You’re an enlightened man who scoffs at the pernicious notion of a “summer” or “beach” body and the standards of physical beauty it perpetuates. Yet you also can’t help but want to look a little better in your swim shorts (socialisation is a powerful thing) or, if you’re really enlightened, be a bit healthier. So, what’s a man to do? Probably some derisory bench presses, curls and sit-ups while feeling internally conflicted.

“When most men think about working out, they immediately think of chest, biceps and abs,” says personal trainer Mr Tim Walker, owner of Evolve Fitness in London (evolvefitness.co.uk), who has transmogrified the physiques of countless men. Understandable, given that these beach muscles are constantly shoved in our faces by film and TV, magazines and social media, and are what you see – or rather wish you saw – when you look in the mirror.

The three things that you should think about are muscle, fat and posture. “If you just do cardio, you’ll drop fat but you’ll also lose muscle and make your posture worse,” explains Mr Walker. “If you just lift weights, you’ll build muscle but you may struggle to lose fat. And if you only train the muscles you see, you’ll again hurt your posture.”

The below four-week plan is designed by Mr Walker and based on Evolve’s popular Tribe small-group programmes. Each session alternates upper- and lower-body exercises in “supersets” to elevate your heart rate and burn fat. The aim of supersets is to use different muscle groups on each exercise, so you can train one group while the other is recovering and fit more work into a session.

Do one set of A1, rest, then one set of A2, rest, then back to A1 and so on. In an ideal world, you’d perform both sessions twice a week, plus a session of light cardio (30-45 minutes) sandwiched in between on day three, for a total of five workouts. “But if you did two sessions, plus a cardio or Hiit session, that would also be very effective,” says Mr Walker.

Of course, summer bodies are made in the kitchen as well as the gym. Evolve’s Tribe programmes include individual diet plans, but here are some simple starters:

– Drink plenty of water; Mr Walker suggests at least three litres a day (spread throughout, not all at once). Staying hydrated helps reduce fatigue, suppress your appetite, build muscle (dehydration lowers testosterone) and boosts your metabolism. Not just because you’re constantly getting up and down to go to the toilet, either.

– Eat green vegetables (a lot), protein (animal or veggie/vegan) and healthy fats (nuts, oils, avocados) with every meal. You can still eat carbs, especially if you’re trying to muscle up, but stick to complex ones such as sweet potato, brown rice, quinoa and oats, not simple sugars. If fat loss is a focus, Mr Walker advocates avoiding carbs after lunch.

– Cut down on alcohol: it’s a calorie conveyor and hormone disruptor, and it weakens willpower. If you’re really serious, Mr Walker counsels cutting it out completely for a fortnight “for a few kilos of fat loss instantly”, then only imbibing once a week as part of a cheat meal – and only then, just two drinks: “A bottle of wine is not two drinks, it’s three.”