Dragan Radovic Fitness 4x4 The Way of Dragan PDF

Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan
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Warning
Not all exercises are suitable for everyone.
Please consult your doctor before beginning this exercise

program, especially if:
• You have any pre-existing medical conditions

• You are taking medication of any kind
• You are suffering from injury or illness, or are feeling
unwell
• You are pregnant
• You have not exercised for a long time
The creators, producers and distributors of this program do not

accept responsibility for any injury or accident incurred as a
result of following this program.
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Foreword
By Rajko Radovic
BSc. Sport Science,
Loughborough University
There is no better introduction to this book than simply to have

watched one of Dragan’s $10,000 challenges. Witnessing a man
in his fifties outlasting five…ten…even fifteen athletes, has to
intrigue even the most skeptical of us and leave us with one
burning question: HOW DOES HE DO IT?
Dragan (my father) has always believed that physical evidence is

far more powerful than words, and that is why he has always let
his actions do the talking. But, before you begin reading this
fascinating book, hoping to find the answers and learn the
secrets of lifelong fitness and vitality, I want to briefly share with
you my unique perspective on the fitness phenomenon that is
Dragan Radovic -- the perspective of someone who has
observed his remarkable journey first hand. Most of all I want to
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share with you what I feel is the greatest value of this book; what
I consider to be the most remarkable aspect of everything
Dragan represents, which should offer tremendous inspiration
and motivation to men and women everywhere - old and young:
When I was 14 years old my dad jokingly asked me,
“When are you going to catch me up? When are

you going to get fitter than me so that I can
finally sit down and get old happily?”
It was a longstanding joke with my dad to ask this question, but

of course to a young man who considered himself to be an
athlete, it was also a challenge! That particular year, instead of
just laughing, I responded,
“I’ll tell you when dad…when I turn 21! Because

I’ll be at my physical peak and you’ll be 50 years
old, by which time you’ll be well past it!”
At the time although I was joking, in my mind I was actually very

confident that what I was saying was true and inevitable. It was
a fact of life! At 21 years of age, I thought, a man is in his prime,
and conversely at 50 years of age a man is definitely physically
‘over the hill’! I smiled as I thought to myself ‘sorry dad, but you
know it’s true.’
Perhaps at that point most other fathers would have accepted

that their child was probably right but Dragan, being a man who
has spent most of his life proving people wrong, simply said to
me,
“I will be the fittest I’ve ever been in my life when

I reach fifty, so you’d better start training hard if
you want to catch me!”
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I laughed! This statement was coming from a man who had
been involved in fitness from a young age. How could he
possibly expect to top the excellent physical condition he
achieved in his twenties, at the grand old age of fifty?
The years passed by fast. Before we knew it I was indeed 21

and dad was fast approaching his 50th birthday. Had I been
right? Had time finally caught up with Dad, and worked in my
favor? I was in great shape. I was studying Sport Science at
Europe’s top sports university, and stronger and fitter than I’d
ever been. My resting heart rate was just 35 beats per minute,
and I was training hard every day as an intercollegiate basketball
player. I was indeed at my physical peak and I guess you could
say I was in the prime of my life.
That summer I visited my dad. He had just beaten his own

records in free squats and dumbbell lifts (I won’t mention the
number of reps because it’s almost unbelievable) and I found out
that the week before with almost no running training whatsoever,
he’d run a 10 mile road race in a very good time…barefoot!
Was he fit? It was safe to say he was indeed far fitter than at
any point previously in his life! Of course to me there was
nothing particularly remarkable about this because I’d seen the
gradual progression year to year and it seemed entirely normal.
But, one day after a tough training session together, as I
watched my dad going about his business while I tried to ignore
my incredibly sore muscles, I suddenly recalled the bet we had
made seven years previously. It dawned on me that, at that
time, I had been so sure my dad would be old and ‘past it’ when
he reached 50, that in my mind it was virtually a FACT. And if I
had won the bet, nobody would have blinked an eyelid to hear
that a young sportsman aged 21 had become fitter than his 50-
year-old father! But the remarkable thing was, even at my peak I
still wasn’t fitter than my 50-year-old dad! It was at this point, for
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the very first time in my life, I recognized the incredible value of
what my dad was proving to himself, to me and to society.
I suppose the story could end there. My dad proved his point,
that you can still be fit and look fantastic when you get older. But
the amazing thing is that the story didn’t finish there. As I
approach 26 and my dad approaches 55, I now expect my dad to
be a little fitter each year! This goes against logic and everything
I’ve ever seen or been led to believe.
What is more important than any of the fitness records that

Dragan sets and the $10,000 challenges that he wins against
teams of 10 men is the fact that at the age of 54 my own father
can still physically do everything I can do at age 25 – at my
physical peak! I’m not just talking about the fact that he can lift
more weights or do more squats, or that he still has better
muscular development than me, but that he can still jump on a
basketball court down at Venice beach and play at 100%
intensity with a group of tough young ball players! It is the fact
that he can still wrestle for one hour with a world champion
grappler. It is the fact that he can do hard physical labor on the
house with more energy and capacity than men half his age. It is
the fact that he can jump a fence, swing on a branch or sprint
across a field, not gingerly or carefully so as not to damage one
of his brittle bones or strain one of his tight muscles, but with
bounding energy! He still does all these things as if he were a
young man because he has the physical body and capacity of a
highly trained 25-year-old athlete – at twice the age!
This book is not just about “How to look great at fifty.” Of course
we are all fundamentally concerned with looking good, and
Dragan has discovered the secret to achieving that. But even
more importantly this book is about a way of putting on hold the
ageing process and being at your physical peak well past the
age that any doctors or experts would have ever suggested was
possible.
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As Dragan’s son, it feels quite normal for to have a 54 year old

dad who can still physically do everything I can do. But when I
look around and realize it isn’t normal. Most of my friends’
parents are not the same. It is then that I realize that he has
discovered something truly amazing. Knowing that if I follow his
methods I can expect to be in the physical condition I’m in now (if
not better!) for the next 30 years, is an incredibly inspiring and
wonderful thing.
That is why I have wholeheartedly taught and followed Dragan’s

methods for the past 7 years. I do not do it because he is my
father or out of loyalty to the family business, but because he is
the only man I know who is truly showing the way with actions
not words!
I hope you can change your life by reading this book, like so
many have already. Just open your mind to the possibility of a
different way.
Be inspired!
Rajko Radovic
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CONTENTS
Foreword .................................................................................... 3
A personal note…....................................................................... 9
Just Good Genetics? ................................................................ 11
Ageing & Diminishing Vitality .................................................... 14
A Matter of Perspective…......................................................... 17
My goal for you…...................................................................... 21
Why Do We Exercise?.............................................................. 24
Explain It To An Alien! .............................................................. 25
What is Vitality? ........................................................................ 26
The Importance of Vitality ......................................................... 30
Measuring Vitality ..................................................................... 31
Two Extremes of Fitness .......................................................... 32
What Fitness Is Not…............................................................... 35
Fitness Defined… ..................................................................... 39
Cardiovascular Conditioning..................................................... 41
Summary .................................................................................. 46
1. The “4x4” Principle................................................................ 51
2.Maximizing Energy Output..................................................... 58
3. Simultaneous Cardio- and Muscle Training .......................... 76
4. Minimal Time Investment ...................................................... 94
Getting Started........................................................................ 110
It’s Time to Test! ..................................................................... 115
Your Fitness4x4 Training........................................................ 123
Vertical Lift Guidelines ............................................................ 127
Squat Guidelines .................................................................... 131
The “Dragan Challenge” ......................................................... 134
Frequently Asked Questions................................................... 135
In Closing… ............................................................................ 145
Feedback................................................................................ 146
Questions ............................................................................... 147
Going Further ….. ................................................................... 148
Personal Stats Page ............................................................... 149
Progress Chart........................................................................ 150
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A personal note…
As I take my first steps into the 6th decade of my life I have come
to one conclusion: it is the Fitness4x4 exercise concept that has
allowed me to experience a level of vitality unmatched by any
period in the previous 50 years of my existence. I recall the best
days of my 20s when I believed that I was at my highest fitness
and best physical condition. At the time I would have thought it a
joke if someone had suggested that a 50-year-old man could be
in the same condition. Yet here I am at 53 years of age,
undeniably fitter than I was in those days of my ‘peak fitness’ and
capable of physical feats that are simply beyond anything I could
have done at that time.
Today I am experiencing an added quality of life which was not

there in my ‘younger days’ when my appreciation of sound health
was yet undeveloped and my good physical condition taken for
granted. Growing older made me understand life in a different
way and mature mentally. The combination of physical vitality
and mental maturity has created a new dimension in my life – an
experience beyond words.
It saddens me to see that so many others of my generation are

resigned to an “old person’s lifestyle” and can only nostalgically
reminisce about their youthful vitality. This is not how life is
meant to be. It is not natural (as we are led to believe) – it is
avoidable and, to some degree, reversible.
Fitness4x4 has been constantly evolving over the past 14 years

and, with it, my physical condition. Today I am at my peak
fitness and I don’t speculate about fitness theoretically – I
practice what I preach, and I teach others what I have
experienced to work effectively. Since I turned 50 three years
ago I have been breaking my previous year’s record regularly – I
am confident that this trend will continue for some years to come.
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Fitness4x4 has allowed me to extend the energy of youth
beyond my most optimistic expectations. I have no doubts that it
can do the same for you if you give it a chance.
Good luck,
Dragan
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Just Good Genetics?

Today, at the age of 53, I enjoy the unique privilege of being able
to stage fitness contests against fit young men who are half my
age or younger. My unusual fitness level impresses people who
watch my contests, but many seem to think that it is good
genetics that enables me to be in the condition that I am at this
age. I strongly disagree with this assumption. No doubt,
genetics play a part, but without Fitness4x4 I would be no
different to millions of others of my generation.
Several of my first cousins, who are the same age as me, are
surely of the same genetic stock but are still no different to what
you would call typical 50 year-olds. I remember them to be very
healthy young men – always healthier and stronger than myself.
It is obvious to me that the noticeable differences in our physical
conditions today are the direct result of our different lifestyles,
not our genetics. I am grateful for undeniably good genetics but
it is Fitness4x4 that has allowed me to have the health I enjoy
today.
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When I was a very young child I caught pneumonia and had my

first experience of being in hospital. Waking up in the hospital
room the very first morning was a terrifying experience for me. I
looked in the direction of the glass doors, hoping desperately to
see my mother or my father. The minutes stretched to eternity.
Today, fifty years on, I can vividly recall that experience and feel
the same fear and despair. If I dwell on that experience long
enough I begin to feel sickness in my stomach.
My childhood and school days were frequently interrupted by

visits to hospitals. It seemed to me that my classroom friends
were growing bigger and stronger by the week, while I
stagnated. Towards the end of my high school I was one of the
smallest and weakest in my class. Every fall and winter my
knees and shoulder joints would trouble me and I would often
wake up with pain in my shoulders, my knees or both. I was
diagnosed with some form of inherited rheumatism which, I was
told, was to stay with me for life.
By the time I entered College I was tired of being physically

inferior to the other boys and not being able to make a
contribution to any of the sports teams. I knew I had to do
something to catch up with those more athletic boys and I began
to take an interest in exercise. Soon I started to notice the
improvements in my physical condition that came from
exercising. I made considerable physical improvements during
my years at College, gradually overtaking most of my
classmates.
In my final year of College, the class had a fitness test. Among

other exercises, we were tested on our free-squat performance.
With just under 200 squats, I was the best in my class and
earned the respect of my classmates. I felt like a fitness star and
I was very proud of my achievement! Many of my classmates
could not manage more than 40 or 50 squats, which made my
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200 squats seem impressively high. I thought that I was at the
pinnacle of my physical condition!
More than 30 years have passed since the day that I proudly
completed those 200 squats in my College fitness test. Now at
the age of 53, it would be normal for me to be nostalgic about
those days of youthful vitality, energy and vigor. It is very
common to hear the woeful expression “I wish I was young
again.” The reason people say that is because they miss the
vigor and energy that they had when they were young.
I do not long for the vitality and vigor of my youth, simply

because my present physical condition is superior to what it was
in my twenties. The 200 squats that gained me admiration from
my classmates, would today be hardly enough for my warm-up,
quite literally. My present level of fitness allows me to perform
1000 squats in 30 minutes and to lift 35lb dumbbells over 1000
times continuously in less than one hour. Both of these tasks
require about 2 million units of energy (this is explained later in
the book). To put this in a different perspective, the 1000 squats
that I do as a warm-up today would probably have exceeded the
combined score of the rest of my class at College. My highest
expectations in those days, as to how fit I would be at 50, would
still have fallen short of what my present physical condition is.
This is a great privilege.
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Ageing & Diminishing

Vitality
Why has ageing been made synonymous with all the negative
changes that the human body goes through in the course of
time: crumbling health, shrinking muscles, diminishing vitality,
loss of energy, lethargic feeling, etc? Is it because that is how it
was meant to be naturally, or simply because that is what
happens to most people? Was our Creator’s intention (call it
“Nature”, “God”, or anything you wish) that we enjoy vibrant
health only during the short episode of life we call “youth” and
spend the rest of our lives in a state of progressive decay? Isn’t
life already short enough as it is? Why should only a small
fraction of it be enjoyed in vibrant health?
These issues did not enter my mind when I was in my twenties –

good health was naturally there for me and I took it for granted.
But the realization that things might not always be that way came
soon.
At my 30th birthday party, a friend of the family (who was also a

doctor) came up to me to offer some friendly advice about my
training (my father had told him about my strenuous exercising):
“Dragan, I respect your devotion to exercise and healthy living

and I know you like to exercise strenuously, but as your friend
and as a doctor I would like to remind you of something
important. At age thirty you are certainly not old, but neither are
you young anymore. Your body changes, whether you like it or
not, and it cannot take the physical strain that it could have taken
when you were ten years younger. Be careful – don’t over-exert
yourself and get all kinds of injuries…”
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Although my father’s friend had the best intentions, his short
monologue was the most unpleasant birthday message I have
ever received. His words echoed in my mind for many days to
come. Were his words the truth about life and ageing? Had I
just begun a long, unpleasant, downhill slide to the pits of
physical existence just because I was not in my twenties
anymore? Was this really the beginning of the rest of my life,
with my youth behind me? Had my body passed its fitness peak
already? These and similar questions kept coming back to me
and I didn’t know the answers.
More than twenty years have passed since that occasion. I have
no idea whether this doctor is still alive or where he might be
now. But I will never forget our dialogue in which I had so little
to say. I often feel that I would like to have another conversation
with him, particularly when I reach new peaks of fitness now after
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the age of 50. I wish I could tell him that his well-intentioned
advice was way off the mark and how at 53 I am still looking into
the future to discover what my true physical potential is. Today,
my exercising is even more strenuous than it was in my twenties,
and I don’t see myself slowing down in the near future. My
doctor-friend was wrong. I strongly believe now that the human
body does not have to become more fragile and delicate after
the age of thirty, forty or even fifty.
Now that I have passed 50 years of age, I have learned –

through experience – that losing physical vitality as you get older
is not a fact of life. What is factual is that we will one day get old
and become a shadow of our younger selves, and eventually die.
But, as far as the ageing process is concerned, we do have a
say in the matter. It is our choice whether to get old fast and
ascribe it to “natural causes” or to stay young for a good portion
of our lives and be grateful for the opportunity.
The state of one’s health and vitality is not a predetermined

destiny. You cannot rely on the position of your stars or read
your astrological chart to find out whether the cosmic authorities
have allocated some vitality. Instead, you need to turn to
yourself and use your own resources to keep your body in good
health.
It is essential to recognize the difference between “ageing” and

“premature ageing”. They are not one-and-the-same, as most
people perceive them. Distinguishing the two opens a very
important door in life: we have a choice!
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A Matter of Perspective…
We all observe and understand exercise from our own individual
perspective, which is based upon what we have learned, seen
and experienced. You might say that this perspective is the set
of glasses we wear. For example, two people might see exercise
in two very different ways depending on the ‘glasses’ they are
wearing. A man placed in solitary confinement in a prison cell
may see exercise as a way to ensure his basic survival and
preserve his sanity. In contrast, a rich housewife in Beverley
Hills might see exercise as simply being an enjoyable leisure
option, as her attractive personal trainer takes her through a fun
workout. So what exactly is exercise, and why do we do it?
In Fitness4x4 we aim to replace your old glasses (your

perspective on exercise) with a brand new pair that sees
exercise in its simplest and most objective form. Through these
new glasses you will be able to observe exercise and fitness with
a new clarity. What you see may surprise you and challenge
what you thought was fact. But one thing is for sure: if you
choose to stick with the new pair of glasses and adapt to the new
perspective, you will take your own physical well-being to a new
level.
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The Fitness4x4 concept is a fascinating new approach to

exercise that is on one hand so simple and logical, yet on the
other hand so radical and controversial. It is controversial
because much of what Fitness4x4 states theoretically (and
proves physically) goes completely against traditional
understanding and teachings on exercise. However, if you
approach this book with an open mind, you will find everything
you read to be very logical. You may even find yourself asking,
“This makes complete sense - why has nobody else thought of it
before?” Perhaps because there is a difference between
thinking and actually doing! I’ve spent the past fifteen years
‘doing’, and as you read my book, that is exactly what I want
from you. Start doing and let the results speak for themselves.
Another thing some people say to me is,
“I’ve seen what exercises you do and I’ve heard

about your concept and frankly it’s nothing new.
I’ve seen those exercises before, and the idea of
using the upper and lower body is an old one!”
I would respond in the following way…

