Getting the Most from a Pre Workout

Time to Load Up Your Guns

Thank you for choosing 4 Gauge as your pre workout.

We have created the cleanest and most effective pre workout possible. 4 Gauge was born because we were fed up of the energy crashes and jitters you'd get from stimulant heavy pre workouts.

With this in mind, we have created the 3 below guides to help you get started on demolishing your goals with 4 Gauge.

If you're already a following your own plan, scroll to the end and you can check in with us on Social Media and take a look at some other useful articles we have picked out.

Fundamentals of Nutrition

What better place to start than the fundamentals right?

You've bought 4 Gauge because you want to take your workouts to a whole new level. To be able to smash PRs and hit some high volume gains.

But don't dismiss the value of nutrition when it comes to overall progress.

In this short section we'll break down all you need to know to accelerate your results outside of the gym.

Healthy Workout Foods and a Male and Female

Energy Balance

The first thing you need to decide when you're planning your nutrition is exactly what you want to achieve. If you don't fully commit to the goal or you change your mind too often you'll find that you either make it harder to achieve it... or you don't achieve it at all.

Currently, there's an overwhelming amount of research that suggests the body acts within the laws of thermodynamics - a branch of science that deals with energy flux.

Because of thermodynamics we can predict what happens to your body based on how much energy you put in it. In terms of food, we refer to energy as Calories (or sometimes Joules).

Calories and energy balance

Calorie Surplus - this is where you are putting more energy in your body than you are burning off.
Calorie deficit - this is where you are burning off more than you put in your body.
Calorie maintenance - this is where the amount you burn off and the amount you put in your body are equal.

Predicting fat loss or muscle building by energy intake

Where this becomes useful is deciding whether or not you want to lose body fat or build muscle mass.

If you want to maximize fat loss then you have to achieve a calorie deficit. By doing so your body will try to make up the lack of incoming energy by breaking into its fat cells for stored energy.

And if you want to maximize building some good quality muscle then achieving a small calorie surplus allows you to lay down some new muscle cells with the spare energy that's coming into your body.

Can't you lose fat and gain muscle at the same time?

The reason why we've used the word maximize above is that some people can in fact build muscle and lose fat at the same time - a process called body recomposition.

It happens more so in beginners and those who have a fair bit of fat to lose, but it is possible for many of you.

To successfully 'recomp' is a bit tricky from a calorie intake point of view though. You'll need to work out your maintenance calories and then use a cycling approach. This means having a slightly higher energy intake on training days or lower on non-training days.

Are you starting to see how important calorie intake is?

Hopefully so. So let's take the guess work of your goal setting.

Below is a calorie counter. It uses the strongest, most researched algorithms to predict the exact amount of calories you need to hit your maintenance, surplus, deficit or recomp goals.

Click on this to get started...

Calorie Calculator

So how many calories do you need?

Using this tracker helps you to be much more precise when it comes to daily energy intake.

One word of advice from us? Be honest when it comes to punching in your activity levels and body weight. That way you can be confident that the numbers we throw back at you are bang on.

Maximizing Gains in the Gym

So far we've nailed your calories and you've got your 4 Gauge by your side. All you need now is to set up your training plan.

How you decide to train should be much like how you set up your nutrition - it should be based on your goals. For that reason we've added a few different sample workouts to get you started.

They've been written exclusively for 4 Gauge by our personal trainer and nutritionist team, so you rest assured that they're tried and tested.

4 Gauge for Fat Loss

This fat shredding workout plan uses a two-armed approach - strength training and cardio. Combined. In one horrible circuit-based workout.

But it's guaranteed to help you see results for a few reasons. Firstly, it's tough. That means you'll burn a hell of a lot of calories during the workout.

Secondly, your heart rate and breathing will increase dramatically, helping you to improve long-term cardio fitness - another key to a better body composition.

And last but by no means last, you'll be hitting your major muscle groups with strength training, triggering new muscle growth. The more muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn throughout the day. You'll be a fat burning machine without even knowing it.

This workout uses a circuit-style approach that targets fat through a high calorie burn whilst providing a stimulus for strength and muscle building too. The result is a lean, athletic physique with higher fitness levels.

Complete each exercise back-to-back with minimal rest. You can use the same weights throughout to make your transition quicker and easier.

Once you've completed the last exercise you can rest for no more than 2 minutes before going again. Complete 3-5 rounds in total.

4 Gauge for Muscle Mass

To make some big muscle gains you'll want to follow this 4 Gauge plan.

It's a full body, intelligent strength training approach. That means that rather than following a bro split where you target one main muscle per workout, you're hitting them with less volume per session, but much higher frequency. The result? Good quality muscle mass.

You're looking to add either weight, reps or sets when you can. This allows progressive overload to take place - the key to adding muscle. Follow the plan for 3-4 weeks before taking some light days (often referred to as deloads) before progressing again.

This workout uses a push-pull-legs approach. This way you give each muscle group some recovery time between exercises. The idea is to complete all reps and sets for one exercise before you move onto the next one. Use enough rest time to fully recover between sets.

If you can't complete the set fully, have longer rest periods.

4 Gauge for Fitness

Aiming to boost your fitness is probably the most generic goal. And that works well because there are so many different ways to approach your workout.

The key though is intensity. If you want to develop endurance, stamina and top-end fitness then you're going to have to workout hard.

And because we've already given you two strength-based workouts above (the fat shredding one in particular will ramp up your fitness) we're going to go with something a little different here.

For this workout we've integrated some strength work with cardio - and whilst it's a killer, it's definitely better than pounding the treadmills for an hour.

So we've paired up two supersets for this workout. Each one is 10 minutes long,giving you a workout time of 20 minutes. You can make these longer (or shorter) if you want. Base it around your current fitness levels.

For the first superset you'll be doing a weighted kettlebell carry. Each kettlebell needs to be the same weight as 50% of your bodyweight. So if you weighed 80 kg you'd grab two 40 kg bells. For the sled press you'll use your body weight (including the weight of the sled).

The idea is to complete a set of carries, then move immediately onto the seld. Once you've done that you go back to the carry - with minimal rest. Your aim is to complete as many reps as you can in 10 minutes.

Pairing a heavy carry with a fast sprint will have you blowing sooner than you think. It's a tough workout and a 4 Gauge office favorite too.

The second superset needs just a bar and some weights. Again, you're using your own bodyweight as a marker.

The session is similar to superset 1. Go from one exercise to the next and complete as many as you can until the 10 minutes is up.

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