 |
| 2a. Barbell Row | 4 | 8-12 |
| 2b. Inverted Row | 4 | 12-20 |
| 3a. Lateral Raises | 3 | 8-12 |
| 3b. Front Raises | 3 | 8-12 |
| 3c. Rear Delt Raises | 3 | 8-12 |
| 4a. 21's | 3 | 21's |
| 4b. Seated Tricep Extension | 3 | 8-12 |
Day 3 – Off / Active Recovery / Abs
off (light cardio 20-40 minutes of walking for active recovery)
Day 4 – Lower Body
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| 1a. Barbell Deadlift | 4 | 8-12 |
| 1b. Single Leg Toe Touch | 4 | 10 each leg |
| 2a. Front Squat | 3 | 8-12 |
| 2b. Side Lunges | 3 | 10 each side |
| 3a. Leg Extension | 3 | 8-12 |
| 3b. Leg Curls | 3 | 8-12 |
| 4a. Standing Calf Raise | 3 | 20 |
| 4b. Seated Calf Raise | 3 | 20 |
| 4c. Jump Rope | 3 | 1 min |
Day 5 – Upper Body
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| 1a. Standing Dumbbell Press | 4 | 8-12 |
| 1b. Band Pull Apart | 4 | 12-20 |
| 2a. Dumbbell Row | 4 | 8-12 |
| 2b. Pullup | 4 | 12-20 |
| 3a. Dumbbell Incline Press | 4 | 8-12 |
| 3b. Incline Fly | 4 | 12-20 |
| 4a. Dumbbell Curl | 3 | 8-12 |
| 4b. Rope Pressdown | 3 | 8-12 |
Day 6 &7 – Off/Active Recovery/ Abs
off (light cardio 20-40 minutes of walking for active recovery)
FAQs
How Long Should I Take for My Rest Periods?
You won’t be taking any rest periods in between compound, super, or giant sets.
After you finished the prescribed reps for all of the exercises in a set, take between 60-90 seconds worth of rest before attacking your next set.
With that said, it is important to know your own ability and fitness level. If you need longer in between sets, take a little longer to rest in between sets.
If I Eat Properly and Do this Program, How Long Will It Take to See Results?
There are quite a few things that will determine your success with this program. Nutrition is indeed a key factor. For fat loss, you want to make sure you are in a caloric deficit. Find out your BMR here, then subtract ~250-500 calories away from that.
Other factors will include the amount of hours you get of sleep each night and how you spend your time recovering outside of the gym.
A good goal to aim for is about 0.25-0.5lbs of fat loss per week. Grant it, this will depend greatly on your current body composition and all of the factors listed above.
Related: How To Build A Fat Loss Meal Plan
What Should I Do For Abs?
Everyone wants a six pack for summer. Feel free to add in ab and core exercises to the tailend of these workouts or on off days.
Check out our full database of ab workouts here.
Can I Switch up the Order of the Workouts/Sub Exercises?
You’re more than welcome to tailor this program whatever way you see fit to better fit your needs and help you reach your goals.
With that said, be cautious about subbing exercises and switching the workout order. You want to make sure you are still able to recover properly from each workout as this is how you will inevitably see the results you want.
If you have any other questions, comments, and/or try the workout, let us know in the comments section below!
208 Comments
Hi there, can you clarify the rest period s— ie, am I resting between each of the 5 bench press sets but no rest between the bench press exercises and the push ups? Basically No rest between each and all exercises in a split? New to super sets , thx so much!
Hi, Karen, yes, I will use the bench press and pushups as an example. For others that may not know, when you see numbers and letters together (1a 1b), that indicates a superset.
To do this superset, you would perform the bench press reps, then immediately do the pushups afterwards. The only time in between is the transition time from one to the other. Once you finish the pushups, then you rest. After that rest period, repeat.
I hope this helps, but please let me know if you need more info. Thank you for reading M&S!