Think of your favorite song or piece of music. It is made up of a
series of musical notes, or chords in a particular combination. In
fact every song ever written is made up of a collection of simple
musical notes. However to say that all songs are basically
exactly the same because they use the same notes is clearly
missing the point. What makes every song unique and special is
how these simple notes are combined; the speed they are
played; the performer playing or singing them, etc.
In Fitness4x4 there are four very clear principles that make up
this new and revolutionary concept of exercise. How these four
principles are neatly woven together is what makes this concept
so effective!
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So as you progress through the book, if you are tempted to say:
“Enough theory Dragan….just tell me what

exercises I need to do to get in shape!”
try to remember that every exercise Fitness4x4 teaches you to

do is only valuable because of how it fits into this unique theory
of training. The exercises themselves are like the musical notes -
on their own they are nothing, but within the right framework they
produce something special.
We all want to discover some secret new set of exercises that

will miraculously get us in shape with minimal effort. That is
precisely why the various miracle abdominal machines sold on
TV were so popular – people believed that with a miraculous
new gadget or exercise routine, they could find a short cut to
those great abs! In reality the only weight that people lost was
from their wallets.
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In the past ten years I have been frequently asked, “Dragan,
what’s the secret to your abdominals?” Most people assume I
perform thousands of crunches per day, or have a secret set of
abdominal exercises. The truth is I have barely performed sit-ups
or crunches at all in over ten years! The secret to my abdominals
is quite obvious to me, yet when people hear my secret they
often dismiss it as being a cover up, or simply untrue. The truth
is the secret to every aspect of my physical condition is
something I call Energy Output Capacity. It is not what special
set of exercises you do, or what special contraption you use! .
The body’s ability to produce energy is what dictates vitality, and
is what allows me to be in the shape I’m in, and to have great
abdominal definition permanently – in season, off season…any
season!
Fitness4x4 is not just a new
exercise method – it is a
liberation! As you begin to focus
all of your efforts and thoughts
on dramatically changing your
body’s ability to produce energy,
you will find you no longer have
to battle in vain with all of those
things you thought were your
priority – i.e. losing a few inches
around your waist; building
bigger biceps; developing a six-
pack; toning your thighs and butt
etc. etc. These things become
peripheral concerns that you are able to achieve much more
easily once you understand grasp your main goal. This book will
help you to see what that main goal really should be…
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My goal for you…

Above all else, this book is written to be a source of inspiration.
Even more than teaching you a new method of exercising, my
intention in this book is to make you curious. To have you
wondering ‘how on Earth is it possible for this man to do what he
does at his age?” If I have you asking that question then you
have already opened your mind to new possibilities. And I want
to share with you the very realistic possibility of achieving greater
fitness and vitality with every year of your life that passes.
.
My intention is to give you something far more than just another
fitness book with a new set of exercises and eating plans. My
intention is to give you exactly what I have – ageless vitality.
And it may require a revolution in the very way you understand
exercise. It may challenge everything you thought you
understood. But it will offer you something greater than you may
have ever imagined. I could never have imagined achieving
peak physical condition after the age of fifty, but now I know that
it is entirely achievable by anyone willing to open their mind to a
new way!
I have spent the past thirty years of my life working in health

clubs in almost every continent. I have dealt personally with
literally thousands of individuals seeking to change their physical
well-being. Almost every individual I have dealt with in that time
has explained to me in detail their very specific and unique
fitness needs, and how they can’t seem to achieve their ideal
shape. On a daily basis people ask me, “Can you help me lose
weight? How can I get as ripped as you? Can you help me get
bigger?” etc etc… My answer to these questions is always this:
“Perhaps I can help you achieve your goal and perhaps not.
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I am not in the business of weight loss or bodybuilding. But what
I can offer you is far, far greater. I can show you how to change
the very core of your physical being. If you can recognize the
benefit of this, then I will help you change your life.”
In my profession I make only one guarantee. If you follow my

principles you can change the very essence of your body as a
producer of energy. As human beings we are producers of
energy. Most of us tap into only a fraction of our capacity to
produce energy. You might say that most people are like
partially charged batteries, gradually losing power and energy
every passing year. I can show you how to become a fully
charged battery, regardless of your age! In fact many people
who take up Fitness4x4 are able to increase their energy output
capacity by more than 500% regardless of their starting point.
And when you have a body that has a 500% greater capacity, is
it not logical that you are in a vastly superior position to now
consider some of those other fitness goals, such as weight loss
or muscle gain, or indeed any other specific fitness goal?
The aim of this book is to show you the value of optimum vitality,
and teach you how you can achieve it with minimal time
investment.
The legendary Bill Kazmire congratulates Dragan after another successful challenge.
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Your Task
As you come to terms with the theories and principles behind
Fitness4x4, there are times when it will be necessary to simply
put down the book and just do it! After all, I did not get where I
am today by theorizing! To help you get started I have designed
a series of tasks for you to fulfill as you progress through the
book. Some of these tasks are physical and others require some
thought, but all of them are essential. Tasks will always be
found in RED type. It is important to stop your reading and
complete each task before progressing if you are to genuinely
benefit from this program.
As your Fitness4x4 training begins and you discover your own

upper body fitness capacity, the theory and the practice will start
to become so tightly meshed that they form an unbreakable
bond. When you reach this stage your physical well-being will
be forever changed!
In section one of the book we start with the basics, by defining

exactly what is meant by the terms fitness, exercise and vitality.
When you truly understand these terms, it is like putting on your
new pair of glasses. Without them your progress is slow because
you do not have a clear view of your path, but with your new pair
of glasses you will find that you don’t just walk in your new
direction…you run!
The main section of the book is an explanation of the Four

Principles of Fitness4x4, the very foundation and framework of
this exercise concept.
In the final section of the book you will learn how to begin your
Fitness4x4 training, and start achieving optimum fitness and
vitality.
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Why Do We Exercise?
This is the very first question I ask upon beginning my fitness
seminars. Though it seems an easy question to answer, it has
proven to be more difficult to answer than one might expect.
Stop for a moment, take a pen and complete the following task:
TASK 1
Without referring to any books, in the space below
answer the following question: -
What is the purpose of exercise?
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Explain It To An Alien!
Imagine for a moment that you are sitting at home when
suddenly an alien appears by your side. The alien informs you
that it has been transported to Earth to observe human life, and
asks you to go about your normal day-to-day business. It will
simply watch and ask questions. When evening comes, you tell
the alien you are going out to exercise. The alien does not know
what ‘exercise’ is, so before you depart you must try to explain in
the most logical and understandable way what it is you are going
out to do and why?
Take another look at what you wrote
on the previous page and ask yourself
whether it would be understandable
and logical to the alien? All too often
our purpose for exercise is not an
objective one.
When you come back to basics, you
will discover that the only objective
purpose for exercise is to achieve and
maintain optimum vitality. All other
purposes for exercise are subjective. When we define the
purpose of exercise, it shouldn’t just make sense to a sportsman,
a doctor or fitness professional from the 21st century – it should
make sense to an uneducated man from the 12th Century! So if
you said the purpose of exercise is to be in shape, to lose a few
pounds, to be a better sportsman, to be bigger, to relieve stress
or even to have fun, your reason would not be universal and
would not make sense to all people from all walks of life. For
example, losing weight might seem like a sensible aim in our
culture, yet there are cultures that would find the desire to lose
weight most unnatural and instead favor large, full bodies.
Maximizing vitality, on the other hand, is much closer to a
universally acceptable purpose and accepted by all people past
and present, because you would be talking about a state of
physical well-being. So how do we define vitality?
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What is Vitality?
Dictionary Definition: “Persistent Energy”
Vitality is a human quality that reflects a person’s state of

physical well-being. It is the one major thing that determines
whether we are physically young or old. Children are perhaps the
most obvious examples of physical beings with great vitality:
they can run, jump, play and fight all day long! However as we
age, this ‘persistent energy’ appears to gradually decline. Our
vitality, which is a reflection of our physical well-being, gradually
declines.
But how do we measure our own level of vitality from year to

year, to know if we are indeed ageing or not? How do we know
at any age whether we have excellent vitality or poor vitality?
How do we know precisely what physical condition we are in? To
answer this question, let’s consider the following example:
The old farmer and the young farmer

There are two men working on a farm. One man is 20 years old,
and the other is 90 years old. Both are full of energy in their
daily activities and both complete the same amount of work each
day. Which one is more vital? We can reasonably assume that
the 20 year old must have greater vitality, but how could we
prove this? Perhaps the old man is full of life and seems to
always be full of energy. So how can we objectively say who
has the greater vitality? There is a simple way: -
We must test them!

If day-by-day we gradually increase the daily physical workload
of the old man and the young man, there will come a point when
26
one day, one of them will no longer be able to keep up with the
physical demands of the work. This person will no longer have
the energy to perform the tasks. Or, they may be able to perform
the tasks, but physically they will find it harder and harder to
recover each day, until the point where they simply cannot
recover. Clearly the person who can produce the most energy in
a given time, and repeat this energy expenditure time after time
without physically breaking down, is the person who is more
vital. In other words vitality may also be defined as the ability to
produce energy.
Actual
Vitality Maximal Energy Capacity
Pseudo
Vitality Maximal Energy Capacity
Average Daily Energy Average daily Energy

Output Output
Young Man Old Man
If we only look at the average daily energy output of both

men, we can only find out how much vitality they appear to
have (pseudo vitality), and for both men it is the same. In
order to establish objectively which man has the superior
vitality, we must test to find out the maximal energy capacity
of both individuals. It is then that we discover who has the
greater ‘actual vitality’.
27
Vitality is determined not by age, but

by energy capacity.
28
Vitality is an objective measure of a person’s level of persistent
energy. It is entirely possible that a person aged 40 may have
greater vitality than a person aged 20, if the 40-year-old’s body
can do more work, produce more energy and recover faster. In
the above example of the farmers (and in numerous examples in
real life), until we perform a test, it is impossible to say who is
more vital – the young man or the old man. The reason we
cannot say is that ‘pseudo-vitality’, or the appearance of vitality,
in everyday life is dependant on a variety of factors such as: a
person’s state of mind; what stimulants they may be taking, skin
condition, sun tan etc… If we simply look at how vital a
person appears to be (pseudo vitality), we cannot make an
objective assessment.
TASK 2
Take a few minutes to answer the following question
What is the importance of vitality to you personally?
29
The Importance of Vitality

Most people are not aware of the true level of their physical
vitality and are thus ignorant of the abundance of joy that is
available from being in one’s best health. Some are opposed to
the idea of exercise. “I don’t need that,” they say. “There are
other things in life besides health and fitness,” as if to suggest
that if you are in your best health, somehow, you do not qualify
for other joys of life. It seems that such people believe they have
evaluated all the things of value in life and found a “happy
medium”.
Small-town mentality
This attitude reminds me of some people from the small town
where I was born who, with inexplicable confidence, talk about
the downfalls of other places in the world and praise the place
where they live although they have never been anywhere else!
Until you have experienced a high level of vitality, you cannot

know the limitless opportunities for joy that it presents.
To me, to say that vitality and health are “just one among other
important things in life” is like saying that the Sun is one of the
many important planets in our solar system. It is not! Without the
sun, we would not be alive to even know about other planets and
philosophize about their importance.
Vitality is the essence of a good quality of life. Having a high

level of vitality allows you to fully experience and enjoy all the
other dimensions in life more fully. Without vitality, any of life’s
other endeavors and successes will be constrained and not fully
realized.
So how do we measure vitality?
30
Measuring Vitality
We measure a person’s vitality by their level of fitness. Fitness is
the very tangible and measurable thing that defines your vitality.
We may say that fitness is the missing link…
Which brings us to the important issue of What Fitness Is, and

common misconceptions about fitness, or What Fitness Is Not.
Let’s first begin with an exercise:
TASK 3
When you think of the best ways to improve your
fitness, what are the activities that spring to mind?
List your top five fitness activities:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
31
Two Extremes of Fitness

In Fitness4x4 we have a somewhat different view of fitness to
the norm. To help you understand how we arrived at our
definition, try the following…
Imagine you have to buy a car, but you are limited to a choice
of only two. They are both very different, but they are the only
cars available, so you must choose one of them.
The first one is a Drag Car. It is an incredibly powerful machine
with a huge thundering engine capable of reaching
unbelievable speeds. It has raw power, but terrible fuel
efficiency and cannot take long journeys! Also because it is so
highly tweaked, it just might break down at any moment –
burning wheels; exploding engines, etc! But it certainly looks
awesome and is hugely impressive!
The second car is almost the exact opposite. It is a highly
efficient solar powered car with a space age graphite body,
capable of driving mile after mile without re-fuelling. It will
quietly take you as far as you want to go, but it is not
particularly impressive to look at and it is very slow.
Picture yourself standing in the Car Yard, with only these two
cars to choose from. Which one do you choose? Probably you
are thinking, “Isn’t there a third car that is somewhere in
between these two extremes?”
In fact the salesman tells you there is a third car that has the
best qualities of both of these cars and none of the
drawbacks…but it comes at an incredible price that is way out
of your league. So you are stuck with a choice of two.
Which one would you choose?
32
When it comes to exercise, most people are split between a
choice of two opposites just like the two cars we just described.
You can chose the strength, power, muscular development and
the physically impressive rewards of weight training (the Drag
car!) or you can choose the endurance, efficiency, leanness and
cardiovascular fitness that is gained from running, cycling,
aerobics and other such activities (the solar powered car!). And
the reality for most people is that there really is no third choice.
Some people believe there is a third choice – that you can have
the best of both worlds by splitting your workouts evenly between
cardio and weights - but reality proves this to be untrue. That is
why you do not see the winner of Mr. Universe leading the pack
at the New York Marathon, or the Marathon champion on the
stage posing next to Mr. Universe!
To have both of these extremes of fitness – muscular
development and cardiovascular fitness is theoretically possible
using conventional training methods, but it comes at a price most
people cannot afford to pay. And that price is time investment.
For a handful of people who can afford to spend all day everyday
combining bodybuilding and cardio training, there is a middle
ground, but for the majority of the world’s population, this is far
from being an option.
The Third Choice

In Fitness4x4 however we believe there is a third choice – a
middle ground that is within reach for everybody. You might
think of it as being the BMW 7 series. It is not quite as fast as the
drag car, yet it is faster than many sports cars! It is powerful but
it will not explode or break down at any moment because it is
also incredibly strong, and can drive for hundreds of miles. It is in
essence the best of both worlds.
Fitness4x4 is perhaps the only training method in the world that
offers the perfect balance between muscular development and
cardiovascular fitness. And most importantly it is within any
33
person’s reach because of the principles you are going to learn
in this book…
The most obvious real-life illustration of the fact that very few
people truly occupy this middle ground of total body fitness is in
the Vertical Lifts challenge. Whatever the fitness or strength
background of the challengers, the result is always the same:
Nobody has the combination of cardiovascular

conditioning and muscular conditioning in the upper
and lower body to come even close to winning the
challenge!
But with the right approach to training and an understanding of

the Fitness4x4 principles, we can offer you the keys to that
BMW!
We can offer you complete fitness, but first you must recognize
precisely what fitness is and what fitness is not…
34
What Fitness Is Not…

Fitness is one of the most commonly used words in exercise, yet
it is perhaps the least understood. Not only will the precise
definition of fitness vary greatly depending upon which dictionary
or Sport Science manual you read, but even more so depending
on who you talk to. For example a swimming teacher might say,
“if you can swim 30 laps non-stop, you’re pretty fit.” But it is
entirely possible that the world’s best marathon runner can
barely swim, and might be totally exhausted after 2 laps! Fitness
therefore is not a skill – rather it is a measure of one’s vitality.
All too often we interpret somebody to be fit based on the wrong

criteria, usually their appearance. For example, women all
around the world will often wrongly equate slimness with fitness,
saying, “she looks really fit”, with reference to a slim fashion
model. In most cases the waif-like model would probably fall
very short if measured against an objective definition of fitness,
and would actually show up to be very unfit!
Similarly many guys who bodybuild may appear to be very fit

because of excellent muscular development, yet internally their
cardiovascular conditioning and physical ability to produce
energy is very poor. Therefore we cannot assess a person’s
fitness level by appearance alone.
A similar assumption is that top-level sportsmen must be very fit.

