Some training methods demand a lot of effort to make progress. But what if we told you it’s possible to reduce your workload and keep advancing with your goals? Well, it’s entirely plausible with the 3/60/10 formula.

Marcus Filly is now an online fitness coach, but in 2016 he finished 12th at the CrossFit Games. For six years he had been training three hours a day for six days a week in a bid to become fitter, faster and stronger. It was all in the hope of becoming the best athlete he possibly could – until his body broke down and he burnt out.

‘The hard truth I finally admitted: the same training that built me was tearing me apart,’ Filly explained in a recent YouTube video. ‘The “more is more” mentality keeps most of you stuck in the same loop, always training, never recovering. It’s like trying to keep up with the Joneses financially. You earn more, but you spend more too, so you’re always broke. You train more, but you’re always in debt to your recovery.’

It forced Filly to take stock. He was suffering from back and shoulder injuries, lacked motivation to train, and, crucially, was about to become a dad. He cut back his volume, reducing his training days from six to three in an approach he has now coined the 3/60/10 method.

‘I was terrified I’d get weaker,’ he said. ‘The opposite happened. My intensity went up, my lifts climbed – 226kg deadlift, 400kg leg press – my testosterone doubled without steroids, and I got my life back.’

Now 41, Filly is feeling the benefits more than ever. He believes it’s allowed him to become a more present father and husband, enjoy his training more, and hit every session with the required intensity to keep getting stronger while remaining lean at the same time. This is how you can make the 3/60/10 method work best for you.

The method focuses on the notion of less is more, and is far simpler than it initially sounds. It involves:

• 3 intense strength sessions a week
• 10,000 steps a day
• 60 minutes of cardio spread across the week

‘Three intense sessions beat five mediocre ones every time. The 3/60/10 sweet spot isn’t where you go when you give up — it’s where you go when you grow up,’ Filly says.

He stresses the importance of those three strength sessions being performed intensely – with good form, sets taken close to failure, and progressively overloading as you get stronger.

You should also aim to make the cardio ‘purposeful’, elevating your heart rate as best you can without compromising on quality. It doesn’t have to be one continuous hour session either – Filly says breaking workouts up into two 30-minute, or even three 20-minute, workouts can prove just as effective.

Filly says the 3/60/10 method helps people find the ‘sweet spot’ in their training. The aim is to strike a balance between the minimum effective dose – the least amount of training needed to make progress – and your maximum recoverable volume, or the most you can do while still recovering effectively. And Filly isn’t just talking about recovering for your next workout, but maintaining enough energy to perform well in the rest of your life, too.

‘Between those two numbers is your training window,’ he says. ‘And here’s the part nobody talks about. The closer you push towards that ceiling, the more it costs you outside the gym. Not just sore legs on Tuesday. It costs you patience with your kids. It costs you energy for your work. It costs you the ability to show up to your life with something left in the tank.

‘That’s the 3/60/10 sweet spot. You’re well above the minimum dose. You will build muscle and you will get stronger, and you’re well below your recovery ceiling. You will show up to your sessions ready to actually work.’

It’s Intense

Provided you take each set in those three strength sessions close to failure, you’ll continue to see progress. Volume is a useful way to build more muscle, but reps and sets can sometimes be wasted when they’re taken through the motions.

‘Going to within 1-2 reps of failure with good technique and full range of motion is when your body actually adapts. That’s when muscle gets built. That’s when strength goes up. That’s when body fat starts to come off,’ Filly says. ‘The people who feel like they need five days are usually the ones who need five days to accumulate what they could get in three because they aren’t pushing hard enough.’

But Achievable

For those who are busy or simply don’t want to commit hours and hours of their week to training, the 3/60/10 plan is absolutely achievable. It’s one that doesn’t leave you overreaching, will keep you motivated to continue training, while aiming for 10,000 steps encourages daily movement outside of sessions. For Filly, it’s a useful addition to your week that doesn’t demand much extra effort.

‘The real body-composition lever that almost nobody pulls hard enough is actually steps,’ Filly adds. ‘Ten thousand is the right target because most people can’t hit it by accident, but it’s not so far off that it takes over your whole life. A good walk in the morning and staying on your feet throughout the day will usually get you there.’

If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.