Yes, this totally makes sense — thanks so much for the helpful detailed explanation!! Excited to do the workout sfter
a 4 day split from M and S I’d been doing awhile now, so time to switch it up. Love this site’s workouts and that a real person answers questions! In 2025 I started here w a 3 day full body dumbbell workout I could barely do. Went from 150 and minimal muscle to now 105 and strength and accompanying aesthetics I’d never knew I could achieve… at age 58 no less and adapting the exercises for my home garage gym equipment. . Ppl ask what I do and I tell them about M and S workouts , of which I be done several of the splits once I progressed. Thx so much for such a great resource
We definitely are inspired by your journey and success and appreciate you spreading the word of M&S to those you know. We thank you for being a part of the community!
Holy cow I’ve been keeping with this for 2 weeks and already see a noticeable difference in my body composition. Simple but effective!!
Love it, Bert! Thanks for that feedback, and we hope you see even more positive changes coming. Thanks for reading M&S!!!
I've been out of the gym for a little while and was wondering if this is good for a body recomp or would the fast mass work better with a maintenance intake?
Hey Alex, I think you picked the right one for a recomp. Take this one, and please check in with updates. Thanks for reading M&S!
How do you do this in a busy gym when everyone is fighting for every machine? Just do it like a normal set with shorter rests?? Thanks
Hi Leanne, several of these supersets are set up so you can do them in close proximity without needing extra equipment. In the cases that you do need to make adjustments, then going like a normal set with shorter rest would work. I hope this helps!
Perfect! Yes I thought that would work.
However, going from the leg curl immediately into the leg press in a busy gym won't work because people hover for equipment
I did the day one lower today and really enjoyed it
That could be an issue in most gym, so I get it. Try this. When you are on the leg press, start with the feet high and closer together to target more glutes and hamstrings. Then, lower your feet to the middle of the plate and go wider. This will help you focus on the quads. It's like doing a superset without leaving the machine. I hope that helps!
Hi
Any recommendations for a jump rope substitute for Day 4? My ceiling is a bit low for it. Thanks.
Hi Matt, if you cannot go outside to jump rope, you can do burpees.
Hope this helps!
Thanks. I started this work out this week. I like it so far.
On Day 3, the compound set going from Leg Extensions to Leg Curls is hard as I have one machine at home that does both and switching it back and forth for the different set ups is too cumbersome.
Do you recommend just doing each exercise straight instead of a compound? Or substitute one of the exercises so I can maintain the compound set? (I was thinking of substituting the leg curl since it's already in Day 1.) And if I was to do that which exercise do you recommend to replace it with?
Hey Matt, you can do them straight sets if you like. If you were to replace the leg curl, do it with any hamstring exercise you can do on this page. As long as it works the hamstrings, you are good.
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/exercises/hamstrings
Hope this helps!
Why there is only one Bicep exercise in this program?
Can't answer for the author on that one, but we have an Exercises page with many great bicep exercises if you want to add a couple more.
Hope this helps!
what can I substitute with inverted rows? can I do assisted pull ups instead? is it ok if the bodyweight back workout for Upper 1 and 2 is both pullups?
Hey Joe, yes on all of that. Will never decline pullups when possible.
Any low back machine or reverse hyper exercise would work here. If you don't have access to either, let me know and I will see what else I can come up with.
Thank you for taking your time to answer my question, another one is what can I substitute to deadlift for Lower 2, as I hurt my back not to long ago from doing deadlift
Hi! Can I add some extra arm workouts on the lower body days? If so, how many different exercises can I do on lower body days? What would be the best ones to do? My arm fat is very stubborn. Thank you!
Hi Tasha, I don't think you would need to do more arms on lower body days, but you could add an exercise or two for each the triceps and biceps on upper body days. What are some of your favorites that you want to include?
Hi Roger,
Thank you for answering my question. I also like the hammer curl and cross body curl for biceps. For triceps, I like overhead press w/ a cable and dips or the triangular push-ups. I'm also tight on time, so an hour is the max I have, most days, to work out. TIA!