However in Fitness4x4 we do not make this assumption because
it can be entirely wrong. Some years ago I worked as Manager
of a sports club that featured a high level squash team (similar to
racquetball). Traditionally squash has been known to be a sport
requiring tremendous fitness, and thousands of people across
the world actually take up squash as a means of ‘getting fit’. In
this squash team were various elite players, one of whom was a
man in his early 40’s known to be one of the best players in the
35
league. Being such a good player, it was assumed by most that
he must be very fit. It therefore came as a terrible shock when
one day he suffered a massive heart attack, and sadly died.
Nobody expected a fit squash player to die of a heart attack – it
didn’t seem to make sense.
And yet from another perspective it was not totally inexplicable or

mysterious. Why, because sporting ability is not an accurate
indicator of fitness – it is an indicator of skill. Sometimes in
sport, the greater a player’s skill, the better they are able to
conserve energy and use tactics to replace physical effort. Most
of us will at one time or another have played against a wily old
opponent who has learned to play extremely effectively with
minimal effort. In these cases it is not their fitness that makes
them great players, but their skill. And yet all too often we
incorrectly associate sporting participation with physical fitness.
We presume that a person who plays tennis six days per week
must be pretty fit.
The fact is we cannot objectively evaluate a person’s fitness until

we test them! In Fitness4x4 we make no assumptions – we
simply test. And that is the wonderful thing about fitness: it can
be tested. The test is objective. It does not see a person’s
appearance, a person’s sporting status or a person’s age. It
simply asks,
“What is your body capable of doing?”
Once you have changed your body’s energy capacity, you are
then in a far superior position to focus on the subjective issues
such as appearance and muscle size.
36
Appearances Can be Deceptive

I have an old friend in California whom I visit perhaps once each
year. Like most old friends, he never hesitates to let me know
how he thinks I’m looking. Sometimes it is complimentary while
at other times it is quite the opposite. As much as I try not to be
influenced by opinions of my appearance, like most people I
cannot help but take notice. On one such occasion several
years ago, I visited my friend in the middle of winter after a
particularly difficult few months during which I had changed jobs
and been forced to sell my house. Consequently I was pale
skinned, I had lost some weight and clearly the stress was
showing in my tired face. As I spent the evening with my friend
and his wife, he eventually said,
“You know what Dragan, you look terrible. I think your age has
finally caught up with you. Are you not training anymore, you
look like you’ve lost 20lbs!?”
As much as I tried to ignore his words, I found myself beginning

to wonder, “maybe I really am getting old – maybe I am starting
to go downhill.” It was an unpleasant and very depressing
thought. So as I entered the local health club the following day I
decided to do an experiment: to test my energy output capacity.
I knew that at my peak I could perform 1000 free squats and
1000 vertical lifts of 35lbs in the same workout. Performing such
a feat was an incredible demand physically and mentally, and
was not something I could do if I was not in top condition. So I
said to myself, “let’s see what my energy capacity really is, and
then I’ll know if I’ve aged.”
1000 squats and 1000 lifts later I very proudly took my shower
and drove home with tremendous satisfaction and relief,
because I knew that in terms of vitality, I was not a day older!
The point is that our appearance is a subjective thing. To our

mothers we may always look wonderful; while on the very same
37
day our friend may tell us we look fat, thin, old or unfit. Vitality,
on the other hand, is objective and never wrong. It goes beneath
the surface to the very core of what we are, and it tells us exactly
how it is! That is why a person who makes physical appearance
their overriding objective in exercise, before changing their
body’s energy capacity can never win. In contrast, the person
who makes vitality the foundation of why they exercise can
achieve the impossible – they can freeze the ageing process.
They can simultaneously achieve the best shape of their life
(bigger muscles or a smaller waist), but they recognize that
changing body shape is one of the many peripheral reasons for
exercise – not the central reason.
Just a few weeks later I saw my old friend again, having spent a
few weeks eating, training and sleeping well in a sunny climate.
I had gained a few pounds of muscle, taken a good rest and got
a good suntan. I laughed when my friend told me I was looking
better than he’d ever seen me look in his life. I was now 50
years old and he’d known me for 40 years! I deliberately took
no notice of his compliment even though I knew he spoke with
total honesty, and instead that night I again visited the gym. An
hour later, having again achieved a high energy output, I smiled
as I thought to myself,
“How deceptive appearances can be!”
38
Fitness Defined…
We define fitness as: “The ability to sustain controlled
physical exertion at high intensity for an extended
duration.” In order to maintain high-intensity activity for an
extended duration (and therefore be considered fit) a person
must have:-
1. A highly conditioned Muscular System*

(A combination of muscle strength, muscle endurance
and suppleness).
2. A highly conditioned Cardiovascular System*

(Efficient lungs, heart and vascular system)
*We use the term Muscular System simply to refer to the muscles of the body.
We use the term Cardiovascular System in its broad sense to encompass the
cardio-vascular and cardio-respiratory systems of the body.
39
Most fitness authorities would not dispute these two
requirements. What most people miss, however, and where
Fitness4x4 diverges from the mainstream, is that these
requirements must apply equally to the upper-body and lower-
body.
In order to develop the two systems outlined on the previous

page, the following requirements must be fulfilled:-
1. Muscle conditioning - requires working against a

resistance. This resistance is most commonly in the form
of a dumbbell weight, a machine weight or a person’s
body weight. In both cases it is resistance to movement
that stimulates muscle conditioning.
2. Cardiovascular conditioning - requires exercising

within your target heart rate Training Zone.
The following pages cover some basic theory of

cardiovascular training and the heart rate training zone. If you
are already familiar with the training zone theory, then the
following section will simply be good revision for you.
If you are not familiar with the training zone concept, then the
following section will be of great value to you, as an
understanding of ‘the zone’ is crucial to effective
cardiovascular conditioning.
40
Cardiovascular Conditioning
The Zone
“Cardio Respiratory Endurance Conditining
requires being in your Target Heart Rate Zone”.
(American College of Sports Medicine 2003)
In the 1960’s a man called Kenneth H Cooper coined the term

‘aerobics’ to describe a type of training that focused on
developing fitness by elevating one’s heart rate to a sufficient
intensity and keeping it there for a sufficient duration. This
intensity and duration could not be defined as a precise number,
but rather a range within which one’s heart rate should remain
for the duration of the exercise. After many years of research at
the ‘Cooper Institute of Aerobics’ it was established that training
within this range (zone) allowed for optimum fitness
improvement. This range was later termed the Target Heart Rate
Zone, or Training Zone.
41
Training intensity
(calculating your training zone)
Your own training zone is calculated as a percentage of your

theoretical Maximum Heart Rate (the max. no. of times your
heart can beat in one minute). This maximum heart rate is an
approximate figure that changes with age, since with age there is
a linear decrease in the human heart’s capacity. However, from
this theoretical maximum heart rate, we can calculate your zone
by using the following formula:-
Max H/Rate = 220 – (your age)
Target H/Rate Zone = 70% – 90% of max H/Rate
Here is an example of how I calculate my training zone:
220 – my age (54) = 176
70% of 176 = 123
90% of 176 = 158
Therefore my training zone = 123 – 158 bpm
42
TASK 4
Calculate Your Own TRAINING ZONE. Use the box

below to write in your figures and make your calculations (You
may require a calculator).
(To calculate 70% of 176, I simply do the sum 0.7 x 176)
70% =
90% =
YOUR ZONE = ____ ___ - _______
43
Training Duration
Minimum:
For effective cardiovascular training it was also discovered that
the heart rate must be maintained in the Target Zone for at least
15mins. This is an approximate figure, but is a useful
benchmark to define the minimum length of time for which a
person should perform a ‘cardio’ workout.
Maximum:
The maximum length of time a person should remain in the zone
is less easily defined. Many fitness theories define even 50%-
70% of max as being considered fitness training. However, since
it is humanly possible to maintain such a low intensity heart rate
for many hours (e.g. endurance runners, cyclists, swimmers), in
Fitness4x4 we do not recognize this intensity of training as being
effective for fitness.
In Fitness4x4 we define the target zone as being between 70-

90% of maximum. Not only does this ensure a high level of
exercise intensity and quality, but it also places a natural limit on
exercise duration. A high quality fitness training session, of
sufficient intensity, will not comfortably exceed 1hour.
Furthermore, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that 30mins
is perfectly adequate for excellent cardiovascular training.
Therefore the recommended time frame for effective

cardiovascular conditioning is: -
Minimum - 15minutes
Maximum - 60 minutes.
44
The Zone
Why is it a range and not an exact figure?
Even within the training zone, clearly there is a difference

between training at 70% of your maximum versus training at
90% of your maximum. That is why the Target Heart-Rate Zone
can be sub-divided in the following way: -
70-80% = Moderate Intensity fitness training
80-90% = Higher Intensity fitness training (Cardio

Peak Performance)
The higher in the zone you are able to maintain your heart rate
during training, the greater your fitness improvements will be.
However, the higher the percentage of your maximum Heat Rate
that you train at, of course the more difficult it is to achieve the
required duration of training.
For optimum results one must seek to train at maximum intensity

for maximum duration, providing you stay within your zone! By
this method, your training session begins when you enter the
zone and finishes when you exit the zone – i.e. h/rate exceeds
90%of max.
N.B. This is an effective way to train. However it is not

essential to train until you exceed the zone. Maintaining your
heat rate comfortably anywhere within the zone for 15-60
minutes is perfectly adequate and effective.
45
Summary
The Essence of Fitness
The essence of fitness is the combination of muscular capacity
and cardiovascular capacity in the upper and lower body.
Neither of these elements of fitness is adequate in isolation. In
other words, as I have already mentioned, from a Fitness4x4
perspective neither a marathon runner nor a bodybuilder is truly
fit – they are both at different ends of the scale. True fitness is
being somewhere in the middle of this scale.
Once you recognize what true fitness is, deciding how to

exercise can be very easy. You simply have to ask yourself:
“Which exercise method can provide me with the most effective

cardiovascular and muscular conditioning for the entire body, in
the minimum possible time?”
And that is how I arrived at the training concept known as

Fitness4x4.
46
Task 5 - Learning to Squat
You have completed the introductory section of the

book, and it is time to break up the theory with
some practical work. (For the following task you will
not need to get changed into workout clothes).
The correct squat should to some degree resemble

the body position of a downhill skier, in order to
limit strain on the knee joint and activate the large
gluteal muscles.
On the following page is a checklist of points of

technique for the free squat. Stand in front of a
mirror and follow each step, checking your technique
as you go. Perform a few squats until you are
satisfied that your technique is good.
See also the photo sequence on the following page

for examples of good and bad squat technique.
47
1. Stand with feet shoulder
Fitness4x4 width
– The Way apart
of Dragan
2. Ensure that your feet are pointing directly forwards

3. Slowly lower into a shallow squat
4. Do not allow your knees to drift forward past the
imaginary vertical line that extends up from your toes
as you lower into the squat. Instead, concentrate on
pushing your butt as far out behind you as possible. By
doing this, your knees will remain above your feet and
not out in front of your feet.
5. In order to maintain balance, allow your torso to bend
forwards. This will help maintain your center of gravity
above your ankles. As you bend forwards, maintain a
neutral back position – neither flexed (hunched) nor
hyper-extended (arched).
6. Initially only bend your knees to a maximum of
90degrees – thighs parallel with the ground. However
if you are not accustomed to squatting it is advisable
to only lower yourself into a partial squat at first. In
time you may feel able to increase the depth of your
squat to activate a greater number of lower body
muscles and also increase energy output.
7. In the lowering phase take a controlled inhalation, and
as you rise up exhale smoothly. Controlled breathing
will not only aid performance by allowing maximum
oxygen intake, but will also reduce the blood pressure
in the body during squats.
8. Allow your legs to momentarily relax at the top of the
squat. This will allow sufficient recovery to enable you
to perform a higher number of repetitions.
48
Squatting Technique
1. Starting Position 2. Shallow Squat 3. Full Squat
4. Hunched Back 5. Knees forward 6. Knees inward
The top row of pictures shows the correct technique for

performing squats. Notice the back is kept straight, head up,
butt back as if sitting into an imaginary chair, knees remain over
the toes. The bottom row shows some common mistakes: fig4 -
curving of the back; fig5 – allowing the knees to come forward
past the toes; fig6 – bending the knees inward.
49
Principle 1
The ‘4x4’ Principle
50
1. The “4x4” Principle

Where did the name come from?
The term “4x4” comes from the world of motor vehicles where,
as most people know, it means that all four wheels of the vehicle
are powered by the motor. Most motor vehicles are “2x4” (two-
wheel drive), with only two wheels connected to the motor.
In the sphere of fitness, the same applies. Most fitness

enthusiasts use exercises that predominantly exploit the energy
resources of the lower-body (the legs). They walk, jog, cycle,
climb, roller-blade, dance, ski, ice-skate… In that sense we can
say that they are only “2x4” fit, regardless of what their fitness
status might be.
In the case of Fitness4x4, all four limbs of the human body are
involved in the process of getting fit – that’s what “4x4” stands
for. By Fitness4x4 standards, even the world’s best marathon
runner might be considered “average” or “below average”
depending on the condition of his upper-body. In Fitness4x4, not
only are the upper-body and the lower-body both involved in
exercising but both have an equal contribution to the overall
condition of the body – this is what we call “complete fitness.”
So, for example, those runners and joggers who pay little or no
attention to their upper-body’s condition are only partially fit.
Their upper-body’s contribution to their overall condition is
minimal. In other words, the upper-body and the lower-body are
out of balance (in terms of fitness). In a usual jogging session
the energy used by the lower-body is largely out of proportion to
that of the upper-body. In such circumstances, the upper-body
can never become fit and vital.
51
If your upper-body (which represents more than 70% of the total
number of muscles in the body) is unfit and your legs are very fit,
you are still “average” in terms of overall fitness. The only way to
attain overall fitness is to have both parts of the body equally
conditioned.
Have you seen a car stuck in the soft, sandy surface of the
beach? The motor making a loud noise, the back wheels
spinning and sinking deeper and deeper into the sand whilst the
driver, in a frenzy, keeps pressing the accelerator pedal to the
floor trying to get the car to move. Yes, that is a “2x4” car and
the driver will need a push to get unstuck. Pressing harder on
the gas pedal won’t do it. Two wheels are spinning whilst the
other two wheels are immobile and unable to make a
contribution to the overall effort. Likewise, the upper-body of the
jogger makes an insignificant contribution to the overall effort of
getting fit. It just bounces up and down whilst the legs do all the
work.
52
Millions of fitness enthusiasts are devoted to regular jogging in

their pursuit of long-term fitness. But if they do nothing for their
upper-body fitness they will be stuck in the sand, just like those
two-wheel drive vehicles. This is because more than 70% of all
their muscles are getting little or nothing from the exercise.
Through the entire jog, these muscles remain passive, or very
lightly used. From the perspective of the upper-body, cycling,
stepping and other leg-dominated exercises are ineffective forms
of training since those exercises do not make the upper body
vital and fit.
If you want total fitness – your entire body fit and vital – you have
to realize that your legs, on their own, are not going to get you
there. Increasing your jogging time or the intensity of your jog is
like stepping harder on the accelerator pedal of the car stuck in
the sand. You are only “spinning your wheels.” As far as your
upper-body condition is concerned you won’t get an inch further
away from where you first started. This is not to say that jogging,
cycling, etc. are not valid forms of exercise. The point is, the
upper-body needs to be exercised too, and in equal proportion
with the lower-body, in order to bring the body into balance.
Jogging and other such forms of exercise can never achieve this
on their own. Combined with Fitness4x4 training, they can.
Pursuing total fitness with only one half of your body is like
driving a two-wheel-drive vehicle off road – you won’t get very
far.
The analogy of the 2-wheel-drive car is not just a nice analogy –

it is quite literally the reality of the everyday struggle to get in
shape for most people. It is often not down to lack of effort or
commitment, but rather a limited understanding. Sometimes
people say to me,
“It’s okay for people like you Dragan. You’re so lucky to be

naturally in great shape, and you hardly have to put any work in.”
53
Such a statement is usually made with reference to the fact that

in terms of time investment, I train very little compared to most
exercise enthusiasts, yet appear to benefit far more.
There is only one reason why. I have gradually transformed my

body into a 4x4 vehicle. This is not something you can do
overnight! To change a 2-wheel drive car into a 4x4 vehicle is a
complete overhaul, not a sudden and miraculous change. Once
you achieve that overhaul however, from the outside it may
begin to look easy. Watching a 4x4 vehicle gliding over the sand
makes you wonder why the normal car is having so much
difficulty. It is simply a question of efficiency. Not skill; not luck;
not genetics…simply hard work and more importantly efficiency.
The Fitness4x4 training concept is simply a means of making
your exercise as efficient as possible, by bringing your body into
balance. This is the first and most important principle of
Fitness4x4.
But how can you know if you have achieved the perfect balance
between muscular and cardiovascular conditioning (fitness) for
the entire body? The answer is it will be very clearly reflected in
your body’s ability to produce energy – your Energy Output
Capacity! This is something we will explore in the next chapter.
For now, lets take a look at another key exercise in Fitness4x4,
the Vertical Lift…
54
Task 6
How To Vertical Lift

After gently warming up your body – paying particular
attention to your shoulders, upper-arms, forearms and hands
– grasp a light dumbbell in each hand. The movement is
executed one arm at a time, as follows (see photo sequence
on the following page):
1. Stand with feet comfortably apart
2. Hold both dumbbells in front of your thighs, with

straight arms.
3. Bicep-curl one dumbbell and raise it to your shoulder.
4. Push the dumbbell straight upwards until your arm is

vertical.
5. Lower the dumbbell to your shoulder and then back to
the starting position by your leg. Count this as one
repetition.
6. Repeat the process with the other arm.
The movement must be performed in a smooth, controlled

manner, with minimal movement of the legs. Start out slowly
and deliberately. Perform just a few movements to
familiarize yourself with the technique. Later you will begin
your workout!
55
Vertical Lifting Sequence

1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
56
Principle 2
Energy Output
57
2.Maximizing Energy Output

The foundation of health and fitness
Most exercises are done to achieve a cosmetic improvement of
one kind or another, such as building bigger muscles, losing
inches here or there, or changing the shape and appearance of a
particular part of the body. This is like decorating a house that
stands on top of a foundation of which you know very little and
probably take for granted.
Think about a house that you are

planning to buy. You look at the
shape and size of its windows,
doors, roof, bathrooms, kitchen,
bedrooms, ceilings, floors, and
countless other features, but you
may fail to give a single thought
to the state of its foundation.
Maybe you assume that the
foundation is solid, and since it is
in the ground and has no
practical use for you, you spend
your efforts on what is above. If
after a few years your walls start to crack and you realize that the
house may collapse, you have to do a great deal of work at great
expense (in time, effort and money) to avoid losing your house.
Only when that happens do you realize how important the
foundation was and how ignorant you were in regard to the role it
plays.
Exercising with the sole purpose of bulging your biceps and

chest, or firming up your butt so that you look sexier is like
58
decorating your house before reinforcing its foundation.
Whatever you may achieve will be of a temporary nature and
with no substance.
In my professional life I have encountered many individuals who
worked eagerly for many years on their “façade” while ignoring
the ”foundation” of their health. Then, one day, the façade begins
to crumble and however far they stretch their efforts to
redecorate it, they cannot reverse or cover up the damage.
What is the foundation?

