Papa's Summer Slim

Link for my bulk log: Forums - T Nation - The World's Trusted Community for Elite Fitness

So I am kind of almost 2 months into this “cut”.
I am coming off of a bulk from July to January. 159.5 to 186.
During that bulk alot of progress has been made. The main reason for this slim down is me and my wife are going on a cruise in May and I promised a six pack.

I’ll post a few pics of pre/post bulk and current then catch up on what Ive been doing and where I’m going.

Ok here is Pre Bulk 159.5, Post Bulk 186, and Mid cut 173

Aright, it’s here! Looks like the padding is coming off pretty quickly. Carry on…

Another mid cut

last one

nice bulk dude.

I know the poses are different, but holy shit you’re already noticeably leaner at 173 then you were at 159.5. Chest, shoulders, arms all look way better.

Awesome work.

Routine

So in the beginning of January I decided to change my work out from:
Day 1 Chest Shoulder Tri’s (Heavy)
Day 2 Legs Back Bi’s (Heavy)
Day 3 Chest Shoulder Tri’s (Heavy)
Day 4 Legs Back Bi’s (Heavy)
to my current routine:
Day 1 Chest Shoulder Tri’s (Heavy)
Day 2 HIIT
Day 3 Legs Back Bi’s (Heavy)
Day 4 HIIT

Day 1 and 3 are basically Day 1 and 2 of my bulk routine
The 2 HIIT days begin with 10 min steady state cardio followed by either a Complex series or a Tabata series, finally ending in some ab work.
By the way the tabata stuff kicks my butt and has my lungs burning ofr the rest of the day

Diet

In January I was basically doing a low carb thing only having then preworkout.
It sucked, I was always wanting pizza and breads or anything sweet. The weight started coming off pretty quickly, a little quicker than I wanted that I was worried Id lose too much muscle.
So for the month of Feb I decided to cycle my carbs, split into 3 days.

Day 1 Heavy Lifting = High carbs
Day 2 HIIT traiing = Med carbs
Day 3 Off Day = Very Low carbs

This has been working very well, as it the pounds keep dropping and it helps with the cravings and to prevent too much muscle loss.
March I will be adding some morning fasted cardio.

Your traps, tris and chest look THICK in that last pic! Keep it up man.

Tomorrow is Heavy Legs, Back Bi day.
Was suppose to be today, but felt pretty sick earlier.

Sick work dude. Keep it up.

Legs Back and Bi day

went real well at the new gym.
Squat machine followed with Hack Squats
Oh and some rows and curls, but legs was the highlight of today.

10 min treadmill, Waterbury complexes, and some ab work yesterday.

Today is off day with very little carbs.

I also started some steady state fasted cardio for the months of March.

Chest Shoulder Tri

HS flat bench - ramped up to 378x2 then down to 288x8
Cable Flies

Seated BB Press - ramped up to 160x3
cable lateral raises

Top half skulls from pins - ramped up to 135x3
cable tri pressdowns

High carbs days are always good days. Also still trying to get used to the way the poundage work on HS machines, good for boosting ego I guess.

HIIT day:

10 min steady cardio

Kinda made up a circuit-
1 min speed pushups (around 60)
1 min break
1 min speed squats (60+)
1 min break
1 min speed lat pulldowns (60+)
1 min break
20 pushups, 20 squats, 20 lat pulldowns

Then I ended with some ab work

Legs Back Bi’s

Pullups: Ramped to 3xBW+90lbs
Rows
Hack Squats
Leg Curls
BB curls
Rope hammer cable curls

Woke up at 170.5 today. I am hoping 165 is the lowest I will have to go, but I guess we will see.

dear nick,
please squat. it’s ok to start with really light weight, as long as you’re squatting. work on mobility if necessary and just squat as an accessory lift until you’re flexible enough. then, squat like your bench depended on it.
love,
rich

Been sick today, threw up lastnights food. No gym and barely any food.

I am ready for this season to end.

Haha, Just missed your little note until now Rich. I am moving over to squats soon now that the gym im going to actually has the rack for it.