Bulked and Then Cut. What Are Your Thoughts?

This is the last time I bulked at the peak I was eating over 5000 cals daily about 6 months ago went from 150 to 180lbs in about a year. I tried to cut slow to save some muscle. I never want to get this fat again because It was incredibly difficult to lose that much weight.

Here I am now just maintaining around 148 to 150lbs. 3200 calls a day. Training 4 days week 531
Always been natural. Never been injured except cut my fingertip off at work and then I did smolov squat for 6 weeks (last year)

My stats:
23yo 5ft 6in 150lbs
Squat max 315lbs
Bench max 260lbs
Deadlifts 315lbsx12
Can also do 100 push ups 15+pull ups full rom

(Side notes: I was only 120lbs when first started lifting and couldn’t lift much more than 100lbs on anything.
I also feel like I have a pretty stressful life between having 3 kids and working a hard manual labor job the past 6 years, but never miss a workout or a meal. Usually eat at least 6 meals a day. Hopefully i have provided enough info for you guys and not to much. First time post thanks.)
Just trying to figure out what I should work on and improvements my goal is just to just keep getting stronger and stay on track in life. And sometimes I just doubt my progress. I have really have put a lot of effort into this. Training has become my lifestyle but I still see a lot of people making a lot more progress than me.
At some point in my life I just want to squat 405lbs bench 315 and deadlift 500 all for reps. And without getting as fat as I was when I weighed 180lbs which maybe that is not possible for me while staying below like 20 percent Body fat.

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I don’t know what it is, maybe the angle or something, but your leg shot looks awesome. Looks a lot better than the squat number you’ve posted here. If all I saw was the leg shot, I would have assumed you already squat 400+. TEACH ME HOW TO POSE!

Anyway, congrats on the progress to this point, both in getting stronger and losing the fat after. And I totally agree that you should keep the fat off forever. I’ve managed to stay lean my whole life, and believe me, you can continue to build muscle while staying lean for a long long time.

Also, good work on balancing life. 3 kids and a hard job and never skipping a meal? That’s awesome. I miss a lot of workouts and meals, and I’ve only got 1 kid, lol. I average 2 meals a day.

As to your last comment, you definitely can see the results you want, given the dedication you’ve expressed here, it just takes time. But getting over 20% bodyfat will never be the way to go. I’ve squatted 560, deadlifted 620, and benched just under 400 while being around 9% bodyfat. I’ve also been lifting on and off for 15 years. Trust the process and keep working hard. If you want some advice on programming, feel free to ask away. From your appearance, it looks like you’ve largely got diet in hand, to be honest. You’ve found ways to add a lot of weight, and you’ve been able to cut. So you clearly understand how to manage macros at least to some extent.

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Thanks for the response. It is good to know that somebody with 15 years of experience finds my goals achievable over time.
As for the leg shots I think I just got a good picture everything must have aligned just right lol
And your lifts are pretty impressive. What kind of programming did you use when your numbers were around mine to get to your heavier lifts. I never know if I should keep doing 531 or try progressive overload or pyramiding. There are so many ways to train and I’ve never gone too far from wendler 531.
By the way thanks for the positivity. If I could come close to what you have achieved, I would feel pretty accomplished.

531 is great. It’s really the only program I’ve followed to the letter at any point in the last 6 or 7 years, aside from a hypertrophy program here and there for a couple months at a time. 541 with the boring but big assistance work is just so good. My only disagreement with 531 is the frequent deloads. I don’t find that to be necessary or useful. Even though I don’t run 531 now, I loosely base my lifting sessions now on the concepts of it. I have a bench day, or a squat day, or an OHP day, and I’ll work up to a heavy set or 2, follow by something like 5 sets of 10, followed by my assistance work. And I always incorporate my back work on the pressing days. I don’t have a separate back day.

There are lots of ways to approach training though, and if I were you, I would at least give a few different training modes a shot.

Ya if I do the deloads I’ll usually just do like bodybuilding stuff and try to work on smaller muscles and get a good pump. Then go back to lifting serious the next week.
Feels like I’m on the right track then. I’m just going to keep grinding for the long run. Thanks man