In the sphere of human health and fitness, what is the
foundation? Would it be the shape of your body? Would it be the
way you feel? Your weight? The size of your muscles? How
fast you can run? How far you can swim? I believe that it is
none of the above. It is something much more fundamental than
all of the above measures of well-being:
The condition of your foundation – your true vitality and

biological age – is indicated by the energy reserves in
your body, not by the outward appearance of the body.
In my experience, very few people are conscious of the

importance and relevance of the body’s ability to produce energy
versus its outward appearance and aesthetic value. In
Fitness4x4 we refer to this foundation as the body’s Energy-
Output capacity.
59
What is Energy Output?

In order to exist, the human body requires energy. Our daily
physical, mental and emotional existence demands a certain
amount of energy, which the body continuously produces. Even
while sleeping, our bodies expend this energy in maintaining our
vital functions. This basic energy requirement (which varies from
person to person depending on size, metabolism, lifestyle and a
range of other factors) is referred to as the Base Level Energy
Output. In Fitness4x4 we are not concerned with the base level
and it is considered a constant. But when we exercise or
perform some other physical activity, an extra amount of energy
is generated, over and above the Base Level. This extra
energy is referred to as ENERGY OUTPUT (or simply EO).
Energy Output is the only objective thing that allows us to

compare the effectiveness of different exercise methods. That is
why it is such an important concept in the Ftiness4x4 method.
Without an understanding of Energy Output, you will be lost in
the vast jungle of fitness methods, all of which claim to be the
most effective. In Fitness4x4 we say in order to claim you have
the best exercise method you must be able to compare your
method with other methods with an objective denominator. And
that objective denominator is ENERGY OUTPUT.
If the EO of an exercise routine is low, then the quality of that
routine will also be low, and the positive impact on the person’s
health and physical condition will be relatively weak.
Most people describe their gym workout by the length of time

spent in the gym. For example, “I workout one hour everyday!”
or “is one hour of exercise too much or not enough?” Neither of
these comments makes any reference to Energy Output – or
how much work was done during these workouts! Because no
60
EO was specified, it becomes difficult to comment on the quality
of the workout, and impossible to answer the question, “is one
hour enough?” The EO of the workout could be either Ten
Thousand units or Two Million units, and thus an hour could
either be too much or not enough! (The issue of time investment
is discussed fully in Principle 4).
61
Work on the engine before you look at

the features!
Recently a friend of mine was buying a car. He found one that he
liked a lot. It had a navigator gadget, modern alloy wheels, wide
tire, a very sophisticated and powerful sound system and enough
other fancy extras that it would require another chapter in this
book to fully list them! He hardly mentioned the motor reliability,
fuel consumption etc. I guess he took that for granted and, in a
way, considered it to be of secondary importance.
Many a time I sat across the desk from a prospective club

member who was presenting me with the list of results he/she
expected from joining my gym. Almost everything, from losing
weight to flattening the stomach, toning or building muscles,
getting in shape, etc. was on the list, except the fundamentals of
health and well being – the body’s energy capacity and
vitality. Nobody ever came to me and said: “I want to bring back
the vitality and energy I had when I was younger. I want to tune
my body and have it function as well as it can. Yes, I’d like some
cosmetic changes too, but first things first.” It seems that, like the
friend who was buying a car, everyone thought that the “energy
and vitality” portion comes as a “bonus” - an attachment to the
package and not the other way around as the Fitness4x4
exercise philosophy proposes.
When man invented the car the core of his intention, his sole
motive, was to provide effective and comfortable transportation
from place to place. The most important thing was getting the
motor to run and efficiently transfer its power into the motion of
the wheels. That was what initially a car was all about. The
shape, color, decoration of the interior etc. was in the second
plan. Logically their thinking was: “Once we solve all the
problems with getting the car to move from place A to place B we
62
will address the cosmetics and other issues”. What purpose
would it serve to have a great-looking car that can hardly get
anywhere?
In time this all changed. That which initially was the prime
consideration (the functionality and reliability) is now taken for
granted and hardly considered. Those thing which were initially
of secondary importance (the cosmetic aspect of the car),
became the key factor. Let me translate this into fitness. As I
already mentioned, most of the prospective club members who
came to join the club asked first how they can lose the fat from a
certain area of the body or how they can build muscle or reduce
the size of a part of the body, how they can firm up certain area,
improve their posture, get a better shape etc…
All of these goals are recognized as important aspects of one’s

physical well being, but according to Fitness4x4 philosophy, they
are still issues of secondary importance. It is the body’s
functionality and the capacity to produce energy that in
Fitness4x4 represents the foundation of one’s well-being. So if
you want to know how you can build your biceps or flatten your
flabby tummy, regardless of how much - or rather how little -
energy your body has, you are, in my opinion, looking for a fancy
car which won’t get you far and won’t serve you long.
Having the size of your biceps or the flatness of your tummy as

your main concern is like focusing on the upholstery and exterior
of the car without checking whether the engine is roadworthy. Do
your decorations and cosmetic improvements after you’ve made
your “motor” perform to its full capacity.
So if we agree that Energy Output is a crucial aspect of exercise,

then we must know how it is calculated…
63
Calculating Energy Output
Whenever a physical object is lifted vertically upwards, energy is

expended. The heavier the object or the greater the distance to
which the object is elevated, the more energy is required. To
calculate how much energy has been expended we simply
multiply the weight of the object by the distance it traveled
(Newton’s Laws of Physics).
If the weight is lifted a number of times, then the total EO is

calculated as shown below. (see picture on next page)
• The weight is 40lbs.
• It is lifted a vertical distance of lifted a vertical distance of

55inches.
• The weight is lifted 100 times.
EO = WEIGHT x VERTICAL DISTANCE TRAVELLED x REPETITIONS
64
40lbs x 55” x 100reps = 220,000 units.
Every exercise that involves weights can be calculated in this

way, using the above formula.
65
Energy Output and Exercise Quality

In the mainstream approach to fitness there are virtually
hundreds of potential candidates in a vast pool of exercises from
which a workout can be structured. It is generally believed that
using a variety of exercises is the best way to condition your
body. In Fitness4x4 we state almost the exact opposite. Only a
handful of exercises represent the pool from which a Fitness4x4
routine is made up. WHY?
Because… Not all exercises have the same EO capacity!
Many popular gym exercises have extremely low EO and could
therefore never be part of a 4x4 routine.
Here is an example of two exercises you might observe at your
local gym. Although they both appear to be of a similar difficulty,
they are vastly different in their EO:
1. 20 vertical lifts of a 45lb dumbbell
2. 20 shoulder shrug with 90lb barbell
TASK 7
On the following page Calculate the Energy Output
of the above two exercises, using the formula
provided on the previous page. To help you with your
calculations, some of the numbers have been
provided for you. When you have finished your
calculations, compare the difference in energy
output. (You may need a calculator).
Remember: ENERGY OUTPUT = weight (lb) x distance (in) x reps
66
Exercise 1: Vertical Lift
Weight =
Distance Moved = 50 inches
No. of Reps =
ENERGY OUTPUT = ____ x _50 in_ x ____
= ___________units
Exercise 2: Shoulder Shrug
Weight =
Distance Moved = 2 inches
No. of Reps =
ENERGY OUTPUT = ____ x _2 in_ x ____
= ___________units
67
Comparing Energy Outputs

In a typical Fitness4x4 training routine, it is quite possible to
produce 1million units of energy in 30minutes. To achieve a
comparable EO using the shoulder shrug (and other such ‘low
energy output’ exercises) it would take more than 10 hours of
non-stop exercise!! (Take a calculator and work it out!) This is
not only an absurd amount of time to exercise, but is probably
humanly impossible too!
Every year new exercise methods and routines come out on the
market, claiming to be the ‘best way of achieving total fitness’.
How can we compare the different programs in this vast ocean of
exercise methods, all of which claim to be the best and
undoubtedly have avid supporters who claim the method was the
‘best thing they have ever done’. The only way of comparing
methods is to have an objective method of comparison. Clearly,
how difficult you think the workout was; how tired you feel; how
‘pumped’ you feel; how enjoyable it was, etc. are not objective
measurements of a workout because two people could do
exactly the same workout and have totally different opinions at
the end of the routine!
Energy Output is the simplest one of the most complete

measurements of the quality of different fitness training methods,
because it is objective – not based on personal opinion or
subjective feelings.
68
It’s All About Energy Output

I was once at a party with my friend Bill – an exceptionally
conditioned athlete. Bill specialized in uphill running and had
been doing it for many years. His favorite distance was ten
miles. Most runners would struggle to keep up with his pace for
even the first couple of miles. Only those who have tried uphill
running can understand how much more demanding it is than
running on the flat.
In the course of the party I overheard the following dialogue
between Bill and another runner:
“Bill, I hear that you’re a runner. What distance do you run?”
“Normally ten miles, sometimes less,” answered Bill. “What

about you?”
“The same – that’s my favorite distance,” replied the runner, “I

usually do it in one hour and fifteen minutes. How long do you
take, Bill?”
“About one and a half hours, depending on how good I’m feeling
on the day.”
“Well, that’s not bad,” responded the runner politely.
From this man’s response, it was obvious that he wasn’t very

impressed with Bill’s running ability. He evidently assumed that
Bill runs on a level surface, as he and most others do. Since
one and a half hours is not a particularly impressive time for a
ten-mile fun, this would put Bill in the category of an “average
runner.” Because of his assumption, the other runner felt that he
was in a different league to Bill. He was right – they did not
belong in the same league, but he was wrong in thinking that Bill
was in the “lower league” because of his inferior running time.
69
Although they ran the same distance in a similar time frame, one
aspect of their exercising was very different – the energy their
bodies exerted. It probably takes three times more energy to
complete Bill’s up-hill run than what it takes this runner for his
run on the flat – but who would think of that when the important
dimension of every exercise routine – the INTENSITY – is
normally overlooked.
After their conversation ended I went up to Bill, tapped his

shoulder and, with a smile, repeated the runner’s polite
comment: “An hour and a half! That’s not bad, Bill.”
70
Exercise Quality
If the Energy Output of an exercise routine is low, then the
quality of that routine will also be low, and the positive impact on
the person’s health and physical condition will be relatively weak.
Most people describe their gym workout by the length of time
spent in the gym. For example, “I workout one hour every day!”
Is one hour “too much” or “not enough?” We cannot make this
judgment because the Energy Output is not specified. It could be
100,000 units or 2,000,000 units and thus an hour in the gym
could be either too much or not enough.
Fitness4x4 is not primarily concerned with the cosmetic results

and side effects of exercising. Weight loss, muscle building,
body shaping, entertainment, strength and other by-products of
exercise do not indicate directly and objectively the state of the
body’s vitality. Although these aspects of well-being are
important, I have concluded after extensive experience with
thousands of clients in health clubs around the world, that the
only way to attain lasting results, such as weight loss, lean
muscles and greater muscle mass, is to first develop true inner-
health by maximizing your body’s capacity to produce energy.
Otherwise, whatever outward change you attain will be
superficial and short-lived.
The only thing that directly relates to and quantifies physical

vitality is the body’s capacity to produce energy. By sufficiently
increasing your Energy Output Capacity, you will provide a firm
foundation on which all other improvements in your well-being
can be permanently built.
71
TASK 8
In order to calculate your energy output for a given

exercise, you need to know the vertical distance
moved and the weight being lifted.
The signature exercises of Fitness4x4 are the

Vertical Lift (upper body) and the Squat (lower
body). In these exercises, the range of movement
(the distance moved) depends upon your height and
length of limbs. Every individual is different;
therefore you must measure your own distances in
order to calculate your energy output.
Note:
In the case of squats the weight being lifted is
actually your body weight, minus the weight of your
lower leg (which is not being lifted). For the sake of
simple calculation we suggest that you subtract 10%
of your body weight to find your approximate ‘squat
weight’. (e.g if you weigh 200lbs, your approximate squat
weight is 200 – 10% = 180lbs)
Follow the steps on the next pages to find out your

range of movement in the Vertical Lift and the
Squat:
72
Vertical Lift Range of Movement
1. Find a high wall.
2. In your closed hand, grip a pencil so that the

lead is facing away from your body.
3. With your hand by your side make a mark on

the wall to indicate the lowest point your
dumbbell will travel.
4. Raise your hand above your head and reach

comfortably up with a straight arm. Do not
overstretch, simply make another small mark on
the wall to indicate the highest point your
dumbbell will travel.
5. Take a measuring-tape and measure the

distance between the two points. Record the
figure here: ______inches.
You now have your Vertical Training range of

movement, which will be needed to calculate your
Energy Output score. Please also write the distance
in the Personal Stats table at the back of this book.
73
Squats Range of movement
1. Find a wall.
2. Choose a point on the side of your hip from

where you will take your measurements.
3. Stand upright, next to the wall and mark a

horizontal line on the wall at the same height as
your chosen point on your hip. This will mark the
highest point of your squat.
4. Now lower into the squat position with perfect

technique, only traveling as low as you would squat
during your workout.
5. Make a mark on the wall in line with your chosen

point on your hip.
6. Take a measuring-tape and measure the vertical

distance between the two points. Record the
figure here: ______inches.
This is your squat range of movement and will be used to

calculate your squat energy output score. Record this figure
on your Personal Stats page at the back of this book.
74
Principle 3
Simultaneous Cardiovascular and
Muscular Conditioning
75
3. Simultaneous Cardio- and