Those movements work. If you made them supersets and cut a few seconds rest from the other exercises, then you might be able to squeeze them in. If not, then lower body days would be ok. Best of luck!
Hello! Would you advise doing the Fast Mass or the Fast Shred program first? I want to shed fat, so my muscle definition is more pronounced. TIA!
Hi Tasha, definitely Fast Shred in your case. If you go with it, we would love to find out how it worked for you. Thank you for reading M&S!
I can only see one week of the workout, so we just repeat the same workout for 8 weeks?
That is correct, Leila. Your goal is to improve week to week on the same program. Let us know how you do if you try it. Thank you for reading M&S!
I just did this workout and thought I'd share my results! First time doing an intermediate program but felt like I needed to challenge myself more since I've been strength training for 2 years. I was only able to complete this for 7 weeks but I lost 3 pounds and my upper body got super toned. I had to change some workouts as I couldn't do any pullups (not even the assisted ones in the beginning) But I saw a lot of progress. I'm going to come back to this one after trying another program out
I've done 21s before but was wondering. Is it 21 reps per compound set for total of 63reps when done? Like 7,7 and 7 each set followed by the extensions?
Hey Alex, I will try to put this in log form.
Set 1 - 21's (7,7,7) followed by Extensions
Set 2 - 21's (same) followed by Extensions
Set 3 - 21's (same) followed by Extensions
Hope this helps!
Thanks, that’s what I figured and went ahead with it. Enjoyed the pump I got from it.
What are 21’s?
Hi, Jeremiah. They are a three-part exercise, mainly used for barbell curls.
7 reps from the bottom to the middle.
7 reps from the middle to the top.
7 full reps.
21 total, thus 21's.
Hope this helps!
Iam 33years old man my weight is 110kg and my height is 186cm can you give me weight loss program
We have plenty of them to choose from here. You can pick any of these based on your individual experience and schedule.
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/how-to-choose-your-next-train...
Sorry for the question but what’s 1a 1b etc etc ??
Thank you
When you see letters next to numbers, those are supersets or giant sets. You are to perform all the exercises consecutively before taking a rest. Hope this helps.
Hi, so I'm a newbie and interested in trying this but all I have available to me is dumbbells ... Is there a plan to do this with dumbbells instead??
Thank you
Not specifically for this one, but we do have several dumbbell workouts to choose from that will help you move forward on your fitness journey, Jeannie.
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/3-day-full-body-dumbbell-workout
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/dumbbell-only-upper-lower-wor...
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/5-day-dumbbell-only-workout-s...
Hi, thanks a lot for the program. I just want to know what can I swap the normal squat with. I have osteoarthritis in my knees, I can do a box squat but I am trying to find a solution for a normal squat. Thanks
My recommendation would be a box squat with knee sleeves on and talking to your doctor to determine how to proceed after. Hope this helps!
For the core lifts being performed what percentage of our 1 rm should we be doing.
1RM wasn't considered for programs like these, but if it helps, start with 65% of your 1RM and work up from there, depending on how challenging the weight is. You should be able to do no more than the prescribed rep range. If you can, go up in weight next time.
I find myself able to do about 12 on the 1st of the superset but not the prescribed bottom rep amount on the 2nd sets for example: I'll do bench press get 12 then get 12 pushups then I'll get 10 on bench press but 6 pushups, then on Barbell row with Inverted row.. I'll get 12 Barbell row and only 6 Inverted row when im supposed to get 12-20.. how should i got about this??
You could swap the movements you're weaker on so you do those first. That could help you bring the weaker movement up without negatively affecting your strength on the other. Also, it does take time for your body to get used to this kind of training, but you'll eventually see improvements. Good luck, and please let us know how it goes. Thanks for reading M&S!
Ok thank you so much
4a. 21's (What is this Exercise ?