Muscle Training
Traditionally, cardiovascular exercise and weight training have
been seen as being poles apart from each other. When one
thinks of fitness training, there are a handful of exercise methods
that spring immediately to mind: running, cycling, walking,
aerobics...etc. In contrast, when one thinks of resistance
training, immediately one pictures heavy barbells and dumbbells
being pushed around by big men. The vast differences
(physically and training-wise) between a bodybuilder and a
runner highlight this disparity perfectly.
76
The advantage of Fitness4x4 is that it combines the two types of
conditioning into one activity, allowing you to get the best overall
results in the shortest possible time.
If I simply tell you that my Vertical Training routine is not only an

effective muscle-conditioning workout, but also an extremely
effective cardiovascular workout, you may be skeptical, since
nobody lifts weights for cardiovascular conditioning. But I don’t
make this claim on the basis of how I feel, or an intuitive guess.
During my lifting contests, we monitor my heart rate and

sometimes display it on a large chart during the contest, as
indisputable evidence of a superb cardiovascular activity. As
you can see on the chart below (which was recorded at a contest
in Las Vegas in 2000) my heart-rate very quickly rose to 70% of
my maximum heart rate, entering the cardio zone, and continued
to rise to the 90% mark and beyond. In normal workout
conditions I would not drive my heart rate beyond the 90% zone,
but since this was a contest and the dumbbells were heavier
than usual, it pushed my heart to its performance limits.
Chart created during lifting contest in Las Vegas 2000: Heart Rate vs Time
77
Several fitness experts and exercise physiologists, who prior to
seeing the show were extremely skeptical about the value of my
program as a Cardiovascular workout, were taken aback as they
watched my heart rate activity on the display-board. They simply
could not believe the ability of such a simple exercise (one which
they perceived as a weight-training exercise) to be used as a
complete upper-body aerobic workout.
Of course lifting a 40lb dumbbell also requires an element of

strength, and that is where the muscular development takes
place. Clearly a runner, cyclist or even a swimmer does not
benefit from such upper body muscular conditioning simply
because they are not working with sufficient resistance to
movement.
1. Muscular Condition (total body)
2. Cardiovascular Condition
3. Vitality (Energy Output Capacity)
All forms of exercise are a manipulation of pace and resistance,

and it is to what degree you balance these two variables that will
determine the effect of your training. For example a bodybuilder
will use a very high resistance to movement (heavy weights) and
perform at a very slow pace of movement (less than 10 reps per
minute). The consequence is tremendous muscular conditioning,
but very little cardiovascular benefit. In contrast a cyclist will use
very low resistance to movement (one pedal revolution requires
little resistance) but a very high pace of movement (100 cycle
revolution per minute). The consequence is very good
cardiovascular conditioning using the lower body, but not very
much muscular development.
78
The principle of simultaneous muscular and cardiovascular

conditioning is so significant that it is important for you to
understand it fully. On the following pages, this concept of
combined Muscle Training and Cardiovascular training is
explained in greater detail.
To achieve simultaneous muscular and cardiovascular

conditioning, you must first understand how to balance PACE
and RESISTANCE…
79
Pace and Resistance

Contrary to popular understanding, cardiovascular training and
resistance training are essentially the same thing. The only
variables that separate strength training from cardiovascular
training are the amount of resistance used and the number of
repetitions performed (i.e. the duration).
Example: The Cyclist

Cycling is typically seen as being a
method of achieving cardiovascular
fitness. In Fitness4x4 however we
recognize that cycling is merely
resistance training of the legs - with
low resistance, hundreds of
repetitions and at a high frequency
(or PACE) of movement.
Is Cycling Resistance Training?
The importance of the finding a balance between pace and

resistance is neatly illustrated by the following analogy…
80
“The Sand Shovelling Contest”
Two competitive men, Ali and Dan, were debating who was the
fittest worker in the company. Both were respected as being in
excellent physical condition, but an objective test was needed to
settle the matter. To resolve the argument, an experienced
foreman who was visiting the sight set them the infamous sand-
shoveling contest, which over the years had always separated
the best from the rest!
The old foreman weighed out 6 tons of sand into two identical
piles. The challenge was simply who could shovel all of their
sand into a nearby hole the fastest. Ali chose to use a BIG
shovel, while Dan chooses to use a SMALL shovel. The race
was on…
81
What Happened?
Because Ali’s shovel was considerably bigger than Dan’s, he
could therefore move a lot more sand with each lift. He set to
work as fast as he possibly could, but the problem was that lifting
such a big shovel-load of sand was extremely demanding. Ali
was very strong, but after just a few minutes of shoveling as fast
as he could his muscles were beginning to fail and he was
getting very out of breath. At first he found he had to take
breaks, but he eventually found a pace of work he could
manage, and was able to get through the whole pile of sand. It
took him just 25minutes! By the end of it he was panting hard,
his muscles were exhausted and he was all out of energy!
Dan chose to use a small shovel because he was not particularly

strong and he would not have been able to lift Ali’s shovel even
just a few times. But, Dan was very fit and he knew that with a
light shovel he could work much faster than Ali. So he set off
shoveling at incredible speed, shoveling at least 4 times faster
than Ali. The actual shoveling felt easy because it was so light,
but he began breathing hard very quickly as a result of working
so fast! Still, Dan felt good because he knew he was very fit and
could work at this rate for a long time. So working at a very high
pace, Dan eventually cleared all the sand in exactly 25 minutes!
By the end of it he was sweating hard and panting heavily, but
his muscles were not exhausted. Dan was surprised and
disappointed. Every time he’d looked up, it had seemed that Ali
was moving slowly or even resting, so he’d been sure he was
going to shovel all the sand fastest. He was also sure he’d
worked much harder than Ali, and yet the final result was the
same – they both cleared the same amount of sand in the
same time.
82
The old foreman had been watching the contest eagerly to see if
his long-standing record of 15minutes would be beaten. At the
end he approached the two exhausted men and shared his
wisdom…
First of all my friends, I congratulate you both on an outstanding

display of physical fitness. Very few men can shovel all of the
sand in less than 30minutes!
Dan, you worked at an incredible pace for the entire 30 minutes!

You did not slow down once, and you were extremely efficient in
your movement. Because of your fitness you were able to
maintain a work rate that very few men can match. But you
could not beat Ali because you were not shoveling enough sand
each time – your shovel was too small! Still you made up for this
with your impressive speed of work.
Ali, you are clearly very strong as there are very few men who
can lift that big shovel even once! Many men have tried to use
the big shovel but after one or two minutes have thrown it down
in exhaustion! But you took rest when you needed it and relied
on your superior strength to pull you through. In Dan’s eyes,
you appeared to be working very slowly, but what you lost in
speed, you made up for with the great quantity of sand you were
able to able to move with every single lift of the shovel.
I’m sure you will both be very disappointed to hear that my

record is exactly 15 minutes, even though I am an older man!
It’s not a trick or even extreme dedication – it is simply knowing
where to improve…and that is where I shall offer you both some
advice if I may.
Both Ali and Dan were amazed and slightly embarrassed that
despite being considered two of the best young workers in the
company, even their best efforts were nothing compared to the
83
old man’s performance! They were eager to hear the foreman’s
advice:
I will start with you Dan. Your heart is very strong, but your
muscles are weak! Like many shovelers before you, you have
focused entirely on your ability to work fast, without considering
that you are achieving very little with each lift of that small
shovel. If you do not recognize this, you will continue trying to
work faster and longer, but you will see only small improvements
in your ability to work effectively. You will never win the
shoveling contest. But if you build on your impressive fitness
base I am sure you can one day beat my record.
Ali, your muscles are very strong and capable, but that alone is
not enough. Without a strong heart and lungs, your body cannot
supply your muscles with energy, no matter how strong they are.
You will only ever be able to work hard in short bursts and
eventually even this will fade. However if you can master the art
of balancing your strength and fitness so that you can work
without stopping, you will have the potential to be the most
efficient worker.
When both of you learn the importance of balancing your

strength and fitness, no man will be able to match you! The
strongest man in the world won’t match the quantity of work you
can do in 30 minutes because he will not be fit enough. And the
fittest man in the world will be unable to match you because he
will not be strong enough. You will have the perfect balance of
muscular capacity, a strong heart and lungs, and efficiency.
When you reach that stage you will achieve what I call vitality.
The two men were amazed by his words and even more amazed
when in front of their eyes he took a medium sized shovel and
cleared an identical 3rd pile of sand in just 15minutes! For days
Dan and Ali could not stop talking about what they had seen and
84
they made an agreement to follow his advice and beat his
record!
…But 3months later very little had changed. And 5 years later
even less had changed! Dan still took great pride in being able
to work at a faster rate than any other man, even though his
actual workload did not improve. He was still considered one of
the fittest workers in he company, but it was getting harder and
harder to maintain and he could feel himself having to slow down
a tiny amount every few months. He didn’t mind not being strong
– there were always people like Ali to do the real donkeywork,
and he liked being known as the fit guy! Ali still took great pride
in being the strongest worker in the company. He could lift more
than any man and he could still do a lot of work in a day, but he
did find he was starting to get out of breath very easily and his
wife had started to say he was getting fat. Still he was a
respected worker now and he could afford to take rests while the
young guys ran around.
Every now and then they would see the old man and shake their
heads in amazement. He was still stronger than most of the
young guys and the amazing thing was he just didn’t seem to get
tired! “It’s just one of those unbelievable things that you can’t
explain”, they thought to themselves as they wandered off home
after another day at work.
If these two workers had taken on the old man’s advice, they
would be able to comprehend his superior performance.
Similarly, when you fully understand Fitness4x4, certain physical
feats that many people consider unbelievable actually become
easy to understand and perfectly logical! The old man simply
found a perfect balance between pace of movement (how fast he
shoveled) and resistance to movement (the size of the shovel),
to maximize his energy output.
I’m sure you can put your own names and faces to the
characters in the story, because this story is representative of
85
the two camps into which most exercisers fall – the Strength
camp and the Fitness camp. In Fitness4x4 we know that there is
a middle ground. Interestingly, many fitness people dismiss this
middle ground as being a ‘no-mans-land’. To the contrary, we
believe that this middle ground is the secret to optimum vitality
and lasting physical well-being.
86
The Negative Angle

The nature of fitness exercise (CV exercise) has typically always
been to use low resistance to movement and high pace of
movement in order to stimulate the heart and lungs and improve
fitness. There are numerous examples of this, including running,
cycling, swimming etc. In Fitness4x4 we define this particular
relationship between Resistance and Pace as being a ‘Negative
Angle’. (see diagram)
“The Negative Angle”

(high)
PACE
(low)
RESISTANCE
Low resistance to movement and high pace of movement

produces the ‘negative angle’.
87
The Negative Angle

Training for fitness by creating a negative angle (low resistance
& high pace) is undoubtedly an effective method of achieving
cardiovascular conditioning. For example an activity such as
running, which uses high pace and low resistance, can clearly
elicit a very strong response from the heart and effectively
improve cardiovascular (lower body) conditioning.
What training with a negative angle will not do is provide the

most effective muscular conditioning. Effective muscular
conditioning can only occur when the muscle is activated against
a resistance. That is why people use resistance training to
condition, develop and tone muscle. That is also why traditionally
fitness training and resistance training have been poles apart.
Task 9
In the box on the following page, write down how

many steps per minute you take on average when
walking and when jogging. If you do not know, simply
write ‘Don’t know’. Now take a short walk and
perhaps a gentle jog outside your house for just a
few minutes. Using a stopwatch, count how many
steps you take per minute while walking and while
jogging. Enter your answers into the box below. You
are now in the minority of people who are aware of
their pace of movement (frequency of steps) for
walking and jogging.
88
PACE
Walking Running
Estimate? ________ ________
Test? ________ ________
(pace measured in steps per minute)
Very few people (including runners) are aware of the number of

reps they perform per minute – their PACE of movement. In
Fitness4x4 it is essential to have an understanding of the
relationship between pace and resistance. Running is a perfect
example of an activity with a high Pace of movement. Such a
high pace is only possible when the resistance is very low.
In Fitness4x4 we know, for example, that any activity which can

be performed at a rate of more than 40 repetitions per minute
(not a precise figure) is a low resistance movement, and will
therefore not elicit great muscular conditioning.
Make a note of your pace of movement (per minute) for various

activities and ask yourself whether these activities are high
resistance or high pace? The answer will determine the physical
effect these activities have upon your body.
89
Creating the Positive Angle

In Fitness4x4 we recognize that by manipulating the Pace and
Resistance variables, it is entirely possible to create a situation
where a person is simultaneously achieving:-
1. EFFECTIVE Cardiovascular Conditioning.

2. EFFECTIVE Muscular conditioning.
This is achieved by increasing the resistance to movement and

decreasing the pace of movement, whilst maintaining a
cardiovascular response within the Target Heart Rate Zone.
This new relationship between resistance and Pace is called a
‘Positive Angle’.
“The Positive Angle”

(high)
RESISTANCE
(Low)
PACE
Increasing the resistance and lowering the pace of

movement, creates a ‘positive angle’, where one can
achieve effective muscular and cardio-vascular conditioning
simultaneously.
90
The Positive Angle Defined:

What is considered a ‘High Resistance’ and what is
considered a ‘Low Pace’?
Resistance
In Fitness4x4 when we refer to a high resistance, we do so
within the context of ‘Fitness’ training. Since we have already
defined fitness training as having a minimum duration
(approximately 15mins), then it follows that a high resistance is:-
“The highest possible resistance to movement that allows a

person to performed the movement continuously for at least
15minutes.”
If a resistance is too high then a person will not be able to

perform the movement for sufficient duration. For example a
300lb bench press may be considered very high resistance (and
therefore also high energy output per rep). However, it is unlikely
that a person will be able to perform continuous reps of 300lb for
15 minutes, indicating that the resistance is too high.
Pace
In Fitness4x4 when we refer to pace of movement, we know
from our research that if a person can perform more than 20
repetitions per minute, this is not a low pace of movement. For
example running or cycling, often involve performing more than
100 repetitions per minute, which clearly indicates that the PACE
is high and the resistance must be LOW. It therefore follows that
low Pace of movement is:-
“A movement against resistance which can only be performed a

maximum average of 20 repetitions per minute, for a duration of
at least 15 minutes.”
91
In Fitness4x4 we are interested in maximizing cardiovascular

conditioning and muscular conditioning simultaneously. How is
this done? By decreasing the PACE, increasing the
RESISTANCE, but maintaining the appropriate heart rate and
workout duration.
When you can achieve this with upper and lower body, you will
not only maximize cardio/muscular conditioning simultaneously,
but you will also:
• Minimize time spent!

• Maximize Energy Output!
Creating a positive angle between pace and resistance is the

secret to total body conditioning in a short time. The difficulty lies
in the fact that it is very hard work to train for an extended period
of time against high resistance! Therefore you must initially find
an achievable balance and then gradually work to optimize the
angle.
It is this unique understanding of the PACE vs RESISTANCE

relationship that allows Fitness4x4 to claim to be the most
effective form of fitness exercise.
92
Principle 4
Minimal Time Investment
93
4. Minimal Time Investment

One of the secrets to the effectiveness of Fitness4x4 as a
training method for life is the fact that the further you go in
Fitness4x4, the less time you spend in training.
Some time ago, I presented a seminar on fitness during which I
performed a challenge against ten athletes, both to add
excitement to the seminar and more importantly to add credibility
to the Fitness4x4 concept I was promoting. Towards the end of a
very successful seminar however, I was suddenly caught by the
following question posed by a highly educated Doctor,
“Dragan, we can all see that you are very fit and can
perform feats that most people cannot. But I know a
triathlete whose fitness level would match yours, if not
supercede it. He competes in Ironman Triathlons, and his
resting heart rate is just 27beats per minute. He cycles
100miles most days and also swims and runs, so he has
total body fitness! Therefore my question to you is what
makes your theories on exercise any better than this
man’s? Why should we believe your theory and not his
theory on exercise, when he is in just as good physical
condition as you?”
It was a tough question, especially with the eyes of every person
in the audience on me wondering whether or not I would have an
answer to such a question. I thought for a moment, and then
responded in the following way,
“From what you tell me Doctor, your triathlete colleague
and I have a number of things in common. We both have
similarly low resting heart rates, which suggests we both
have a high level of cardiovascular fitness. We are both at
peak fitness after the age of fifty. We can both perform
physical feats that many people half of our age cannot,
94
and we are both in excellent physical condition. Would
this be a fair summary so far?”
The Doctor agreed that we were both extraordinary athletes,
especially considering our age. Pulling a $100 bill from my
pocket and holding it up to face the audience, I continued…
“Then let us say that this $100 bill represents both myself
and your triathlete. In many ways we are similarly rich in
terms of health and vitality, and indeed to most observers
we are similarly at the peak of fitness.”
I then turned the dollar bill so that all that could be seen was the
paper-thin edge of the bill, and asked,
“Does anybody know what this side of the bill represents?
This side of the bill represents a factor that we have so far
avoided mentioning and not even considered, yet I believe
it is perhaps the most important factor in this discussion.
The thin side of this $100 bill represents the amount of
time I have invested in exercise in the past year, by
training on average three hours per week. I want you now
to imagine the thickness of the bill that represents your
colleague’s time investment in cycling 500miles or more
per week, as well as running and swimming great
distances every day. There is no comparison. I would
probably need an extra pair of hands to hold the thick bill
that represents the hundreds of hours that your colleague
dedicates to maintaining his physical condition!”
Often the time investment factor is not considered when

comparing the effectiveness of different exercise methods. Very
few people consider that somehow with less time spent on
exercise than most gym users of all levels, I am managing to not
only challenge the fittest and strongest athletes in the world, but
also to improve my fitness year after year!
95
I consider the minimum time investment principle to be one of
the secrets of optimum fitness for life, but it can only be applied
with an understanding of exercise intensity.
Often people will attempt to “save time”, combining their exercise
with other unrelated activities. Examples of this are: watching TV
or reading a magazine while exercising; armchair exercising, or
even participating in fun recreational activities and sports.
While it can be argued that all of these activities have a positive
effect on a person’s fitness level, in Fitness4x4 we take an
opposite approach: we separate recreation from fitness training.
By making this separation you will understand how it is possible
for three hours training per week to keep you in optimum
condition. You will begin to understand the concept of training
efficiency versus training duration. It may not sound impressive
to say, “I spent thirty minutes at the gym today”, because usually
quality is judged by quantity, but in that thirty minutes you may
achieve more than many people achieve in two hours of low
intensity training. And then you will be able to use the free time
created time to truly enjoy whatever recreational activity you
choose, without feeling the need to half-heartedly combine
recreation and exercise. Let your leisure time be leisure time
and your exercise be truly purposeful.
How intense is
your training?
96
The Power Co-efficient

Exercising just 30 minutes per day to stay in peak physical
condition certainly seems like an appealing notion to most
people. In fact 30minutes sounds like a relatively short time
period for a workout. But why is a 30-minute workout considered
a short session?
Whenever I tell someone that I exercise, on

average, 30 minutes a day, the usual response is:
‘Is that all?’ – obviously implying that I should
exercise more!
The reason for such a response is that people often judge the
quality of a workout simply by the duration, without an
understanding of what we call the ‘Power Coefficient’. The
Power Coefficient is what tells us the EFFICIENCY of your
exercise, not just the time you invested in it.
We can calculate the Power Coefficient of a workout with the

following simple formula:
Power Coefficient = Energy Output ) Duration
97
The Power Co-efficient is one simple indicator of the quality of
your exercise, and the intensity at which you are working. It is
also an objective means by which we can compare the intensity
of two different workouts.
Example:
If an average person exercises for one hour and exerts an
Energy Output of 180,000units, we can calculate his/her co-
efficient in the following way:
180,000 units ) 60minutes = 3000
If, however, a Fitness4x4 practitioner exerts an Energy Output of

1,500,000 units in one hour (which is quite realistic for advanced
practitioners), his/her coefficient will be almost ten times greater!
1,500,000units ) 60minutes = 25,000
Unfortunately, if we only looked at the duration of the two

workouts given in the example, we would naturally assume that
they were of a similar quality and intensity.
It is the relationship between the duration and the Energy Output

that gives us a picture of the true quality and intensity of the
workout.
98
“High Powered Training”

The principle of Energy Output alone does not paint a full picture.
Without consideration of the fourth principle (minimal time
investment) a person can legitimately state that their workout is
of the highest quality because they achieved a high Energy
Output. A perfect example of this might be a hiker who achieves
an Energy Output of one million units. If we fail to consider the
time element here, this appears to be an outstanding workout.
But when we consider that they may have taken 8 hours to
complete the hike, this no longer rates as an optimal workout
because the Power Co-efficient is relatively low.
Optimal training is achieved when a person can create a high

Energy Output in the minimal duration. That is why a high-
intensity 30minute Fitness4x4 workout can be legitimately
compared with a conventional 1 or 2hour workout. The simple
difference is the Power Co-efficient.
Task 7
• Person A produces an energy output of

1million units in one hour of training.
• Person B produces an energy output of

1.5million units in two hours of training.
Q) Who has the greater power co-efficient?
99
Conclusion – The ideal Training

Duration?
In answer to the question on the previous page, 30 minutes may
be perfectly adequate workout duration for one person, whilst
being totally insufficient for another person, depending on the
nature and the efficiency (power co-efficient) of their training.
Most gym users who exercise for one hour usually exercise with
a low Power Coefficient. Consequently, a 30min workout to
such people is naturally assumed to be only half as good as a 60
minute workout. They are seeing the workout through their own
“spectacles” and that is precisely why a 30minute workout
usually prompts the response,
“Is that all?”

This statement is made when a person only uses one criterion to
evaluate the quality of a workout – that is duration. When
duration is coupled with Energy Output, this paints a totally new
picture.
100
The Psychology of Minimal Time

Investment
The time investment principle has great importance
psychologically, especially for individuals who do not have much
time to devote to exercise but seek results. In times of low
motivation, time pressures and stress, the thought of a 30-minute
workout is considerably less daunting than an hour or an hour-
and-a-half workout. One of the primary reasons most people do
not maintain a good exercise regime is because the time
investment required in order to see positive results is usually too
high. A two-hour training session every day is a daunting
thought to almost anyone other than a professional athlete!
An understanding of the Fitness4x4 principles is crucial because

it creates the possibility of a short workout yielding the same
results as a conventional workout of double the duration!
However this relies entirely on a person being confident that
his/her 30-minute Fitness4x4 workout is worth 60 to 90 minutes
of conventional workout time – and this requires being able to
objectively prove why.
When discussing the ideal workout duration, it is important to

make a distinction between a ‘standard’ 30-minute workout and a
Fitness4x4 30-minute workout! The reasons for doing them
may be the same, but the outcome may be entirely different.
101
The Mind and the Body

In Fitness4x4 we believe there must be a strong connection
between the mind and the body during exercise, if it is to be of
optimum value.
Many times in my professional life, I have watched
people sitting on exercise bikes, pedaling away whilst
reading a magazine, or watching a television placed
conveniently before their faces. And many times I have
asked myself the question - “How far apart can the
mind and body go, whilst being part of the same entity,
and while so closely dependant on each other? What
are the consequences of this distorted relationship,
where each part pursues its own path? And is this
separation of these entities to the detriment of the
other?”
Observing the faces of many participants in various aerobics

classes one can often see the absence of concentration; the
absence of participation of the mind in the activity of the body.
The mind provides the initial stimulus for the body to move in a
certain way, but then wanders away to be entertained by the
music or other convenient distractions.
When the mind and body work together, exercise becomes an
experience of energy creation and total productivity, rather than
a mindless routine, of minimal value to the athlete involved. This
is one of the secrets to achieving maximum results in minimum
time
102
The Practicality of Minimal Time

Investment
One of the most commonly asked questions is, “What is the

best form of exercise.” Depending upon whom you ask, you
would inevitably get many different answers. E.g.
“Yoga is the best exercise because it is completely

non-impact and comfortable for the body, and you
can keep doing it into old age.”
“Walking and swimming are the best forms of

exercise because my Doctor told me so.”
“Cross-country skiers are the fittest athletes in the

world, so that must be the best all-around exercise.”
These are just a few of the responses you might hear.

Interestingly though, the area of time-investment does not
feature in the answers you might receive. It is almost as if the
question was actually ‘What is the best form of exercise to do if I
have all the time in the world to dedicate to doing it?”
But we all know this is not the question we are asking – we are
asking what will give the best results…and with the least time
investment! The point is perhaps best illustrated in the story of
The Young Commuter…
103
The Analogy of the Commuter…

A man who works in the city relocates to a new house in the
countryside. His place of work is now 30miles from his new
home, so he will now have to commute to and from work
everyday. He does not yet know the best route to take to get to
work from his new home - he just knows that on Monday
morning he must get to work! Being busy settling into his new
house over the weekend, Monday morning comes along and he
hurriedly jumps into his car, stopping at the end of his road to
ask directions from a local man.
Commuter: What’s the best way of getting to the city?

Local Man: Well there are lots of routes you can take from
here, and I’m sure everyone would give you a
different answer, but personally I think the best way
is…
The local man sends the

commuter on an incredible
journey that features breath-
taking views; follows only
the most recently built
roads; never crosses any
steep hills, and is very
popular among all visitors to
the area. But it is not until
4hours later that the
commuter finally arrives at
work to a very angry boss!
For how many days do

you think the commuter would follow this route?
104
The answer is so obvious in this analogy, but interestingly in the
world of fitness many people are not so ‘street-wise.’ We are all
so readily convinced of the value of various exercise methods
and gadgets, that we rarely stop to consider: WHAT DO WE
ACTUALLY GET FROM THESE METHODS IN THE TIME THAT
WE ARE ABLE TO COMMIT TO THEM.
When it comes to choosing an exercise method we must ask two

simple questions:
1. Will it get me from A to B?

2. Is it the most efficient way I can get there?
Exercise is fundamentally about getting from A to B safely and
efficiently. There are numerous other facets to exercise that of
course we can choose to consider, in the same way as the
commuter can consider the various advantages of the route
suggested by the old man. But why is it that we can predict with
some confidence that a week later the commuter will no longer
be following the old man’s route? The chances are that within
just a few days the commuter will have found the shortest and
most efficient route to work!
Exercise and physical fitness is a means of enjoying a high

quality of life. The sooner you recognize that, in exercise terms,
you are not unlike the commuter in the analogy, the sooner they
will uncover the secret to achieving optimal physical vitality for
life. There are many routes to the same destination – the
challenge is to find the most realistic and most effective means
of getting yourself there.
105
Practicing Fitness4x4
106
You have now reached the section of the book where your new
training begins. At this point it is important to summarize the key
practical aspects of Fitness4x4:-
• You have learned the correct technique for vertical

training (squatting and vertical lifting). Refer back to the
guidelines on pages 48 and 55 before you begin.
• Remember, Fitness4x4 must begin as a supplement to

your existing training regime. Do not expect to be able to
use only the Fitness4x4 method immediately to fulfill all
your fitness needs. Initially simply try to practice the
basics and apply the Fitness4x4 philosophy to your other
training. In time Fitness4x4 will become more and more
prominent in your training regime, and can eventually form
the core of your training.
• Fitness4x4 training involves the occasional use of a heart

rate monitor, for testing purposes and general monitoring
of intensity and improvement. You may wish to purchase
your own monitor, or ensure that you can borrow one on a
regular basis.
• Fitness4x4 training requires a gradual physical and

mental adaptation. Certain upper body muscles, tendons
and ligaments must develop endurance and stability, in
order for Fitness4x4 to offer its full potential. Similarly a
relationship between the cardiovascular system and the
muscles of the upper body must be cultivated, in order to
achieve true upper body fitness. These adaptations take
time, but must be approached gradually and carefully to
avoid injury in the early stages.
107
Why Vertical Training?

In Fitness4x4 we have discovered that there are two simple
exercises that are the foundation movement for developing
upper and lower body vitality.
• The Free Squat (lower body)
• The Vertical Lift (upper body)
These two exercises are how we measure your upper and lower
body fitness levels. They are also the most efficient and effective
for producing energy output, muscular conditioning and CV
conditioning, in a short space of time. Together these two
movements make up what in Fitness4x4 we call “VERTICAL
TRAINING”.
It took approximately fifteen years to discover that these two

movements are indeed the most effective and efficient of all
exercises. Because of the large range of movement and the
involvement of major muscle groups, these exercises make it
possible to generate extremely high energy output levels that
other exercises simply do not allow.
As you progress in your training, you will find out why the squat
and the vertical lift are the most effective exercises. Once you
have mastered these two movements, you can progress to other
variations of Fitness4x4 training such as the ‘4x4 Powerwalk’,
‘4x4 Strength Training’ or the ‘4x4 PowerHour’. All of these
variations of 4x4 training are powerful extensions of the
Fitness4x4 concept and you may find a favorite method that best
suits your specific needs. But remember at age 54 my training
still revolves around two simple exercises - the squat and the
vertical lift! WHY? Not because they are the most fun, or
108
because I don’t have other more interesting options, but for one
simple reason:
I know that these two exercises (vertical training) will keep

my entire body in excellent physical condition and
maximum vitality even at 54 years of age! And most
importantly they require less time to produce greater results
than any other method of training in the world! That’s why
for me there is really no choice!
109
Getting Started
Week 1
The first week of Fitness4x4 training is crucial. At this stage, less
is more! If you can limit yourself during this first week, your
progress during the second week will be considerably better.
Week one is about adaptation and acclimation to new exercises,
and not about intensity or results. During week one maintain your
customary workout schedule, and simply fit in the following tasks
around your other training.
Day 1
Targets
(i) Perform 50 perfectly controlled shallow squats.

Concentrate on good technique, slow pace and
synchronized breathing. You do not need additional
weights for this exercise. Note how deep you are
squatting and maintain the same depth of squat for all 50
repetitions. Remember: do not do deep squats yet!
(ii) Perform 50 continuous vertical lifts.

(25 on each arm).
Select a dumbbell that you can comfortably curl and press
with perfect technique on both arms. I recommend using a
dumbbell that is approximately 10% of your body weight.
For example if you weigh 200lbs, you would use
approximately 20lb dumbbells. This may seem light, but
the aim here is simply to master the movement and start
preparing your upper body for Fitness4x4 training.
You may be tempted to far exceed the required repetitions, but I

recommend that you do not. If you want to get a complete
110
workout on day one, you must perform an exercise you are
accustomed to.
Congratulations: you have begun your Fitness4x4 journey!
Correcting the Imbalance

Since in most people the fitness imbalance is approximately 9:1
in favor of the lower body, the biggest challenge to all beginners
is to begin to correct this imbalance. Therefore the most
important exercise to begin with is the Vertical Lift. This exercise
will rapidly increase your upper-body fitness. Correcting this
imbalance is absolutely essential in Fitness4x4.
DAY 2
Targets
(i) Perform 100 shallow squats

Once again concentrate on perfect technique. Analyze
your knee movement by standing sideways to a mirror.
Your knees should make very little movement
backwards and forwards. Extend fully at the top of
each squat. You may rise up on your toes at the top of
each squat to engage the calf muscle, but this will
greatly increase the difficulty of the squats.
(i) Perform 3 sets of vertical lifts, with a three minute

rest period between sets.
Each set should consist of 30-50 repetitions. You
should still be using approximately 10% of your body
weight in each hand.
111
Take time to stretch out your quads, biceps and shoulders
primarily, at the end of your lifting. Note: it is better to follow the
above order and begin with the squats as opposed to the lifts. In
this way the squats can use the large leg muscles to assist in
warming up the body in preparation for the vertical lifts.
Day 3
Remember, our focus is to start developing your upper body
fitness, and bring it into balance with the lower body. Try not to
speculate intellectually and scientifically about the energy
balance of the body – that will get you nowhere. Let your body
tell you through its own physical experience what it means to
have complete fitness. I am sure that, once you have
experienced such fitness, you won’t put up with anything else.
Targets
I advise taking a rest day from Fitness4x4. You may perform any
other exercises that you are familiar with today, but not
Fitness4x4. If your upper body is sore, or you feel any
tenderness in the elbow or shoulder joint, do not do any
exercises that will exacerbate the problem.
It is advisable at this point to read back over any sections of the

book that you may have found unclear.
112
Day 4
Today you are going to perform a simple variation of a
Fitness4x4 training method called the ‘Dragan-walk’. In order to
do this you will need a light pair of handweights (approx 5lbs for
ladies and 5-10lbs for men). You will also need a place to walk. It
is possible to perform this exercise on a treadmill but this can be
dangerous and many health clubs will not allow you to take
dumbbells onto the treadmill.
Targets
(i) Dragan-Walk for 15minutes

For the first 3minutes of the walk simply allow the
weights to hand by your side as you warm up.
Following this warm up period you will begin the
vertical lifts movement with the upper body, while
maintaining a brisk walk. Try to take large strides and
synchronize your arm movements with your steps.
Day 5
Today you are going to perform a higher number of vertical lifts.
To help you achieve this, you will split the total into three
achievable sets, however if you wish you may complete the full
set of 150 repetitions in one go.
Targets
(i) 60 full squats

(ii) 3 sets of 50 vertical lifts (3x50)
(Maximum of 5minutes recovery between sets).
113
DAY 6
Today it is important to allow your shoulders and arms (primarily
the anterior deltoid and biceps tendon) to recover. Instead you
will focus on the lower body and performing one large set of
squats. Unless you are very experienced in squatting, ensure
that you follow the guidelines below and only perform a shallow
squat (see picture). This session will give you a feel for high
repetition squatting.
Targets
(i) 100 – 150 Shallow squats.

Do not squat deep. Simply maintain a good pace of
movement and keep the squats continuous. This
picture shows the deepest you should go for a shallow
squat.
DAY 7 REST!
Next week you will begin the Fitness4x4 testing stage, which will
require all of your energy and muscles that are not sore!
114
It’s Time to Test!

Week 2
Now that you have familiarized yourself with the Fitness4x4

movements, and exposed your muscles to new exercises, it is
time to evaluate your current fitness levels.
If you are suffering from muscle soreness (DOMS) or have not

fully recovered from week 1, then allow yourself as many days
recovery as is necessary before beginning the testing stage.
There are three tests to undertake during week two. You may
spread them throughout the week however best suits you.
115
TEST 1: Upper Body Energy Output

This test is designed to measure the energy output capacity of
your upper body, using the vertical lift exercise.
Test Protocol:
1. Re-familiarize yourself with the vertical lift points of

technique and photo sequence on page 55.
2. Record the duration of your test using a stop
watch. Begin timing when you perform your first lift.
3. Select a dumbbell with which you are confident you
can perform a minimum of 50 reps. (each arm
counts as one rep).
4. Try to maintain a PACE of movement of
approximately 16 lifts per minute.
5. This is a continuous movement. Once you have
begun you may not rest until you have finished. Do
not stop and start again.
6. Perform as many lifts as you can without loss of
technique and without pain or discomfort. When
you cannot comfortably perform any more
complete reps, stop!
Complete the test sheet on the following page and record your
results in the designated boxes.
You must record:-
1. Your TOTAL number of lifts.

2. Your lifting duration (mins)
3. Your upper body Energy Output Score.
4. Your Power Co-Efficient score.
116
Test 1 Record Sheet
NAME
AGE DATE
Dumbbell
Weight (lb)
Vertical Lift
ROM (inch)
Repetitions
(Each arm cycle counts as one rep)
Test
Duration
Energy
Output
Power Co-
Efficient*
Reminder:
Energy Output = weight x vertical distance x reps
Power Co-Efficient = Energy Output divided by Time
117
Test 2: Lower Body Energy Output

This test is designed to measure the energy output capacity of
your lower body, using the free squat exercise.
Test Protocol
1. Re-familiarize yourself with the correct squat technique

described on pages 47-48.
2. Start the timer when you begin your first squat and stop
the timer after your final squat.
3. Begin slowly and carefully to allow joints and muscles to
warm up.
4. Maintain the same depth and pace of movement
throughout the test.
5. Maintain a smooth and controlled squat technique. As
soon as your technique begins to suffer as a result of
fatigue, it is advisable to stop.
Complete the test sheet on the following page and record your
results in the designated boxes.
You must record:-
• Your TOTAL number of squats.

• Your squat range of movement
• Your squatting duration (mins)
• Your lower body Energy Output Score.
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Test 2 Record Sheet

NAME
AGE Date
Squat
Weight (lb)
Squat ROM
(inches)
Test
Duration
Energy
Output
Power Co-
Efficient
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Test 3: The 15-minute Fitness Test

Test three is designed to test your upper body fitness capacity.
For this test you should ensure that your upper body muscles are
fully recovered, and you will require the following two things:
1) A Heart Rate Monitor

2) An assistant to help you record data while you perform the
test. (In the absence of an assistant it is possible to
complete the test using a video camera, which will record
all the relevant information).
Test Protocol:
1. Attach the heart rate monitor and record your

resting heart rate on the following page.
2. Complete the personal stats information on the
following page, making particular note of your
Heart Rate Training Zone.
3. Select a dumbbell that you are confident you can
vertical lift continuously for more than 150 reps.
4. You will begin the timer on your first lift, and aim to
keep lifting continuously for a duration of 15
minutes.
5. Keep a count of your lifts (reps) and try to maintain
a PACE of approximately 16 lifts per minute. Every
minute you will be required to inform your assistant
of how many lifts you have completed.
6. Continue lifting until you can comfortably do no
more, or until you complete the 15 minutes.
Responsibilities of the Assistant:
1. Inform the subject every time one minute has passed.

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2. Record readings for heart rate on every minute. (If the
heart rate figure is not steady as the minute arrives,
record the average heart rate during the last 10seconds of
each minute).
3. Record the number of lifts performed each minute. If the
subject is lifting considerably faster or slower than 14-18
lifts per minute, the assistant must inform him/her to slow
down or speed up accordingly.
4. Ensure that the subject does not lose technique, injure
himself / herself or exceed physical limits.
5. If the subject exceeds their heart rate training zone, it is
advisable to stop the test.
6. If the subject stops before 15minutes, record the time at
which they stopped and the reason for stopping in the
Notes section of the result sheet.
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Test 3 Record Sheet

Name
Age
Date
Training Zone
Resting H/Rate
Dumbbell Weight
Time (mins) Reps H/Rate NOTES

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
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Your Fitness4x4 Training

Now that you have evaluated your current Energy Output
capacity and fitness level, it is time to begin your gradual
improvement. It is time to gradually bring the upper body into
fitness balance with the lower body.
On the back page of this booklet is a Progress Table. There are

six rows per week – one for every session (six Fitness4x4
workouts per week is the maximum recommended). Your
Fitness4x4 session should last between 10 and 30 minutes,
depending on two factors:
1. How advanced you are in Fitness4x4 training

2. The intensity level of your workout
Your total exercise time should be between 1 and 4 hours per

week. How you distribute that workout time throughout the week
is up to you, but it is best to establish a regular pattern. Enter
your start-date in Week 1 on the Progress Chart and fill in one
row after each session.
The Fitness4x4 concept is surprisingly simple, time-efficient and

highly effective. The secret lies not in mastering complex
techniques, but in always paying attention to the state of balance
between your upper-body and lower-body EO capacity. You
must not lose sight of this important principle if you want to
succeed in Fitness4x4.
In the early stages you may find that it is best to simply use your
Fitness4x4 training as a supplement to your existing training. As
your capacity improves however, it can begin to take a more
prominent role in your exercise habits.
It is recommended that you take a rest day from Fitness4x4 once
a week to allow the body to recover from this form exercise. The
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Fitness4x4 method is applicable both to upper-body training and
lower-body training. Since the imbalance of most people is in
favor of the lower-body however, we emphasize the importance
of upper-body conditioning, using the Vertical Training routine
workout.
Your Goal
Each week you should aim to see a slight improvement in your

maximum energy output. This can be achieved either by
improving on the number of reps performed, or by increasing the
resistance to the movement.
Vertical Lifts
• Set yourself a target of how many lifts you would like to

complete each week. Keep it realistic, but also try to keep
making small increases. Your upper body has tremendous
untapped potential for fitness, so you should expect to
make considerable improvements from your first efforts.
• It is advisable to remain on a dumbbell weight until you
can perform at least 300 lifts. You may then progress to a
heavier dumbbell.
• It is not recommended that you increase the pace of
movement beyond 18 lifts per minute, as this increases
the chances of injury as a result of poor technique
• You may use wrist straps if you have difficulty holding on
to the dumbbell after some time, but if you can find a
technique of not gripping the dumbbell too tightly, you will
find that you can overcome the grip problem.
Squats
• Try to improve on your total squats count each week, but

concentrate on always keeping excellent technique.
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• It is possible to add resistance to the squat by carrying a
weight or wearing a weights vest, but this should only be
considered when you are able to perform 500 free squats
without difficulty, and should be approached cautiously to
prevent back injury.
• Always begin your squats at a slow pace to allow the
knees to warm up gradually.
Ensure that you record your progress in your Progress Chart at

the back of this book. You will not improve at every single
session, but be consistent and set your targets high, and
remember that I made my biggest improvements after the age of
50!
Share your Success

When you begin to make progress in Fitness4x4 I would like to
hear about your improvements! Email me your success stories
and improvements via the Fitness4x4 website, as they will be a
source of inspiration and motivation to others who are beginning,
and also to me! Email:
feedback@fitness4x4.com
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Advanced Stages of Fitness4x4

The second stage of the Fitness4x4 training endeavor is the
most rewarding part. At this stage, the communication between
your upper-body muscles and your cardiovascular system is well
established. The choice of dumbbell weight is determined not
just by the condition of your muscles but also by the condition of
your cardiovascular system. This is never the case with
beginners since their upper-body muscles are not conditioned
enough to engage the cardiovascular system fully and
effectively. At this level of Fitness4x4 training, nothing is left to
guesswork or improvisation. This is a more complex subject and
more information can be found via the Consultation Program.
In the final stage of Fitness4x4 development, which happens

after an unspecified period of training, your body is in near
perfect balance: both the upper-body and lower-body potentials
are fully realized and you reap the maximum benefits from your
training whilst investing a minimal amount of time. For example,
most of my senior students (who are at this stage of Fitness4x4
development) will comfortably perform 500 or more squats as a
warm-up, or 500 or more Vertical Lifts with 25 lb to 40 lb
dumbbells. Both of these tasks take less than half an hour, but
require more energy than 1½ hours of conventional gym
exercising.
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Vertical Lift Guidelines

Safety
The movement must be performed in a smooth, controlled
manner, with minimal movement of the legs. Start out slowly
and deliberately. Gradually, as your body temperature and heart
rate increase you may wish to gently increase the pace of
movement. Do not attempt to overexert yourself in the first few
sessions. Initially you may find that one muscle group becomes
fatigued much more rapidly than the others (e.g. forearm, bicep,
etc.) causing you to stop the workout before fully engaging other
muscle groups. This is normal, since the upper-body is
unaccustomed to such high-intensity continuous exertion.
Before long your muscles will adapt to this new method of
training and, if you stick to the program rigorously, you will make
considerable improvements that you can record on the Progress
Chart.
There are a number of other important factors that must be

observed in order to reach high levels of performance:
Breathing
Regular, controlled breathing is essential for optimum
performance. Try to adopt the following breathing pattern:
Exhale during each overhead press movement and inhale

during the downward phase.
As your cardiovascular system becomes engaged it may be

necessary to increase the pace of breathing, however try to
synchronize the pace of movement with your natural breathing
rhythm.
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Control
• Always execute the movements in a smooth, controlled
manner.
• The upper-body and legs need not be rigid but avoid

excessive swinging, bouncing and twisting movements.
• Extend the dumbbell above your head during the press

movement; however do not aggressively lock out your
elbow joint.
• Always perform each lift in two phases: the curl to the

shoulder and the press overhead. Do NOT try to raise the
dumbbell from your waist to overhead in one ballistic
motion. Curl and Press!
• Similarly each time you lower the dumbbell from the

overhead position, stop momentarily at the shoulder
before lowering the dumbbell to your thighs.
• Do not grip the dumbbell excessively tightly. Maintain a

firm grip, but do not squeeze the dumbbell. Squeezing the
dumbbell tightly will cause unnecessary forearm
tightening and can cause wrist pain.
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Mental Focus
It is vital that you focus completely on the movements that you
are performing or you will not achieve the necessary EO for
maximum results. Try to minimize any distractions, such as TV
screens, telephones, etc. If it is not possible to avoid these
distractions, simply block them out of your mind. Do not interrupt
your Fitness4x4 routine to make conversation or chat.
The vertical movement may initially feel frustratingly

monotonous. If you prefer to perform the workout to music,
remember that the pace of lifting should be set by your own
body, not by the beat of the music. Performing the workout in
front of a mirror will help you to focus on the movements and
maintain good technique.
Remember that intense exercise requires mind participation. If

you intend to reach your optimum vitality, you will begin to
appreciate the concentration and mental involvement required to
train at maximum intensity. This concept however is entirely
absent in most health clubs, where the mind and the body are
often completely disconnected.
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Pulse Rate
The heart rate is a simple and accurate way of monitoring the
cardiovascular intensity of exercise, and is therefore essential
information to the serious athlete.
The best way to monitor the effectiveness of your Fitness4x4

training is to obtain a heart rate monitor that you can wear whilst
exercising. This is not essential in the first stages of the
Fitness4x4 program because it will take a while for your upper-
body muscles to adjust to this type of exercise. However, once
your muscles have adapted to the new routine, you will be able
to lift at a sufficient intensity to engage your heart and lungs for
15 minutes or more. This is the second stage of Fitness4x4
training – simultaneous cardio and muscle conditioning – and it
is at this point that it will be important to monitor your heart rate.
In the absence of a heart rate monitor, it is possible to measure

your heart rate manually. However this will require stopping your
workout or simply measuring at the end of your workout because
it is very difficult to accurately measure heart rate manually while
you are active.
How to measure Heart Rate Manually
• Find your either your radial pulse (at the wrist) or your
carotid artery pulse (either side of your windpipe),
depending on which one is stronger and easier to find.
• Count the number of pulses (heart beats) in six seconds.
• Multiply this figure by 10, to find out your heart rate in
beats per minute.
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Squat Guidelines
Perhaps the simplest and most complete of all lower body
exercises, the squat is the principle lower body exercise used in
Fitness4x4. It is also the exercise used to evaluate lower body
Energy Output Capacity. The reasons we use the squat are quite
simple:-
1. The squat is a natural human movement. People have

been squatting for centuries! Every time you sit down
and stand up, you are squatting, because this is a
movement the body was designed to perform. This is
how we know it is safe.
2. The full squat involves almost every muscle of the
lower body, so for muscular conditioning it is highly
effective.
3. The squat is a very high Energy Output exercise,
therefore also very high on the Fitness4x4 hierarchy of
exercises.
The Safety Paradox

Although squats are generally accepted to be a perfectly safe
and effective lower body exercise, when it comes to high
repetition squatting, concerns about the knees often arise. One
of the most common statements made with regard to the high
number of squats I practice is,
“Surely it is bad for the knees to do so many squats.”
In fifteen years of regular high rep squatting, I have never had

any kind of knee problem. In fact, before I began regular
squatting my knees were weak and problematic, yet since
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beginning regular high rep squatting after the age of 35, they are
stronger than ever in my life. I recall being in my early thirties
when a young fitness trainer informed me that the amount of
squats I was performing (approximately 300 in one go) was
dangerous. I replied that to the contrary I found squats to be very
safe and very effective. The young instructor, who ironically
happened to be wearing knee supports, with a shake of her head
said to me,
“You may be okay now, but in ten years time if you keep
doing what you’re doing, your knees are going to be
totally shot!”
About twenty years have passed since this young girl’s warning,
and I have probably performed well over a million free squats
since that day! I no longer perform only 300 squats at a time, but
often 1000. My knees have never felt stronger!
The reason really is quite simple. If a movement is safe to be

performed ten times, then logically it must be safe to be
performed one thousand times, providing the body has reached
such a high rep count gradually. Strangely enough many people
assume that a safe movement somehow becomes unsafe after a
certain number of repetitions. This is illogical and is simply not
the case. To find an example to support this you simply have to
consider a movement such as flexion and extension of the ankle
joint – walking! When we walk, the ankle joint performs
thousands of repetitions, carrying the entire weight of the body!
Have you ever heard it suggested that to take fifty steps is okay,
but to take one thousand steps is dangerous? Of course not!
Simply because if one step is safe, then one-thousand steps
performed in the same way must also be safe.
If your technique is correct on the very first repetition, and does

not alter, then it will still be safe one hundred, five hundred or
even a thousand repetitions later. The human body is not a
132
machine that rusts or wears out with use. On the contrary the
human body thrives on good use and adapts to become stronger
and more capable the more you demand from it.
However if your squat technique is incorrect, then whether you

perform ten squats or one thousand squats, they may be
potentially damaging. Similarly if your technique alters as you
fatigue, then your squats may become damaging to your knees,
but this will not be as a result of high repetitions, but as a result
of lack of conditioning or concentration.
It is therefore important to know how to squat correctly. Follow

the guidelines on page 48.
N.B
In this book I will only deal with the free squat and not the
weighted squat. A weighted squat will produce a greater energy
output, but is a progression that should only be made when a
person has mastered the free squat. The weighted squat
requires a slightly more complex and refined technique than the
free squat.
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The “Dragan Challenge”

The real exposure of Fitness4x4 to the general public began with
the introduction of the Dragan Challenge. The first high-profile
challenge was sponsored by GreenFoods Corporation and took
place at the Expo West Convention 2000 in Las Vegas. The
show was a success and numerous GreenFoods Challenges
were subsequently staged across the U.S. and Canada, the
biggest of which was at the Arnold Fitness Expo in Ohio, in
which Physical Magazine put up a $10,000 prize for anyone who
could outlift me. Perhaps as many as one thousand individuals
have competed in these contests, often in teams of 3, 5 or even
10 people in an attempt to snatch the prize. . In five years of
hundreds of contests I have never lost, and never had to pull out
of a contest due to injury or illness. Perhaps there is a bit of luck
involved, but I firmly believe that the large part of it is because of
the level of fitness I have acquired from Fitness4x4.
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Frequently Asked Questions

One of the aspects of my work is to travel around the United
States and other countries to give educational seminars about
Fitness4x4. When I propose my system as the most effective
form of workout, I usually come up against objections from
people who are already enthusiastic about one sport or another.
Quite often, it is the same questions and concerns that are
raised in the seminars and so I have listed some of the most
frequent remarks below. Perhaps they will address some of your
initial concerns:
1. What’s in it for me? What will I get out of applying

Fitness4x4? What concrete benefits can I expect in my
life?
This book is meant to help everyone to shift his/her angle of

perception of exercise. Certain facts stated in the booklet,
such as the upper-body vs. lower-body energy imbalance,
are true for most people. The other fact is that most people
exercise well below their true fitness capacity and
consequently get modest results at a relatively large time
investment. Being aware of those two very important issues
will make you change your approach to training and help you
increase your EO capacity, whilst minimizing your time
investment. An example of this is a 44-year old man who
saw one of my contests, got inspired and made an
astonishing increase in his free-squats routine, from 130
squats to 1,000 squats per workout, within one year. His
upper-body performance level improved from 40 to 250
continuous push-ups, also in the space of only one year of
twice-weekly training. What triggered this 44-year-old man’s
incredible improvement was the new realization of his true
physical capacity, which happened as a result of applying the
135
principles of Fitness4x4. Besides that, hardly anything else in
his life was different, including his diet.
2. I already do a lot of physical activity. I am fit and healthy.

I don’t need Fitness4x4, do I?
Fitness4x4 is a training method that can be applied to any

exercise program. If you state that you are already fit and
healthy, that is probably so. The questions to be answered
are the following:
• How fit is your upper-body (how much energy can it exert

in 1 hour)?
• How fit is your lower-body (how much energy can it exert
in 1 hour)?
• How much time of your week do you invest to keep your
present physical condition?
• Do you agree that total fitness can only be achieved when
both the upper and lower-body are equally fit?
The answers to these questions will lead you to conclusions

about the effectiveness of your existing training routine, its
time efficiency and whether or not you need Fitness4x4.
Whatever you feel is right, is right (for you). There are many
who, when confronted by the undeniable fact of the
imbalance of their upper and lower-body, choose to turn a
blind eye to that fact, deeming it irrelevant to their overall
fitness. It is the choice of every individual to allow his or her
upper-body to develop its full fitness potential or to leave it
under-developed.
3. I do rowing, so my upper-body fitness is already very

good.
136
Rowing is undeniably a total fitness exercise, since it

engages the entire body. If you are a devoted rower and you
do it properly, with sufficient intensity and duration, then you
are already practicing Fitness4x4. Still, dumbbell lifts and
freestanding squats (the main exercises in Fitness4x4) will
allow you to pursue separately the development of the
maximum energy capacity of the upper or lower-body.
Furthermore, you can precisely determine the EO capacity of
either part of your body (e.g. upper-body EO=750,000 and
lower-body EO=1,100,000) and compare them with each
other (e.g. upper-body EO-73% of lower-body EO).
Last, but not least, a pair of dumbbells is much less bulky and
far cheaper than any rowing machine and certainly longer
lasting!
4. I am already improving my cardio fitness through other

methods, and I do weight training for my upper body –
why do I need Fitness4x4?
There are many examples of people who are very

cardiovascular fit, and also in great muscular condition in the
upper body through weight training / bodybuilding. Of course
one cannot look at such a person and say “you need
Fitness4x4 to get in shape!”
But that does not mean that Fitness4x4 could not

dramatically improve this person’s training, and potentially
reduce their time investment in training. Furthermore, a
strong upper body is not necessarily a fit upper body!
When it comes to comparing various fitness methods, it is

best to simplify things with the following four questions:
137
1. Is your current training method providing you fitness
and muscular development for the upper and lower
body?
2. Is your current training method causing you injuries (i.e
stress injuries from impact)?
3. How much time are you having to invest in your
training method to maintain/improve your current
condition?
Question three is probably the most crucial question and is what

puts Fitness4x4 above most other methods. There are many
examples of people who are very fit and look fantastic – but how
many of these people can afford to train only 3hours per week to
maintain their condition? Fitness4x4 allows a person to train at
an intensity difficult to match in other methods, and it is this
intensity that allows the potential for minimal time investment and
maximum results!
5. I do rock-climbing. It’s the most complete form of

exercise.
Rock-climbing is without doubt a great muscle-conditioning

exercise and one of the most complete forms of exercising,
but it does not necessarily condition your cardiovascular
system. In the instances when the climber combines intense
hiking with rock-climbing, then both the muscular-system and
the cardiovascular-system are conditioned. However, you
have to consider the following:
• Rock-climbing and hiking require considerable time

investment and space.
• Rock-climbing is impractical and very difficult for
overweight individuals (the weight of the body demands
proportionately strong hands to support it during climbing.
Therefore hand-strength is a ‘bottleneck’, meaning that
138
however strong and capable the rest of your body might
be, the ability of your hands to hold onto the rocks is
ultimately your limiting factor).
• Only individuals of a certain body-type have the privilege
to fully reap the benefits of rock-climbing.
• Most people do not have the environmental conditions for
rock-climbing.
• Unlike Fitness4x4, which is a completely structured form
of exercise (the exercises and intensity of every session
are regulated), rock-climbing is always improvised and
with variable and unpredictable EO.
6. What about Tae Bo?
Fitness4x4 is about maximum, measurable energy-output

and about the balance between the fitness levels of the upper
and lower-body. As mentioned in answer #3 above, in
Fitness4x4 you don’t have to guess or subjectively evaluate
the effectiveness of your training (e.g. “it was really hard”;
“I’m totally exhausted”, etc.). Instead, you precisely calculate
the energy used in your upper-body training session or your
lower-body training session, separately. This allows you to
assess the upper-lower-body energy balance. It also gives
you a firm indication of your fitness and allows you to
accurately monitor your progress.
7. I’m a marathon runner. Why would I want to develop my

upper-body – it might slow me down?
It is very important to decide for yourself which of the

following two groups you belong to:
1. Competitive career runner

2. Running-for-fitness runner
139
If you happen to be a career runner, you probably invest a lot
of time and energy in your running routines and have very
little extra time and energy to allocate to other forms of
training, including Fitness4x4. But, if you run for fitness, then
Fitness4x4 can do a lot for you and you should learn about it.
I suggest you cut your running time in half and invest the
other half into Fitness4x4 exercising, which will bring your
body into balance. You might be surprised to find that even
with your training time cut in half, your running ability will be
unchanged or even improved.
7. My doctor told me that swimming was the best all-round

form of exercise.
Swimming is a very good form of exercise. But we all know
that there’s swimming, and there’s swimming! Most people
swim at insufficient intensity and are under the false
impression that they are “getting in shape.” Many of them are
doing little more than merely floating in the water whilst gently
moving their arms and legs, and still consider it to be a
workout.
Have you ever watched a water-polo game? Well, those

guys are really swimming and achieving very high EO. That
kind of swimming is probably the best and the most complete
upper-body exercise. But, when it comes to the legs, no
swimming exercise can compare to freestanding squats,
cycling, hill power-walking, etc.
You must keep in mind what I said earlier: there’s

SWIMMING, and there’s swimming. Please tell this to your
doctor!
8. How will vertical lifting improve my abs?
The “vertical training” used in Fitness4x4 is an excellent ab-

firming exercise. In the past few years I have done very few
140
sit ups or other stomach exercises, and yet my abs today are
as firm as you see them on the front page of this book. The
secret lies in the ratio between the weight of the dumbbells
you lift and your lean body weight. E.g. (10 lb dumbbell
weight) divided by (100 lb lean body weight) = 0.1. The
greater this ratio, the greater the effect on the abdominals.
You might find this claim unconvincing, but if you ask any
structural engineer about the forces that act in the waist area
when a heavy dumbbell is held in an overhead position, he or
she will tell you that the waist area must be well reinforced to
allow the structure (your body) to stand whilst the heavy
object is suspended above, at the furthest point from the
center of the structure.
9. I heard that you recommend squats as a lower-body

exercise. I have injured knees and a bad back. What
should I do?
Squats are the best leg exercise. Freestanding squats are

much more productive (in terms of the total EO) and much
safer for your knees and lower-back than squats with
weights. A Physician or Physiotherapist should deal with any
injuries or physical disabilities. Fitness4x4 training can be
applied to the healthy areas of the body, whilst the injured
parts are being healed.
10. My aerobics class uses lots of energy and we use upper

and lower-body. That’s enough, right?
Countless times I have heard people describing their

aerobics class as “very intense,” “very demanding,” “high
energy,” etc. But I have never herd someone actually
quantifying the energy or the intensity of his or her class.
Why? Because nobody can! Nobody has any idea how hard
their class is objectively – on the EO scale. Let me give you
one example:
141
If a person weighing 150 lbs hikes up a hill to an elevation of

1000 ft (12,000 inches) from where he started and it took him
one hour, I can evaluate the EO of his hike as follows:
EO = weight x height = 150 x 12,000 = 1,800,000 units
Now I can compare his hike EO with either my Vertical Lifting

session or my free squatting session and get an objective
idea of how hard and demanding that hike was. But if he just
said that he went for an hour of intense hiking, I would have
nothing to evaluate the energy used in that hike and form an
objective conclusion about its effectiveness.
11. I’m a woman and I’m worried that if I start lifting

dumbbells I’ll get muscular arms.
Fitness4x4 does not build bulky arms or shoulders. A

woman building large muscles from Fitness4x4 is an
extremely unlikely scenario. In fact, even young men who
can build bigger muscles more easily than any other section
of the population, will not build large muscles using
Fitness4x4 alone. This is because there are a large
number of reps and lots of energy exerted in the Fitness4x4
workout – such training is not suitable for building the size
of the muscle, but rather its strength and endurance. Your
muscles will certainly firm up and will increase their energy
capacity several times but not their size.
12. I practice “Power Yoga.” It is very demanding

physically. Why would I need Fitness4x4?
In one of my previous answers I stated that the Fitness4x4

workout is a precisely structured exercise routine and the
EO of each session is calculable. When I finish my
Fitness4x4 session I can tell you, for example, that my EO
142
was 1 million units, based on the total weight I lifted and the
distance to which it was lifted. Six months later my EO
might increase to 1,200,000, meaning that my fitness level
improved 20%. In Fitness4x4 you are always conscious of
your EO capacity, and you know how much that is
numerically – you don’t describe your workouts in vague
and subjective terms such as very hard, really effective,
exhausting, etc.
Could you tell me numerically, how hard is your Power

Yoga class?
13. For me nothing compares to a good run! Fitness4x4

doesn’t get me out of breath like running, so I feel like
I’d get fitter running. Is this wrong?
This is a very common statement among individuals who

are accustomed to a particular mode of cardiovascular
exercise such as jogging or cycling. The first thing to
understand is that often the above statement is true!
However, the reason it is true that you might get a tougher
workout running or cycling is not due to Fitness4x4 being an
inferior method – rather it is due to the following two things:-
1. Your intensity during the 4x4 workout may be

insufficient. For instance changing the weight of your
dumbbell by even just a few pounds will dramatically
increase the intensity of the exercise.
2. Lack of upper body fitness capacity! Until you develop
your upper body fitness capacity, your upper body will
be unable to give you a tough workout. If you increase
your dumbbell weight you will find that your muscles fail
before you’ve had a chance to even break a sweat. But
then when you take a dumbbell weight that you can
sustain for 15 minutes, now you find that because it is so
light your heart rate is not elevated sufficiently! This is
143
the problem faced by a beginner to 4x4, but it is easily
solved. One solution is to introduce greater leg effort
while you perform the upper body activity. For example
walk uphill while you do your vertical lifts. But the key
factor is to keep developing your upper body fitness
capacity and soon you will find that no other activity can
give you the kind of tough workout that 4x4 can!
144
In Closing…
Congratulations on having made it to this point in the book. I
hope that your eyes have been opened and you have been
inspired to join me on the lifelong path towards ultimate vitality.
Remember that this book is only an introduction, intended to give

you a new perspective and to get you started in the right
direction. The Fitness4x4 concept is simple, yet the theory is
deep and complex. It is not expected that you understand it fully
on your first reading. Much of the theory will only be fully
illuminated by your physical experience of putting the principles
into practice. A purely academic understanding of this concept
would only be a shadow of the profound understanding that you
will gain from applying the principles to your daily life.
You may already be asking “What next? Where do I go from

here?” On the following pages are some ways to further your
progress and understanding. If you have truly benefited from
Fitness4x4, let other people know --- share your newfound
understanding, it may help someone else too. And tell us about
your progress – we want to know.
I wish you every success and the very best of health,
Dragan
145
Feedback
We are interested in your feedback. Now that you
have read the book and applied the principles to
your training, we would like to hear about your
progress. Please send us an email and let us know:
• How has this book helped you?
• Have you been able to apply the principles in your life?
• How has your understanding changed as a result of reading this
book?
• Have you noticed any physical improvements?
• Has your training / lifestyle changed as a result of reading the
book?
• Are you unclear about any particular sections?
• Any other comments.
Please send your comments to:
feedback@fitness4x4.com.
We regret that we cannot guarantee an individual reply to

your message, but all feedback is carefully considered. The
best items of feedback may be selected for posting on the
fitness4x4.com website, with a response from Dragan. We
will include the name and location of the sender (e.g. John
Doe, Los Angeles), unless you specifically ask us not to in
your message.
146
Questions
It is likely that you have many pressing questions
about the book and about Fitness4x4 training. If
you would like to address a question to Fitness4x4
founder Dragan, please send it by email to:-
questions@fitness4x4.com
We cannot guarantee individual responses to email

queries, but a selection of questions will be posted on
the website and answered personally by Dragan. Please
let us know if you prefer your name not to be
mentioned on the website in the event that your
question is selected for posting.
147
Going Further …..

When you have digested the information in this booklet and
started applying it to your training, you will almost certainly find
that lots of questions will arise about this new method of training.
This booklet is only intended as an introduction to the principles
of Fitness4x4 and not to cover every aspect of the program. In
order to gain a more comprehensive grasp of Fitness4x4, utilize
the following resources:
Consultation
The best way to truly refine your understanding of Fitness4x4 is
to receive private consultations with Dragan, the originator of the
program, either in person or by telephone. For pricing, locations
and availability, send an email to
consultation@fitness4x4.com
Advanced 4x4 Training Programs

The original 4x4 workout known as the ‘Power Hour’ is soon to
be released on DVD / video. If you would like to be placed on the
waiting list to purchase a copy, please send an email to
orders@fitness4x4.com
148
Personal Stats Page

NAME
AGE SEX
Body
Weight (lb)
Squat (Bodyweight minus 10%)
Weight (lb)
Vertical Lift
ROM*
Squat ROM*
(inches)
Resting
Heart Rate
Max Heart (220-age)
Rate
Training ___
Zone
(70%-90%)
*ROM = Range of Movement
149
Progress Chart
Workout Exercise Duration Weight Range Reps EO
Example: Vertical lifts 10mins 20 lbs 50inch 100 100,000 units
1
2
Week 1 3
Date: 4
(_/_/__) 5
6
Weekly total - Energy Output:
1
2
Week 2 3
4
5
6
1
2
Week 3 3
4
5
6
1
2
Week 4 3
4
5
6
1
2
Week 5 3
4
5
6
1
2
Week 6 3
4
5
6
At the end of each week add up your total energy output and record in the
corresponding blue box.
150

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Fitness4x4 – The Way of Dragan

Please consult your doctor before beginning this exercise

• You have any pre-existing medical conditions

The creators, producers and distributors of this program do not

There is no better introduction to this book than simply to have

Dragan (my father) has always believed that physical evidence is

When I was 14 years old my dad jokingly asked me,

“When are you going to catch me up? When are

It was a longstanding joke with my dad to ask this question, but

“I’ll tell you when dad…when I turn 21! Because

At the time although I was joking, in my mind I was actually very

Perhaps at that point most other fathers would have accepted

“I will be the fittest I’ve ever been in my life when

The years passed by fast. Before we knew it I was indeed 21

That summer I visited my dad. He had just beaten his own

What is more important than any of the fitness records that

As Dragan’s son, it feels quite normal for to have a 54 year old

That is why I have wholeheartedly taught and followed Dragan’s

Today I am experiencing an added quality of life which was not

It saddens me to see that so many others of my generation are

Fitness4x4 has been constantly evolving over the past 14 years

Just Good Genetics?

When I was a very young child I caught pneumonia and had my

My childhood and school days were frequently interrupted by

By the time I entered College I was tired of being physically

In my final year of College, the class had a fitness test. Among

I do not long for the vitality and vigor of my youth, simply

Ageing & Diminishing

These issues did not enter my mind when I was in my twenties –

At my 30th birthday party, a friend of the family (who was also a

“Dragan, I respect your devotion to exercise and healthy living

Now that I have passed 50 years of age, I have learned –

The state of one’s health and vitality is not a predetermined

It is essential to recognize the difference between “ageing” and

In Fitness4x4 we aim to replace your old glasses (your

The Fitness4x4 concept is a fascinating new approach to

Another thing some people say to me is,

“I’ve seen what exercises you do and I’ve heard

I would respond in the following way…

So as you progress through the book, if you are tempted to say:

“Enough theory Dragan….just tell me what

try to remember that every exercise Fitness4x4 teaches you to

We all want to discover some secret new set of exercises that

My goal for you…

I have spent the past thirty years of my life working in health

In my profession I make only one guarantee. If you follow my

As your Fitness4x4 training begins and you discover your own

In section one of the book we start with the basics, by defining

The main section of the book is an explanation of the Four

What is the purpose of exercise?

Vitality is a human quality that reflects a person’s state of

But how do we measure our own level of vitality from year to

The old farmer and the young farmer

We must test them!

Average Daily Energy Average daily Energy

Young Man Old Man

If we only look at the average daily energy output of both

Vitality is determined not by age, but

What is the importance of vitality to you personally?

The Importance of Vitality

Until you have experienced a high level of vitality, you cannot

Vitality is the essence of a good quality of life. Having a high

So how do we measure vitality?

YOUR ZONE = __ _ - _______